Roads and Road Safety
By John Berger
02 AUGUST 2023
My adjournment is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety in the other place, Minister Horne, and the action I seek is for the minister to join me in the City of Boroondara and inform my community on what the Andrews Labor government is doing to help drive down pedestrian and road trauma in their neighbourhood. I was proud to recently announce the Victorian government is investing $100,000 in the City of Stonnington to help drive down pedestrian road trauma. It is part of a package of community road safety grants in Victoria which provide up to 1.5 million in funding to empower local communities to prevent injuries and save lives. The pedestrian innovation grant will allow applicants to seek funding for programs that innovate road safety strategies, education and more and has a focus on pedestrian behaviour and pedestrian behaviour strategies. While other grants and initiatives focus on infrastructure programs, these grants will focus on the mechanisms that are used to support our road safety infrastructure. Whether it be behavioural change strategies, educational programs or behavioural economics, there are many initiatives that local councils in Victoria can apply under, and I encourage them to do so.
We know that despite being only one-fifth of the population, Victorians over the age of 60 make up half of all pedestrian fatalities and one-third of serious injuries each year – and I do not accept this. As a former branch secretary of the Transport Workers Union Vic/Tas branch, I have dedicated my life to road safety, and I know that only through a holistic, multifaceted approach to road safety can we cut the number of lives lost and serious injuries on our roads and make our community safer. I encourage local councils in Victoria to focus on crafting innovative strategies to protect our elderly population.
The other focus of the pedestrian innovation grant is making urbanised spaces for pedestrians. The Stonnington council’s trial of the pedestrian innovations grant is another way we are tackling road safety for vulnerable road users, and for those reasons I would love to see similar measures implemented by Stonnington’s northern neighbour the City of Boroondara. I look forward to welcoming Minister Horne to the other side of town soon to have the important conversation on lowering the rate of road trauma in the City of Boroondara.