Wednesday, 19 March 2025

Economy and Infrastructure Committee

Inquiry into the Impact of Road Safety Behaviours on Vulnerable Road Users

Gabrielle DE VIETRI (Richmond) (10:37): I rise to speak on the committee report from the inquiry into the impact of road safety behaviours on vulnerable road users. The Greens have consistently advocated for more funding for separated bike lanes and safer footpaths and pedestrian crossings. These changes transform our cities and our neighbourhoods, they make everyone safer and healthier, and they are better for the planet. So it is frustrating to see yet another report showing that the Victorian state government needs to do so much more to transition away from a sluggish, congested, dangerous, polluting transport system to one that is healthy, clean and efficient.

It comes as no surprise that the committee found that the absence of, or poorly designed, active transport infrastructure clearly and significantly raises the risk of injuries among pedestrians and cyclists on our roads. It recommends prioritising the safety of vulnerable road users in the way that we design our roads and urban infrastructure, like with separated bike lanes. These are not new findings, but for too long the Victorian Labor government has underinvested in making active transport safer and more accessible.

For years in my electorate the City of Yarra has been calling for state funding to fund installing protected bike lanes that are part of both the state transport strategy and the council’s action plan, but it has only been drip-fed funding here and there. We need protected bike lanes on Baker Street, on Coppin Street, on Church Street, on Johnson Street and on Wellington Street, just to name a few spots. More than two-thirds of people in Victoria want to ride and walk more. They would if there was better infrastructure to make it safer, yet there is still no action plan to deliver the Victorian Cycling Strategy. In fact Victoria does not have enough safe bike lanes. The report states:

Traditional road culture and design in Victoria has prioritised the convenience of drivers and motorised vehicles over vulnerable road users, placing the latter at greater risk.

Higher speed limits also place vulnerable road users at risk. The committee found that the existing process for local governments to lower speed limits to 30 kilometres an hour on council-managed roads is challenging, time consuming and restricted to government-approved trials. In my electorate in Richmond the Yarra council first instituted a 30-kilometre trial zone back in 2018. I live in the middle of it, and it is great. It was then extended in 2024 because the evidence shows that safer speeds save lives, but extending the 30-k zone took the council years and years of advocacy and negotiations with the state government to permit them to change laws on local roads.

Why do councils have to jump through these bureaucratic state government hoops just to make simple changes like speed reductions, filtering and bike lanes?

Statistics from Victoria’s Transport Accident Commission show that 45 per cent of road user deaths in 2024 were vulnerable road users, and my electorate saw over 10 deaths in the period – six of them were pedestrians.

The truth is that this government has simply not invested enough in the relatively inexpensive infrastructure of separated bike lanes at the levels required to make vulnerable road users less vulnerable, and where it has, that rollout tends to be piecemeal, leaving people vulnerable for at least part of their trip. And it is not like public transport fills the gap, because right across the state people who use wheelchairs or have limited mobility or push prams cannot get on many of our trains and trams. Despite activism for over 40 years from the disability community and their allies, the Victorian Labor government is still decades off making our public transport accessible and has missed its own legislated deadline to make tram stops fully accessible by 2022.

Our streets are for everyone and should work for everyone who uses them. I thank the committee for this report and for its focus on improving active and public transport for everyone. I look forward to the government rolling out its recommendations.