Active travel to school should be convenient, accessible, safe and enjoyable for students in the Inner West. We want the Inner West Council to ensure there are footpaths, crossings or low speeds to support and encourage active travel.
Specifically, we ask that within 2kms of every school there are either:
-Pedestrian priority crossings and footpaths on streets with speed limits 40km/h and higher
Or
-30km/h speed limits for residential streets
These are research-backed measures proven to make walking and cycling safer. We are asking for the bare minimum of what all students should have for their school journey.
Why is this important?
The council can make a big difference to support active travel. All students living and learning in the Inner West should be able to travel safely to and from school. The streets should encourage them to walk, ride, skate, and roll with friends, without fear of motorised vehicles. We should have the infrastructure and rules in place in the Inner West to ensure that all students can travel safely, have fun and be active, every day.
Safe streets to school are better for kids, the community and the environment. Streets without footpaths and crossings with speed limits higher than 30km/h are not considered safe by Australia's safe system approach.
The Case for crossings:
Research shows that children cannot judge gaps in traffic consistently when cars go faster than 30km/h to safely cross a street
On streets where there are no footpaths and crossings, reducing the car speed to 30km/h would prevent most accidents: the stopping distance for a car traveling 30km/h is 13m. Stopping distance for a car traveling 50km/h is 37m. The risk of death or serious injury if hit at 30km/h is less than 10%; compared to 90% if hit at 50km/h. It is an unreasonable risk to place our children in harms way on their journey to school.
How it will be delivered
We will deliver the signatures in person to the Inner West Council with community members.
