Skip to main content

To: Inner West Council

Safe Streets to school in the Inner West

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.

Inner West

Categories

Links

Updates

2022-05-14 12:42:50 +1000

Time to Act - Inner West Council is now preparing Local Area Traffic Management (LATM) plans for the Newtown south and Petersham north precincts, which will recommend measures to manage traffic and improve safety in these areas over the next 10 years - Please take the surveys and ask for raised pedestrian crossings and 30km speed limits!
Petersham north survey: https://yoursay.innerwest.nsw.gov.au/petersham-north-latm
Newtown south survey: https://yoursay.innerwest.nsw.gov.au/newtown-south-latm

2022-03-10 12:02:58 +1100

This week we attended the Haberfield Public School P&C meeting. It was great to talk about key priority locations for council action. We are going to be working together to make it safer for kids at this school to walk and ride to and from school :)

2022-02-22 17:29:41 +1100

It was great to meet more inner westies passionate about active travel on the weekend. We will have another meet-up in the future so keep an eye out for updates.

2022-02-14 15:11:58 +1100

Exciting news - we have some awesome flyers and are having a meet-up this Saturday! Please join us this Saturday to get your hands on some flyers and meet other people advocating for Safe Streets to School in the Inner West!
Where? Maundrell Park, Hopetoun St, Petersham NSW 2049
When? 3 pm Saturday 19th Feb

2022-02-04 14:24:32 +1100

Did you know - the Inner West Pedestrian Access and Mobility Plan identified that travelling to and from school is the least common use of footpaths. We need to make using footpaths for active travel a lot more common!

2022-01-22 11:13:03 +1100

Happy New Year and thanks for your support with this campaign!
The new school year is fast approaching and we are keen to talk to P&C's about the campaign and show the community wants more action to ensure there are footpaths, crossings or low speeds to support and encourage active travel to school in the inner west. You can help by sharing the petition widely and getting in touch with us!

2021-11-05 22:56:13 +1100

100 signatures reached

2021-11-04 17:43:16 +1100

The problem is systemic - This map show priority areas in the Inner West council where pedestrian safety and accessibility need to be improved. https://yoursay.innerwest.nsw.gov.au/pedestriansafety/maps/proposals

2021-11-02 18:12:42 +1100

A recent publication from the Grattan institute highlighted the need for slower speed limits in shared spaces. They cited Australian evidence that reducing urban speeds by 5km/hr is likely to reduce the frequency of fatal crashes by about 26 per cent. Australian cities should consider taking a step in this direction, to make
roads safer for cyclists, users of other small mobility devices, and
pedestrians. Read more: https://grattan.edu.au/report/grattan-car-plan/

2021-10-25 15:51:15 +1100

Despite lockdowns, 1142 Australians, including 66 kids, died on our roads in the past year. Check out this article to read more about what is recommended to reduce deaths on the roads: https://theconversation.com/despite-lockdowns-1-142-australians-including-66-kids-died-on-our-roads-in-the-past-year-heres-what-we-need-to-do-170021

2021-10-21 19:16:17 +1100

50 signatures reached

2021-10-20 10:07:45 +1100

The streets are getting busier out of lockdown and sadly in the past few weeks we have seen two inner west mothers hit by cars including sadly one fatality.
Locations: intersection of Flood and Marion streets and Parramatta Rd at Catherine/Henry St.

Transport for NSW has approved a blanket 40k across inner west local roads. This 40kms needs to be rolled out and extended to include state roads, Regional Roads that are currently 50-60kms. This petition will ensure there are priority pedestrian crossings and footpaths on these streets to improve pedestrian safety - thanks for your support so far.

2021-10-17 20:58:27 +1100

25 signatures reached

2021-10-10 17:02:44 +1100

10 signatures reached