For two years, I have been working with other parents on travel mode surveys to engage children, parents and educators at Wollongong public schools to determine barriers to children walking and riding to school.  

The insights from over 800 survey responses across 14 public schools are consistent with research, kids want to walk and ride to school. Parents want safe routes for their child’s whole journey between home and school.

A common refrain is that parents should teach their kids road safety. Nobody says we should not do that. However, too many streets in Wollongong are unsafe for kids. 

Children make mistakes. When cars drive 40km/h or higher, children should be separated from the traffic – by footpaths and crossings. 

Where this separation is not practicable or possible, speed limits should be lower, so that the chance of accidents is reduced and accidents don’t result in death or serious injury.

We need to recognise the fragility of life and that we, as humans, have a limit on the amount of force we can withstand. A person struck by someone driving a car at 50km/h faces a 90% chance of death or serious injury, this drops to 50% at 40km/h and just 10% at 30km/h. A transport system that is forgiving and safe for all users, including children, people living with a disability and our elderly population, should be standard and is best for all community members. 

Safe Streets to School Wollongong imagines a safe connected network of streets centred around schools that allow children and families to walk safely between home and school and people to easily walk and ride within their community for other short everyday trips. 

Over the past two to three decades, Australia has seen a significant decrease in children walking or riding to school. This is concerning, as more than 70% of children and 91.5% of young people are not engaging in enough physical activity for good health. 

Wollongong Council has taken initial proactive steps to make travel safer for children walking or riding their bikes to and from school. They have established an internal Safe Routes to School working group. We applaud this first step toward safer streets in the Wollongong LGA. 

The urgency of this work was tragically highlighted in December 2020, when a 10-year-old boy died after he was hit by a car in Unanderra, while crossing a road on his way to school. 

This crash occurred on a street with no crossing. 

The current road transport system has unacceptable risks inherent in the design process and application, making it an unsafe environment for children walking to and from school and other vulnerable road users. 

The Safe Streets to School Action Group Wollongong started a petition asking for – within a 2km radius of all Wollongong Schools – separated paths and priority crossing points on roads with speed limits of 40km/h or higher or for 30km/h speed limits.

We are urging Wollongong Council to make this important work a priority.  

Help safe streets campaigners

1 Sign the petition at safe-streets-to-school.org

2 Help campaigners collect data – share road safety complaints that you have made to Council, Police, RMS/TfNSW, State MPs, schools etc.

3 Email pictures or videos of dangerous places to fails@safe-streets-to-school.org for publication online. On your socials, use the hashtag #schooljourneyfails

4 Get involved – email info@safe-streets-to-school.org

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jon Lindley is a parent of three primary school children, a husband, a community representative on Wollongong Council’s Walking, Cycling and Mobility Reference Group and a high school teacher. He is passionate about ocean swimming at Wollongong Beach with the Shark Baiter crew and spending time with his children and family. Active transport is his first option for travel. At the end of 2020 he co-founded Safe Streets to School Wollongong Action Group. 

Whose road is it, anyway?

Baffled by which government department will take responsibility for which road? 2515 Coast News asked Wollongong City Council to please explain.

A Council spokesperson issued this response: 

We recognise that road safety is an important issue for people in our community. The setting of speed zones and school speed zones in NSW is the responsibility of Transport for NSW (TfNSW). However, road safety issues around schools in the Wollongong LGA are managed by both TfNSW and Wollongong City Council.

If your school is located on a State Road, TfNSW is responsible for safety measures, such as pedestrian crossings, changes to parking restrictions, road surface repair, installation and maintenance of all signs and the installation of bus zones. State roads are the main roads and in our Northern suburbs the State Roads are:

* The M1 Freeway,

* Lawrence Hargrave Drive,

* Bulli Pass,

* Princes Hwy through Bulli & Memorial Drive.

All other roads are local government managed roads, where Wollongong City Council is responsible for changes to parking, road repairs, pedestrian crossings, traffic calming devices, installation of bus zones, road surface repairs and road sign maintenance. A more detailed breakdown of the different responsibilities of TfNSW and your local council can be found on the TfNSW website (www.transport.nsw.gov.au). 

What is Council doing to make school routes safer?

Wollongong City Council is committed to delivering safer routes to schools for our community. To achieve this, we’ve developed a ‘Safer Routes to School’ working group who are responsible for creating a program that recommends infrastructure to improve road safety around schools in the Wollongong LGA. 

Residents and community members are encouraged to submit issues or concerns relating to school travel routes. We take these concerns seriously by recording, reviewing and assessing each request. Requests to the Safer Routes to School working group can be submitted to council@wollongong.nsw.gov.au. Community members can also speak directly to school principals before raising issues with Council.

We also installed a number of permanent pedestrian ‘Look Out Before You Step Out’ footpath signs at crossing points close to schools to reinforce safe crossing practices for students.

As students return to school at the end of January, we will be working closely with TfNSW to roll out the state-wide Back to School campaign. This year Council will continue our successful School Safe Banner Program.

Council will also continue to work with TfNSW to coordinate our Speed Management Project that rotates two dedicated Vehicle Message Signs (VMS) at various school zone locations across the Wollongong LGA. 

Our Parking Compliance Team also work proactively to patrol schools to provide road safety education to community members and take regulatory action when appropriate. Our School Zone Parking Program targets primary schools across the Wollongong LGA during the morning and afternoon school drop off and pickups.

School drop offs and pick-ups are a busy time for everyone. That’s why it’s important that everyone drives responsibly by following the road rules and observing school speed zones. Watch our School Zone Safety video.