Better Streets

Schools should be the safest place for kids, right? Yet in the past couple of weeks two people have died, and five injured, while playing in Australian school grounds. Guns, knives? No, it’s motor vehicles causing these devastating tragedies. Today, a kindergarten teacher was killed and a 3yo child injured, when a truck driver ploughed into a kindergarten in Riddells Creek in Melbourne. Police said the truck appeared to hit a bridge about 100 metres down the road, and tyre marks veer across the road and into the preschool. They think the 68-year old driver likely had a “medical episode”. This follows another tragic event in Hawthorn East where an 11yo was killed and four children seriously injured, when a parent did a u-turn and crashed through the school fence into the schoolyard. A year ago, a grandparent hit the accelerator instead of the brake, and ploughed through a fence and roller door to end up in a school pool. And that was shortly after the Daylesford tragedy on November 5th 2023, in which five people were killed in a beer garden, by a driver who chose not to eat food to prevent a diabetic hypoglycaemic episode, and got off without any conviction. These are serious, awful and tragic yet preventable events. Our hearts go out to the families and friends of the victims🎗️ We need much better vehicle control in Australia to save 1200+ lives every year. Let’s start with smaller, lighter vehicles, controls on speeding and acceleration capabilities of vehicles, and stronger licence renewal requirements. #roadsafety SARAH: Safer Australian Roads and Highways

What does it feel like, as a driver, having to switch from driving at 50kmh to 30kmh in your daily routine? This interview with a UK driver delves into one person’s experience and perspective. It might surprise you.

This Sunday 27 October, our local NSW Northern Beaches Better Streets is hosting a bike ride from Manly Wharf to Manly Lagoon at 10am. If you would like to join, please click on the facebook or the humanitix link below. #betterstreets #bike

For National Ride to Work Day our Perth-based board member Dr Tepi Mclaughlin met with WA Deputy Premier, Treasurer and Minister for Transport and Tourism Rita Saffioti MLA to talk about the key role of walking and cycling. Using her multiple roles including Treasury and Transport we’re keen to see more proactive action in Perth to reduce dependency on cars. Metronet is a great investment in public transport, and the parallel shared paths are awesome. But they’re not accessible by foot from most homes. Given that around 35% of Perth’s population CAN’T drive, this is a huge problem. We’d like to see much more done to make it easy to live without a car: 🏘️ increase infill density rather than car-dependent sprawl 🐌 reduce vehicle speeds - Perth’s 30kmh safe active streets are awesome, please make this everywhere! 🌳 more dense tree canopy 🚶🏽pedestrian crossings everywhere (Perth seems to really dislike these? 🤷♀️) #ridetowork #activetransport WestCycle

We’re delighted that Transport for NSW is funding $10 million for Active Travel to Schools so kids can: ✅ walk, scoot and bike to school 🚶🏽🛴🚲 ✅ connect with each other (it’s amazing how many play dates are hatched when kids are wandering home together) 😏 ✅ get their daily steps in 👣 ✅ meet neighbours and pat the cats 🐈 🐈⬛ ✅ learn independence 🤩 ✅ build a lifelong habit of walking and riding for incidental exercise ❤️ #activetravel #school

Better Streets has a new board, with the addition of Matt Faber, Sam Johnson joining Dr Tepi Mclaughlin, Jeremy Lawrence, Jullietta Jung and Sara Stace. In addition to our shiny new website, logo and branding, we keep getting better! 🤗 https://lnkd.in/gNB_UZFw

We’ve seen so many businesses, and business chambers of commerce, change their minds completely once a cycleway is finished. As this store owner testifies: - it creates a buffer from the noisy, fast-moving traffic, making it more pleasant for people walking, shopping and dining 🚶🏾♀️☕️ - it’s easier for potential customers to stop and buy stuff, so business booms ⏱️ - they spend more overall 💵 - they’re nice people 🥰 It’s a universally phenomenon, seen in cities across the world.

People love e-bikes and in Queensland they’re a whole lot cheaper, thanks to the highly popular new subsidy. So popular, in fact, that the Queensland Government decided to double the scheme’s funding after just 3 days! Find out more here… https://lnkd.in/gZcd34sd

October is Biketober! A great time to hop on a bike and try new routes, team up with a ride-to-work buddy, or brush up on your skills.

If you're ever asked a kid to draw their walking route to school, they'll probably draw a big gap wherever they need to cross a major street. Think about that... their whole experience right outside the front door is the joy of sunlight, tasting leaves, patting cats and dogs, exploring trees... And that scary car chasm where you're NOT ALLOWED TO GO. We can change that for the better.