Lord Mayor Clover Moore, please do not remove the two zebra crossings on Mitchell Road in Alexandria (at Maddox St and Harley St). Invest in safety upgrades instead.

While there have been no reported pedestrian crashes or injuries at these crossings, some drivers do fail to give way, making it feel unsafe. Many drivers stop on the crossing also. Driver compliance & safety could be significantly improved by:

• Raising the Harley St crossing.
• Installing traffic calming on approaching traffic lanes.
• Removing sightline obstructions.
• Moving crossings further away from the adjacent roundabouts.
• Making the adjacent roundabouts radial instead of tangential.
• Installing priority crossings on other arms of the adjacent roundabouts.
• Setting a safe posted speed limit.

It is bizarre that City of Sydney is proposing to rip up these two zebra crossings and adjacent roundabouts, and that it plans to install dangerous, people-delaying traffic lights (at an approximate cost of $1 million). Doing so would: 

• Increase car and truck speeds.
• Give pedestrians a false sense of security.
• Reduce safety for all street users.
• Encourage more rat-running cars and trucks.
• Impose significant additional delays on people walking.

In the community consultation, 72% of submissions opposed removing these zebra crossings.

Traffic lights will encourage dangerous car and truck speeds.

The existing zebra crossings and adjacent roundabouts help to slow cars and trucks to a safe speed (<30 km/h). Raised crossings function as speed humps (vertical deflection) while roundabouts force changes of direction (horizontal deflection).

Removing these traffic-calming devices would allow cars and trucks to speed through the intersections at 40 km/h or more. Many drivers will accelerate on seeing a yellow light.

Traffic lights give a false sense of security. At zebra crossings, pedestrians look/listen out for approaching motor vehicles to make sure they are stopping. But at traffic lights, they focus on the walk signal.

Last year, the nearby red light camera in front of St Peters Station detected 21,598 drivers speeding or running a red light. A higher vehicle speed means greater stopping distance, crash risk and injury severity. A driver running a red light at 40 km/h+ is much more likely to kill or seriously injure any pedestrian they crash into than is a driver going over a raised zebra crossing at less than 30 km/h.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Removing these zebra crossings will encourage more rat-running car and truck traffic.

The council’s traffic modelling estimates that replacing these two zebra crossings and the adjacent roundabouts with traffic lights would reduce motor vehicle travel times along Mitchell Rd by up to 2.5 minutes at peak times.

But reducing driving travel time would result in Google Maps and other navigation apps sending increasing amounts of car and truck traffic along Mitchell Rd (because these apps select the route with the lowest travel time, not the route with the lowest impact on residential areas). Travel time would soon increase back to the previous level.

Removing zebra crossings to increase motor vehicle traffic speed/flow is like adding another lane to a motorway – it simply induces more traffic.

Traffic lights will discourage walking and other healthy transport choices.

Traffic lights impose punitive delays on people walking/cycling. If the new traffic lights have similar timings to others nearby, each will add up to 1.5 minutes to the time it takes to cross the street, or up to 2 minutes if crossing diagonally.

Together, they could add up to 7 minutes to the time it takes someone to walk to and from the train station, bus stop, shops, school, etc. That’s on top the of delays caused by the numerous existing traffic lights in the area.

Instead of ripping up these zebra crossings, the City should invest in safety upgrades.

These zebra crossings are objectively very safe (no pedestrian crashes/injuries recorded in the last five years). However, they can be perceived to be unsafe by some people – for example, if they have witnessed a driver not giving way. Older people and parents may feel particularly uncomfortable.

But traffic lights are not the answer: they often don’t give older and less mobile people sufficient time to cross, and drivers also fail to give way at traffic lights sometimes. The City of Sydney should not punish people walking or using wheelchairs/mobility scooters with additional delays because of a problem caused by motorists.

There are proven ways of improving driver compliance and safety at zebra crossings.

At the crossing near Maddox St, signage could be moved and vegetation cut back to improve sightlines. And this crossing could be moved further from the adjacent roundabout.

The crossing near Ashmore St could be raised, despite the council’s claim that this is not possible due to “drainage considerations”. It is possible – it’s just a question of engineering expertise and cost. Also, this crossing could be relocated to the north side of Harley St – because drivers turning left out of Harley St are looking right for a gap in the traffic instead of left for people on the crossing.

At both crossings:

• Traffic calming could be installed on approaching traffic lanes.
• The adjacent roundabout could be made radial instead of tangential.
• Priority crossings could be installed on other arms of the adjacent roundabout.
• The City could set a pedestrian/child-safe posted speed limit.