The City has partnered with Main Roads WA to roll out around 100 road safety treatments across its suburbs in an effort to increase safety around parks, schools and high-crash risk areas.
Over the next two financial years, low-cost traffic calming measures will be installed in approximately two-thirds of the City as part of Main Roads WA’s Low-Cost Urban Road Safety Program (URSP). Treatments will be installed on local roads on an area-wide or whole-of-street-basis.
Main Roads WA will invest almost $3 million in the project to cover the design and construction of the treatments, which will be installed across 13 precincts in the City.
City of Bayswater Mayor Filomena Piffaretti said the project would result in a much safer road environment for the local community.
“We’re pleased to be working with the State Government to help make our streets safer for everyone. These treatments will slow down traffic, making it safer for more vulnerable road users such as children walking and riding to school, commuting cyclists, pedestrians and people walking their dogs to their local park,” she said.
“Not only do these treatments aim to reduce fatalities and injury for drivers and road users, they also help boost the liveability of our suburbs and contribute toward making the City a better, safer place to live.
“The project currently has two phases, with the first phase already underway in Bayswater and Embleton. This phase includes the installation of 40 road safety treatments around Frank Drago Reserve and Bayswater Waves which will be installed by October 2022.
“As part of the project, we will be asking the community for their feedback on the treatments along the way to ensure we get it right. Treatment options include mini and compact roundabouts, pedestrian priority crossings, speed humps, entry statements, raised safety platforms, gateways and mid-block platform treatments.
“This project will supersede other road safety projects underway in the City, including the Black Spot project at Shearn Park of which the City would have contributed one third of the cost, and priority treatments from the City-Wide Traffic Management Study.
“A review of the treatments will be undertaken to assess their effectiveness against reducing crashes and speed.”
For the first time ever in WA, the Low Cost URSP addresses road trauma risk on an area wide or whole-of-street basis. This innovative approach enables Main Roads to direct funding to sites that not only have a casualty crash record but to those sites that are considered high-risk sites before crashes occur, and often in locations where there otherwise may not be any investment in road safety improvements.
The precincts surrounding Weld Square, Shearn Park and the Maylands strip will be the first projects to be completed in Phase Two of the program. Other locations set to be covered include Maylands Peninsula, Jubilee Reserve, Hillcrest Reserve, Broadway Arboretum, Tonkin Business Park, Beaufort Park, RA Cook Reserve and Ashfield Flats.
The City will work with neighbouring council areas including City of Stirling and Town of Bassendean where the precincts cross into other local government areas.