Kiera Hannigan plans to live in Stonnington for “a very long time”.
With its lovely schools and parks, she says it’s a great place to raise children.
Her young family recently moved from Prahran to a bigger house in Malvern East.
But one thing she would particularly like to see improve is the safety of local streets.
“When you are walking with three young children, roads are the riskiest thing that you’re dealing with,” she says.
“You teach your kids to stop and look, but they still get distracted.”
She would like to give her older children more independence but worries about cars and the speed some people drive.
“They’re not as aware as adults, and don’t understand that drivers might not be paying attention.”
While Kiera wants Stonnington’s streets to feel safer for all children, her family has some extra challenges.
Her 4-year-old daughter Annabelle is legally blind and has physical and intellectual disability.
Annabelle can walk short distances and Kiera, a physio, tries to give her lots of opportunities to do so. “But it can take us a lot longer to cross a street,” says Kiera. “We need people to be patient.”
“Driving at a safer speed can make a big difference to families like ours, and how we feel about walking to places such as the park.”
“It comes down to people being mindful that every individual on the street is probably going through their own challenges.”
Kiera recently applied to join Stonnington’s Disability and Access Committee.
“I’d like the opportunity to help council make decisions that will support an inclusive community where we can participate safely… So that life can be a little easier for Annabelle, and for other families like mine.”
Kiera is supportive of plans to introduce safer speed limits near more homes, shops and schools in Stonnington.
In 2012 and 2016 Stonnington introduced 40km/h streets to precincts in Toorak and Prahran. The streets previously had Victoria’s default 50km/h limit.
A council evaluation of the impact of this change to 40km/h in these council-controlled areas has found total crashes reported by police reduced from 70 to 38 (when comparing the three-year periods before and after they were introduced).
The number of people injured in crashes fell from 137 to 79, and the number of vulnerable road users (people walking, riding a bike or motorbike) who were injured fell from 46 to 22.
A 2022 consultation for council’s next road safety strategy found that the safety of people who walk and ride bikes remains a top priority for many Stonnington residents.
Kiera says she is very careful when driving her own car.
“If you live in a local street you absolutely slow down… You’re aware that your neighbour might have a child playing outside who could unexpectedly dash onto the street."
She remembers feeling a little annoyed when council introduced 40km/h speeds to local streets in Prahran when she lived there.
“But then I quickly got used to it,” she says.
“And now that I have kids, when you see or hear a driver flying down a street you think ‘What are you doing?!"
To learn more and get involved in helping us to create Safer Stonnington Streets, visit the Road Safety Improvement page on our Connect Stonnington website.