Mya Cubitt loves living in “vibrant” Stonnington, but she would like its bustling shopping strips to feel safer for everyone in the community.
Compared to Greater Melbourne, people who live here walk, cycle and use public transport for a much higher proportion of local trips. Walking and cycling make up more than one-third of trips in Stonnington.
Mya’s family is a great example. They have lived in Stonnington for four years. They use trams to get to school, and Mya walks for most of her shopping. The family recently sold their second car.
“I enjoy being part of a community where I can walk to different businesses and don’t have to go to a big supermarket,” says Mya. “I bought a small trolley so I don’t have to take our car.”
Her favourite destinations include independent grocery shops on Malvern Road, and Chapel Street’s restaurants and retail businesses.
But Mya says negotiating traffic in these major activity centres can make trips to school and to shops feel stressful.
“You have people speeding and huge numbers of vehicles at certain times of day,” she says.
“It often feels unsafe getting on and off trams and crossing the roads. Drivers don’t always stop…
“Our shopping strips should be places where people feel safe and can enjoy spending time.”
Most crashes in Stonnington occur on main roads.
A 2022 road safety survey conducted by council found a high level of concern about the safety of accessing trams on main streets. Chapel Street was identified as the street where people felt the least safe.
Mya particularly worries about the safety of people who are more at risk than her on our streets due to their age or ability.
Walkers aged 65 years and older are more likely to be involved in fatal or serious injury crashes.
Mya is an emergency doctor at a Melbourne hospital and has a special interest in geriatric trauma. She says that balance and muscle strength are important for things such as getting on and off trams, “but also for when unexpected things happen”.
Stonnington is an ageing community and Mya says she supports the council’s strategy of introducing safer speed limits to residential areas, busy shopping strips and outside schools as part of a suite of actions aimed at reducing crashes and injuries.
“As an emergency doctor I know that the faster cars are moving when mistakes happen, the worse things are for people,” says Mya.
“Driving at a safer speed is about caring for others in our community”.
“When we slow down, we give ourselves a better chance of noticing what’s going on around us and stopping when we need to.”
In 2012 and 2016 Stonnington introduced 40km/h streets in parts of Toorak and Prahran.
Council has evaluated the impact of reducing the speed limit from 50km/h to 40km/h in these areas and found that the total number of 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 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.
While the number of crashes and minor injuries dropped, the number of serious injuries remained stable – highlighting the vulnerability of walkers and riders if they’re stuck by people in vehicles.
Stonnington City Council is now consulting with residents about expanding 40km/h zones to more neighbourhoods, and trialling 30km/h in areas where there are high numbers of vulnerable road users mixing with vehicles, such as near schools, shops and trams.
Above 30 km/h impact speeds, pedestrians are at considerably greater risk of death.
Mya said while 30km/h was still a new concept in Australia she is keen to see what impact it could have on making streets feel safer for people of all ages.
“It’s good the council wants to trial 30km/h near schools and shopping precincts like Chapel street. Keeping people safe should be our priority.”
Mya says she feels lucky to live in such a vibrant and inclusive part of Melbourne.
“Being asked to help make it safer – to slow down so that we can all enjoy it – is a good thing,” she says.
“As I get older in Stonnington I will need other people to look out for me.”
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.