The Western Australian Government has made a re-election commitment of $125 million to expand the Regional Road Safety Program onto council roads, as well as $17.7 million for the delivery of 23 new signalised pedestrian crossings.
The Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) has welcomed the announcement and said that the additional investment will see safety treatments including widening, sealed shoulders plus audible centre and edge lines installed on local government roads for the first time.
These safety treatments are aimed at preventing one of the leading causes of death and serious injury on regional roads – single-vehicle run-off road crashes.
WALGA President, Karen Chappel, said that the State Government’s commitment to further invest in regional road safety could achieve major progress towards the 2030 National Road Safety Strategy targets to reduce fatalities by 50 per cent and serious injuries by 30 per cent.
“Between 2018 and 2022, more than 500 people lost their lives and over 2,900 were seriously injured on regional roads in Western Australia. Half of these crashes happened on local government roads,” Ms Chappel said.
“Funding is critical to ensure local roads are safe for all who use them.
“The State Government announcement stated that, if re-elected, a matching contribution will be sought from the Federal Government. This is in line with WALGA’s advocacy calling on both the State and Federal Governments to co-fund the investment required to save lives and reduce injuries on local government roads.”
The announcement also included a $17.7 million commitment to deliver 23 new signalised pedestrian crossings, which will include the replacement of 19 current warden-controlled school crossings around Western Australia.
“Manned children’s crossings are designed to provide a safe location for children to cross roads on their way to school. However, high traffic speed and volumes can create unsafe conditions for both children and Traffic Wardens.
“Converting to signalled crossings will allow the redeployment of Traffic Wardens to less dangerous or unmanned crossings.”
WALGA’s 2025 State Election Priorities call for $276 million over four years to fund the state’s contribution to applying road safety countermeasures on 439 local government roads, and the conversion of children’s crossings on 30 identified multi-lane, high-speed, high-volume roads to signalled pedestrian crossings.
“We all have an important part to play in changing the current road safety outcomes and making sure every person arrives at their destination safely.”
Image: Rafael Ben-Ari/stock.adobe.com
