St Kilda Skate Park on Marine Parade sparks safety concerns
STRESSED-OUT parents have hit out at authorities they claim are “waiting until someone gets killed” outside a busy St Kilda skate park before they take action.
Inner South
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STRESSED-OUT parents have hit out at authorities they claim are “waiting until someone gets killed” outside a busy St Kilda skate park before they take action.
Jesse and Lilian Rudd live near the Marina Reserve Skate Park on Marine Parade and say teenagers regularly ran the gauntlet on the the busy road, made more dangerous by thick median strip foliage blocking views for pedestrians and cars.
The nearest crossings are at Dickens St and Luna Park on Shakespeare Grove, each about one kilometre away and not used by skaters.
ST KILDA SKATE PARK LAUNCHED AT MARINA
MARINA RESERVE SKATE PARK TO HOST PUBLIC EVENTS
Mr Rudd contacted Port Phillip Council last year, who has since advocated to VicRoads for a crossing to be installed.
But Mr Rudd said it was a matter of urgency that must be prioritised.
“Port Phillip engages in a lot of pet projects that are of peripheral relevance to most residents’ lives (and) this is a classic example of something relatively simply that the council or the roads authority could do to dramatically improve the amenity of the area,” he said.
“This doesn’t strike me as unreasonable and I don’t think as a council you can put a skate park next to a highway without installing the necessary infrastructure.”
A traffic count in August showed 39,000 vehicles travel on the thoroughfare each day, with Port Phillip Council recently installing “pedestrian islands” at the intersection of Marine Parade and Blessington Street and Marine Parade and Woodsworth Street.
But Mr Rudd said the crossings were too far away to be used by teenagers, and the islands were just a “strip of sealed concrete footpath through the median strip, about a metre wide.”
“(I think) they’re waiting for a pedestrian to be hit by a car before they will consider a pedestrian crossing,” Mr Rudd said.
“It illustrates the inadequacy of a bureaucratic response... and the need for an injection of common sense.”
VicRoads movement and safety manager Jason Stakic said they’d continue to monitor Marine Parade and work with the council to “determine opportunities for future pedestrian safety and access improvements”.
Port Phillip mayor Bernadene Voss said a pedestrian crossing on Marine Parade — a VicRoads road — was considered when the park was installed.
She said the latest council survey took place in 2015, showing 52 pedestrians crossed the road between 11am and 12noon on Friday, May 1, and 39 pedestrians crossed between 10.15am and 11.15am on Saturday, May 2.
“Council has advocated to VicRoads for a pedestrian crossing on Marine Parade,” she said.
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