Yarraville polka dots: Council does 180 on Anderson Street safety concerns

After parents hit back at a potentially life-threatening installation to ease traffic Maribyrnong have listened, kind of …

Speed bumps are being installed in Yarraville Village following a controversial move by a council to paint a bright polka dot crossing as a traffic diversion.

The strange move by Maribyrnong Council was intended to try and slow cars on a suburban street using polka dots instead of speed humps but was swiftly slammed by parents who said it encouraged children to run onto the road.

But almost two weeks later workers have been seen installing speed bumps on the busy street on April 1.

Maribyrnong Mayor Michael Clarke said while the dots were “innovative” the council had listened to community feedback.

“This innovative trial is designed to encourage all road users – drivers, pedestrians and cyclists – to approach with additional care,” he said.

“Concerns have been raised by some community members regarding the safety – and we’ve listened.”

He said the council wanted all road users to feel safe on and around the roads which was why temporary speed “cushions” were being installed on either side of each polka dot displays for throughout the experimental trial.

Cr Clarke said the council had applied to the Department of Transport to drop the Ballarat and Canterbury streets intersection to 20km/h.

The Melbourne City News previously reported parents were so concerned that the colourful move would cause a fatality, the community started an online petition to remove the dots, which last night had attracted more than 260 signatures.

Many who signed said the painted polka dots — next to Yarraville Village’s outdoor dining parklets at the Anderson and Ballarat, Canterbury and Ballarat, and Anderson and Willis intersections — have created confusion for young children who think it’s a playground.

Yarraville resident Anthony Gracia said he saw first hand how dangerous the installation was when a car had to honk at a three-year-old child to move off the road.

“I saw kids hopping dot to dot playing games, there was a car approaching and the car had to honk for the children to move away – there was a three-year-old child among others,” Mr Gracia said.

The dots have been trialled overseas with research claiming it calms traffic and reduces vehicle speed by alerting motorists to pedestrian thoroughfares.

Maribyrnong mum of two Caroline McKean previously said the dots looked like “fun” to children who were running into oncoming traffic.

“It’s easy to teach kids about road safety and say, ‘don’t go on the road … cross at the zebra crossings’ but polka dots on a road looks like fun,” Ms McKean said.

“Life is hard enough as it is without the council making it harder … this was never created with thoughts of parents with young children in mind.”

She said while the nearby pop-up parks concept was wonderful, the execution is where the council fell short.

“Preschoolers and toddlers get a run up on the parklet grass and all of a sudden they are running perpendicular into oncoming traffic,” Ms McKean said.

Another resident, Simon Dix, previously said: “The polka dots are not deterring drivers from slowing down at all, it’s counter intuitive.”