Mornington Peninsula council election candidate Despi O’Connor wants parents to slow other drivers to 30km/h
A Mount Martha teacher and local council candidate wants mums and dads to act as ‘parent pace cars’ and slow drivers to 30km/h, so more children will walk to school.
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Mornington Peninsula parents are being encouraged to act as “pace cars” in a bid to cut speeds in one town’s residential streets to 30km/h.
The initiative was proposed by Mount Martha Primary teacher Despi O’Connor and shared in a school newsletter shared online on Thursday.
Ms O’Connor, who is also a sitting councillor and candidate for the upcoming Mornington Peninsula Shire elections, said the volume and speed of vehicles was a major reason why children did not play in the street, ride their bikes around or walk to and from school.
“As more and more children and their parents are beginning to discover the benefits of walking to school … we remind those in their vehicles to slow down, give way and show empathy to others,” Ms O’Connor wrote.
“Why not become a ‘Parent Pace Car’ and slow some others down as well.
“Make Mt Martha a safe environment for everyone by reducing speed to 30km/hr.”
Her comments about introducing pace cars to slow drivers to 30km/h have since been removed from the newsletter.
Students attending the school lived on streets with a mix of speed limits, ranging from 40km/h to 60km/h.
Parents agreed that walking or cycling to school was ideal, but weren’t sure about the pace car plan.
“I don’t know about dropping to 30km/h and getting parents to help police it,” Steph Gregory said.
“Extending the school’s 40km/h zone would be more practical.”
Ms Gregory also wanted drivers of extra large SUVs and giant utes to reconsider using their vehicles for the school commute.
“Those cars are huge. They can’t fit into the parking spaces outside the school,” she said.
“Our streets are narrow too and it’s impossible to pass one without driving up onto the nature strip.”
Many Mount Martha streets don’t have footpaths and pedestrians walk along the nature strip.
Meg Jones liked the idea of walking to school with her son who was in prep.
However, she lived “too far away” at the top of a hill and there were no footpaths for a significant part of the journey.
“There’s often no time either, as I have to get to work after dropping my son at school,” Ms Jones said.
RACV policy head James Williams said the club supported 40km/h school speed zones, or traffic calming interventions such as zebra crossings where a 40km/h school speed zone was not feasible.
However, he said driving significantly slower than the speed limit was illegal in Victoria and could create unintended congestion and safety hazards.
Ms O’Connor referenced internationally renowned urban design guru David Engwicht in her column in the school newsletter.
Mr Engwicht told the Herald Sun he developed the “parent pace car” initiative about 20 years ago and it was adopted in some North American cities and towns.
The program was still operating in Idaho as recently as 2021 when residents were asked to sign a pledge committing them to drive within the speed limit, display a pace car sticker on their vehicle and put something in or on their car to “make others laugh”.
Participants also had to pledge to minimise their car use, stop to let pedestrians cross and be courteous to cyclists.
Mr Engwicht, who is based in Queensland, said speeding drivers were “a social problem, not a design problem”.
“Often communities outsource their civic responsibilities to fix the problem, they ask the state government to lower the speed limit or the local council to put in speed humps,” he said.
“It’s actually relatively easy to change the culture to encourage people to drive slower at times where children are likely to be walking or riding to and from school.”
He small towns such as Mount Martha where the population was more community minded were “perfect” locations to “reclaim the streets”.
Mount Martha Primary and Ms O’Connor were contacted for comment.