Elizabeth St, Geelong West residents’ anger at inaction on crashes

Geelong West residents are calling for an urgent fix to a “dangerous” street following a number of collisions and near-misses only for little action to solve the issue.

Geelong West residents are calling for an urgent fix to a “dangerous” street following a number of collisions and near-misses along the busy strip.

A group of concerned residents say they first raised concerns with the City of Greater Geelong about safety along Elizabeth St eight years ago and are frustrated by what they say is a lack of action.

They say a “major accident” at the corner of Albert St and Elizabeth St on June 23 resulted in vehicle damage, damage to a fence and injuries.

In June last year, residents wrote to councillors concerned there had been three crashes in the area in six months.

Community spokeswoman and resident Jacqui Edge said over a seven-year period residents had submitted two petitions for safety changes, emailed councillors, attended in person meetings, submitted four questions at council meetings and made a budget submission.

Collision on Elizabeth St in February 2022

The submission, made in 2019, called for an environmental assessment and development of treescaping plan for Elizabeth St and a safety assessment and development of pedestrian and road user safety plan to increase pedestrian and road user safety, particularly at points where cars pass each other and at cross intersections.

Ms Edge said residents now wanted chicanes installed and trees planted along the street to encourage drivers to drive more slowly.

Councillor Sarah Mansfield. Picture: Glenn Ferguson

“Our major concerns are for the users and residents of Elizabeth St,” Ms Edge said.

“They are vehicles users, bicycle users and pedestrians. It’s not just about the residents of Elizabeth St, its about the users of it.

“It’s simply not safe.”

Last year, Cr Sarah Mansfield said residents had been calling for change for a number of years and councillors continued to advocate for this to occur.

City of Greater Geelong director of city services Guy Wilson-Browne said council was continuing to monitor the area and resident feedback.

He said four incidents had been recorded in the past year years, including two in 2019, one in 2021 and one in 2022. He said none of these incidents were serious and no one was injured.

“The incidents occurred at intersections and were the result of drivers from connecting side

streets failing to stop or give way,” Mr Wilson-Browne said.

He said no further speed and traffic collection has been undertaken since 2021.

Mr Wilson-Brown said eight speed humps were installed in 2007 and a number a number of intersections along Elizabeth Street included splitter islands to prevent vehicles cutting corners.

“We installed an upgrade to the pedestrian threshold at the corner of Elizabeth St and

Autumn St to improve pedestrian access in 2020,” he said.

He said council would continue to monitor the road to ensure all line marking and delineation is adequate.

“There are no further infrastructure measures planned,” he said.

Originally published as Elizabeth St, Geelong West residents’ anger at inaction on crashes