Pedal Power current campaigns · Safer Streets
30 where people are.
Lower speeds on the local streets where Canberrans walk, ride, shop, study and live. Because a destination should not feel like a racetrack.
Not on every road. In the places where people and traffic mix most.
Canberra's busiest local streets are being asked to do two jobs at once.
They are roads for moving vehicles, but they are also the front doors of homes, schools, shops, cafés, health services and public transport. People cross them, ride along them, park beside them and step into them from between vehicles.
In these places, 40 or 50 km/h leaves too little margin for an ordinary mistake. A child misjudges a gap. A driver looks away for a moment. A rider is hidden by a parked car. The faster the vehicle is travelling, the less time everyone has and the more severe the impact can be.
Pedal Power is calling for targeted 30 km/h zones in high-pedestrian and high-cycling precincts, backed by street design that makes the safer speed feel natural.
Why 30 matters
A small change in speed. A life-changing difference.
Lower speeds give drivers more time to react, shorten stopping distances and reduce the force of a collision.
Approximate pedestrian fatality risk
A person struck by a vehicle travelling at 30 km/h has a far better chance of surviving.
Approximate pedestrian fatality risk
Just 10 km/h faster can make the consequences of the same mistake dramatically worse.
Reported speeding
More than 70% of surveyed ACT drivers reported speeding, most commonly in 40 and 50 km/h zones—showing why signs must be supported by design, education and enforcement.
Fatality-risk estimates: Australasian College of Road Safety. ACT survey finding: UNSW Canberra.
A Canberra-wide shortlist
Safer streets should not depend on your postcode.
ACT-funded research recommends trials in town centres, school precincts and other places with high pedestrian and cycling activity. This shortlist applies those criteria across Canberra.
Central Canberra
Kurrajong · Civic, Braddon, Dickson and Kingston
Busy shops, hospitality, apartments and public transport generate constant crossings and turning movements. Local streets around these destinations should prioritise people over through-traffic.
Email Kurrajong MLAs →Gungahlin
Yerrabi · Gungahlin Town Centre and Amaroo local centre
A fast-growing population moves between shops, schools, homes, light rail and buses. Slower local streets would make short walking and cycling trips safer for families and commuters.
Email Yerrabi MLAs →Belconnen
Ginninderra · Belconnen Town Centre, Emu Bank and Kippax
Major shopping, lakeside recreation, apartments, community services and bus connections create busy pedestrian routes. Thirty-kilometre local streets would make these centres easier to reach without a car.
Email Ginninderra MLAs →Woden
Murrumbidgee · Woden Town Centre and the Phillip service precinct
The interchange, shops, offices, health services and new housing bring many different trips together. Safer local speeds would support the centre's growth and its changing street life.
Email Murrumbidgee MLAs →Tuggeranong
Brindabella · Tuggeranong Town Centre and Erindale Centre
Shops, schools, sporting facilities, bus stops and lake paths attract people of all ages. Lower speeds on surrounding local streets would reduce conflict and help more people walk or ride.
Email Brindabella MLAs →Molonglo and Weston
Murrumbidgee · Coombs, Wright and Cooleman Court
Growing neighbourhoods and established centres place schools, shops, parks and homes close together. Introducing safer speeds can support independent walking and riding before unsafe patterns become entrenched.
Email Murrumbidgee MLAs →What we are asking for
Not a sign-only exercise.Not a blanket city-wide limit.A real Safer Streets trial.
We are calling on the ACT Government to fund and launch a 12-month 30 km/h pilot across high-pedestrian and high-cycling precincts, including sites in Canberra's north, south and Belconnen, not only the inner city, with results made public.
Choose priority places
Use movement, speed and crash data plus community input to select school, centre and mixed-use precincts.
Design for 30
Add gateway treatments, prominent markings, raised crossings, tighter corners and other physical calming where needed.
Explain and enforce
Pair the change with a clear public campaign, driver education and proportionate enforcement so expectations are unmistakable.
Publish the results
Measure vehicle speeds, crashes and near misses, walking and cycling activity, and community experience before and after.
What this campaign means
Targeted, practical and designed to work.
The goal is safer local destinations—not slowing Canberra's arterial road network.
30 where people mix.
The campaign focuses on local streets around busy centres, schools, health facilities and other places with high walking and cycling activity. Major movement corridors keep limits appropriate to their role.
The street must say 30.
Clear gateways, crossings, lane widths and traffic-calming treatments should make the safe speed obvious and comfortable to follow.
Everyone makes mistakes.
A safer speed gives drivers, riders and pedestrians more time to see one another and respond. It protects people without preventing access to homes, shops or services.
Email your local representatives
Make it an electorate issue.
Choose the electorate containing your priority street and prepare one message addressed to all five of its current MLAs.
Take action
Ask your five local MLAs to act.
Select the electorate for the safer street you support. The form will prepare an email to every current MLA representing that area.
Safer streets for everyone
The difference between 30 and 40 is more than a number.
It is more time to see a child. More room to stop. Less force if something goes wrong. And more confidence to walk or ride.
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