LIKE most parents, my No.1 fear is having anything bad happen to our children.
And never do you feel more protective or worried than around roads or cars.
It’s why you see parents screaming in horror when kids suddenly dart out in a carpark to pick up a toy they’ve dropped. Or when they forget to look where they are going on their scooters or bikes.
Kids, by nature, are unpredictable. It’s part of life.
So it’s on us as adults to take the right precautions as much as possible.
Out in Nichols Point there are new developments popping up all over the place. It’s a great spot that is attracting more and more young families.
But, while more houses are going up, the speed limits on the roads remain the same.
It’s a situation that is worrying for many parents in the community.
Towards the end of Eleventh Street and along Cureton Avenue near Kings Billabong, the speed limit is 80km/h. A bit further along Cureton and Eleventh, the speed hits 100km/h.
They are semi-rural blocks, which potentially places them in a different speed limit category to a typical residential street. But, given how many young families live in these homes, that perhaps needs a rethink.
Mildura Council is constructing a path along Eleventh Street for residents to ride or walk along almost all the way into Mildura.
While there have been criticisms around safety aspects of that path, the council should be commended for this initiative as it was highly necessary.
But the path stops short of solving the problem.
The path doesn’t extend to the end of Eleventh Street, nor is there any path along Cureton Avenue, where more housing developments are taking place.
As a result, families walk their dogs along the 80km/h roads. Children ride their bikes on the 80km/h roads. Mums push their prams on the 80km/h roads.
Just last week, I came around a corner and had to brake quickly as two young boys darted across the road on their BMXs towards one of the Kings Billabong tracks. I was lucky I was going well under the speed limit at the time.
It raises the question of whether speed limits need revisiting in areas like Nichols Point that are becoming more residential than rural.
Could they be reclassified? It may result in reducing speed limits to 60km/h along these potentially dangerous sections, and what would be the harm in that?
Maybe it would add 10 seconds to a driver’s travelling time, but surely that is a small price to pay to avoid potential tragedy.
Reducing speed gives drivers more reaction time. It’s why 40km/h speed zones around schools make so much sense.
We shouldn’t wait for something bad to happen before we investigate the safest options in these growing communities.
We are the adults here.
