Whether it’s in the busy metropolitan where lives collide, or in the quiet countryside surrounded by wildlife, all Victorians will cross a road in these places at least once in their lives.
However, a regional gap in Victoria’s pedestrian deaths has raised questions about the safety of Victorian roads.
Data from the Department of Transport and Planning recorded 0.58 deaths per 100,000 residents per year on metropolitan roads between 2012 and 2024.
For regional roads, the rate was 15% higher, with an average of 0.67 deaths per 100,000 residents per year.
The data analysed in this article combined crash records from the Department of Transport and Planning with annual population estimates per Local Government Area from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The higher death rate on regional roads can be explained by a number of factors, but there are several of which may play a greater role.
Media and Corporate Affairs Manager at the Transport Accident Commission, Nicolas McGay said that low visibility on regional roads “vastly increases the risk of an incident happening,” and pedestrians have no protection against it.
Analysis of light conditions during Victorian pedestrian fatalities between 2012 to 2024 has shown that the second-highest number of fatalities on regional roads occurred in dark conditions where there were no street lights.
McGay points to low foot traffic as the reason behind the lack of lighting and pedestrian safety infrastructure on regional roads.
“It probably wouldn’t be very prudent expenditure of public money to putting a whole heap of crossings if they’re perhaps used only once a month,” said McGay.
According to Professor Stuart Newstead, Director of the Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC), investing in road safety requires considering “where we get the best investment for return”.
Funding for crucial road safety infrastructure such as traffic lights, street lights, and pedestrian crossings would be better justified in urban areas with higher foot traffic, said Newstead.
Both McGay and Newstead agree that getting pedestrians to understand the risks involved with crossing is just as important as installing safety infrastructure.
“There’s got to be some conversation about education – about getting people to understand what the risks are [in crossing],” said Newstead.
In a survey conducted by the MUARC between 2017 to 2019, 20% of 814 pedestrians used a portable device while crossing the road, with 37% of them having walked while interacting with a device.
The same survey showed that 31% of the distracted pedestrians were involved in an incident critical to their safety.
“It’s not a blame game,” said McGay. “It’s about shared responsibility. So [road safety messages] don’t just apply to drivers, but also to pedestrians themselves.”
According to McGay, another major contributing factor to pedestrian deaths is high speed zones, which are common on regional roads.
“Anything above 30 kilometres per hour is going to result in a very serious injury,” said McGay.
In a further analysis of Victorian crash data, 60-kilometre-per-hour speed zones accounted for the largest share of pedestrian fatalities in both regional and metropolitan roads.
36 fatalities (26%) on regional roads occurred in 60-kilometre-per-hour speed zones.
On metropolitan roads, this number is higher; 156 fatalities, or around 43%, occurred in this speed zone.
Findings from the Monash University Accident Research Centre show similar results.
“By the time you get to 60 kilometres an hour, your risk of being killed or seriously injured is incredibly high,” said Newstead.
For Newstead, the current priority of the transport system should be to reduce the risks that pedestrians are being exposed to.
“You’ve got to try to enhance the separation between pedestrians and vehicles,” he said.
Victoria Walks CEO Sarah Pilgrim expressed a similar view: for regional areas that lack proper road safety infrastructure, pedestrians “need to be separated from faster flowing roads.”
Despite regional roads being low priority for road safety investment, Pilgrim said that it doesn’t take away from the importance of making these roads as safe as metropolitan ones.
Victoria Walks has been advocating for safer road conditions for pedestrians since 2009, pushing for the installation of footpaths, crossings, tracks, and trails, and lower speed zones on roads.
Pilgrim emphasised the importance of local and state governments creating infrastructure that enables people to walk.
“We have infrastructure that enables people to drive, so equally we need infrastructure that enables people to walk safely,” she said.
For Newstead, there is more that still needs to be done for road safety and pedestrian wellbeing.
“Clearly what is being done is not enough to offset the problem that we’re actually seeing,” he said.
“We’ve got a whole lot of things playing a role. The people play a role, the vehicles play a role, and certainly the road environment and how we design it all play a role.”
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