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Road Safety in Marrickville
Road Safety in Marrickville: Upcoming road safety eventsFree 2-hour GLS workshop: Helping Learner Drivers Become Safer DriversTuesday 22 September 2009, 6:30pm - 8:30pm A public information workshop for supervisors of learner drivers. The two-hour workshop offers parents and supervisors practical advice on how to provide effective driving practice. The workshop will cover topics such as how to use the learner driver log book, how to plan driving lessons, how to deal with difficulties that may arise during driving practice and the importance of giving the learner constructive feedback. For more information please contact Council on (02) 9335 2222. Bike Week at Marrickville FestivalSunday 27 September 2009, 11am - 4pm This year NSW Bike Week (26 September to 4 October 2009) coincides with Marrickville Festival - so ride your bike to the Marrickville Festival and enter the prize draw to win gift vouchers from King Street Cyclery. Register at the MASSBUG or 'Active Transport' stall. Don't miss out on a talk from your local bike police and bike mechanic, or to pick up your free copy of Council's guide to cycling, walking and using public transport in the Marrickville LGA. Free bicycle parking will be available. Free Child Restraint Safety CheckWednesday 21 October 2009, 10am - 2pm Parents and carers can check that their child car restraints, harnesses and booster seats are correctly fitted by a RTA authorised fitter for free. About road safety in MarrickvilleRoad crashes are a part of the daily life of the police and emergency services in the Marrickville area. There are approximately two serious crashes and more than one person is seriously injured every day on our roads. The safety of our roads has been a long standing priority for the Council, but the problems are complex. The road network was not designed for the high volume of traffic, which it now has to support. It is characterised by an irregular pattern of narrow streets and strip shopping centres along main roads. In such an environment road safety and traffic congestion are significant and difficult issues. The area was first settled well before the development of the motor car and the road network was originally designed for horse-drawn vehicles. The major roads follow the geographical contours along ridges and the people followed, settling in a series of villages along the roads. There was little private transport and these settlements were well serviced by trams and trains from the 1880s. Marrickville is one of the most densely settled areas in Australia. Although a residential area with some light industrial and commercial businesses, it is situated in a major transport corridor between the CBD, Sydney Airport and Port Botany. It is also on the access route from the CBD to the South Coast. Marrickville Council was one of the first Councils in NSW to employ a full time Road Safety Officer in 1993. The Road Safety Officer's role is to work with other Council officers, the Police, the RTA, other agencies and the community to identify and reduce the risk of road crashes in the area. Activities include a range of road safety education campaigns and programs to encourage safe road user behaviour. Road safety has been integrated into Council's Strategic Plan under the heading Guided development and sustainable transport. Promoting road safety has been identified as a priority program and one of the performance targets is a reduction in pedestrian accidents. While Council can continue to work to make our roads safer, it is only with community support for social and behavioural change that we can hope to make a real impact on the road toll. We hope that this web page will help to promote community awareness of road safety and encourage each one of us to act to reduce the road toll in our local community.
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