Hobart councillors are calling for tougher enforcement measures to address what they say is the growing problem of red-light running in the city’s central business district.
Councillors Ryan Posselt and Ben Lohberger last night put forward a motion that will trigger a formal letter to police, the Department of State Growth and the state government, urging them to take immediate action to enhance pedestrian safety.
“Here we are in these very pedestrian-dense areas seeing car after car, buses and trucks running red lights,” Posselt said.
“And what it does is produce a CBD that feels hostile, it feels dangerous and it places the onus on the pedestrians to check that they’re not about to be hit even though they’ve got a green walking man in front of them.”
“There are red-light cameras in every jurisdiction except here and it is unbelievable … that there are no red light cameras in the state of Tasmania.”
Councillor Lohberger shared the experience of a visually impaired friend who “no longer trusts the pedestrian lights” due to the number of vehicles running red lights.
“He now waits for 5 to 10 seconds after the signals activate before he feels safe enough to step off the footpath. I just find that unacceptable,” Lohberger said.
“We need to be able to trust our pedestrian lights and if that trust is being eroded by red light running, then we need to address red light running.”
While councillors supported the motion’s intent, some questioned the effectiveness of simply sending a letter.
Alderman Louise Bloomfield suggested that increased congestion caused by scramble crossings throughout the CBD may be contributing to red light running due to driver frustration.
“I think this is a little bit too early because I think that there is already interest of the state government to investigate where, how, what, the size, the frequency where is it happening with all the red light running,” she said.
Councillor Louise Elliott also expressed skepticism, saying writing a letter would only be “clogging up the bureaucracy” without solving the problem.
“Obviously people shouldn’t be running red lights and it’s a serious dangerous, provides a real danger,” she said.
“If I truly thought that writing a letter is what we needed to fix the problem, I would be here in a heartbeat, but it truly isn’t. It won’t do anything.”
The motion was passed by councillors Mike Dutta, Ryan Posselt, Gemma Kitsos, Ben Lohberger, Bill Harvey, Zelinda Sherlock and Anna Reynolds.
Louise Bloomfield, John Kelly, Louise Elliot and Will Coats voted against.
According to State Growth, failure to obey traffic signals is not a primary contributor to fatal and serious injuries in Tasmania.
Transport Minister Eric Abetz said, in a letter to the council, that between 2017 and 2022, failure to obey traffic signals was a causal factor in around 2.2% of all fatal and serious injury crashes.
“This finding is consistent with research conducted by the University of Adelaide’s Centre of Automated Safety Research in 2020, which recommended that a mobile speed camera program be prioritised over red-light enforcement due to greater expected reductions in road trauma,” he wrote.
