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Welcome pedestrian safety upgrades coming to Kensington Road

3 July, 2023

RAA welcomes a State Government announcement that safety upgrades will be made to a pedestrian crossing outside of Marryatville High School on Kensington Road, including installation of a fixed red-light and speed camera.

Earlier this year, SA Police data analysed by RAA revealed the number of South Australian drivers caught running red lights rose by 24.3 per cent in 2022 compared to 2019 levels.

The data also revealed that two nearby pedestrian crossings – one on Kensington Road and one on Portrush Road – recorded the most offences for disobeying red light signals.

RAA Senior Manager Safety and Infrastructure Charles Mountain said the upgrades to the Marryatville High School crossing would improve safety and hopefully driver behaviour in the area.

“It is welcome to see upgrades made to this pedestrian crossing to help ensure drivers respond as and when they should to the traffic signals.

“The camera installation will also help to monitor driver behaviour and to enforce their responsibilities.

“It will also collect some helpful data – showing when driver compliance is worse, for example – that can be used to educate and inform all road users in SA.”

Mr Mountain said RAA would be conducting its own audit of the top 10 pedestrian crossings for red light runners to see what other infrastructure improvements could be made.

In addition to the new red-light camera, further safety upgrades for the Marryatville High School crossing will include:

  • Wrapping the traffic signal poles in red and white stripes
  • Installing target boards on the primary and tertiary traffic signal groups
  • Adding red hoop signs prior to the push buttons on each side of Kensington Road to advise pedestrians to stop, look, listen and think.
  • Relocating and paving a stop bar and detector loops

The crossing was one of 50 found to require maintenance or upgrades by a recent State Government audit of 200 pedestrian crossings, which revealed that 25 per cent did not pass due to issues such as low-hanging tree branches and inadequate vision.