Living Streets Canberra welcomes calls for improving the ACT’s infrastructure to help improve the safety of women.

Despite a substantial body of standards and guidance, the environments where women move about in the ACT often fail to comply.

“All our streets and paths should be – and feel – safe, accessible, comfortable and convenient for everyone,” says Convenor of Living Streets Canberra, Gill King.

“There are standards, guidelines and plans for how to do this to bring our public spaces up to scratch. ACT just needs to implement them. They include Australian Standards, ACT design guidelines (including Gender Sensitive Urban Design), and the ACT for Safe, Healthy, Active, Inclusive Streets shared, non-partisan platform of priorities from community groups.”

Research repeatedly shows that lighting is the biggest infrastructure issue that women worry about regarding their safety.

Lighting on paths and crossings should provide a safe walking, rolling and riding environment. Lighting on paths and crossings should meet best international practice and provide adequate lighting for safe use by all users.

Importantly from an active travel perspective, the General Objectives Part 3.1 of the Australian and New Zealand Standard say that generally the lighting is not designed to help drivers of motor vehicles, because they need to use their vehicle’s headlights; the exceptions are where pedestrians and vehicles move in shared spaces like carparks.

Lighting need not be restricted to overhead lights. Consideration should be given to providing lighting at or near ground-level to provide lighting of sufficient quantity, quality and uniformity while also allowing good tree canopy coverage.