The Town of East Fremantle fared a little better, with 67.4 per cent of accidents recorded on, or at the intersection of, local government-controlled roads.
A third of Fremantle’s almost 10,000 accidents in that period occurred in the middle of a local government street, compared to just 9 per cent on a State Government road.
City of Fremantle technical services director Peter Pikor said council-managed roads made up a large chunk of the road network, so it was reasonable to assume most crashes would occur on these roads.
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READ NOW‘In terms of reducing accidents, the City undertakes a range of strategies, including following guidelines from the Safe Systems Towards Zero approach which takes a holistic approach to road safety,’ he said. ‘We also have numerous strategies to encourage alternative transport options, particularly for local trips, as well as education campaigns such as the current bike awareness signage in the CBD.
‘There is ongoing evaluation and monitoring of the local network to seek improvements and the City also works with state authorities, including the police, to identify problem areas and manage them with traffic calming and other measures.’
According to WA Local Government Association president Troy Pickard, the current State Budget has $988 million allocated for state roads, compared to just $176 million for local roads, despite them making up 88 per cent of the road network. He said the report highlighted the dangerous discrepancy that existed between state and local road funding.
‘The Association continues to strongly advocate for the reinstatement of funding for basic maintenance of local roads as well as sufficient funding to implement effective safety measures,’ he said.
‘The State Government needs to work with local governments to better understand the scale of the funding inequity and address it as a priority.’
Fremantle accidentsState Mid-street: 938 (9.4%)LG Mid-street: 3324 (33.3%)Intersection of two State Roads: 456 (4.6%)Intersection of two LG Roads: 2896 (29%)Intersection of State and LG Road: 2270 (22.7%)Other: 110 (1%) East Freo accidentsState Mid-street: 233 (17.1%)LG Mid-street: 315 (23.1%)Intersection of two State Roads: 209 (15.3%)Intersection of two LG Roads: 151 (11.1%)Intersection of State and LG Road: 421 (33.2%)Other: 3 (0.2%)