The Melbourne intersection that epitomises where our road safety approach is going wrong

July 31, 2026 — 5:00am

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We live in Melbourne’s inner west. I drive a hatchback, but commute by bike. Our son has been learning to drive for the last year. Recently, turning right at a quiet intersection, he panicked. There was no hazard; just traffic lights without a right-turn arrow. In a year of supervised driving, our ultra-controlled road system had so thoroughly insulated him that he’d never been required to exercise his own judgment in this everyday scenario.

As a professional designer, this was a red flag. In my industry, we practise user-centred design in which we distil and design for the user’s core purpose, and minimise any factors that impede this. The core purpose of any road system is to move from A to B as safely, economically and efficiently as possible. But Victoria’s “Safe System” framework has abandoned this balance. Physical and prescriptive impediments to our road system’s core function are being rolled out without restraint. More frustratingly, we’re being asked to endure a lot of usability pain for almost no safety gain.

In design, it’s a failure if the core function of a system is........

© The Age