By Belinda Nolan
A COUNCIL campaign to promote pedestrian safety has left St Albans residents scratching their heads.
Posters, postcards and banners warning drivers not to park on pedestrians are being distributed around the St Albans CBD in a bid to reduce pedestrian injuries and fatalities.
The “Do Not Park On Pedestrians” signs show a cartoon picture of a car running over a person and are being mailed to residents, handed out in the streets and affixed to fences.
The slogan is one of several catchlines the council and TAC have invented as part of “Walk St Albans,” a campaign to promote safe pedestrian behaviour within the St Albans activity centre.
Other mottos include “Your life is worth the wait” “Stop. Think. Live” and “Cross the red man and you’ll end up dead man.”
Kelly Grigsby, the council’s General Manager of Community Well-being, said the slogans were designed to be catchy to capture the attention of the community and highlight the safety message.
But residents have labelled the campaign as “insulting” and “confusing.”
St Albans woman Stella Zimic said residents did not need to be told not to park on pedestrians.
“I think it’s quite insulting,” Ms Zimic said.
“It sounds more like a comical sketch than a legitimate council strategy.
“I don’t know who sits around the boardtable and comes up with these slogans but they’re pretty ridiculous.”
Ms Zimic said she had seen council workers handing out lifesaver sweets and postcards at the St Albans train station, as part of the pedestrian safety campaign.
“They were trying to encourage people to be lifesavers but to me it was a little insensitive,” she said.
“If my son or daughter had been killed by a car and the council was handing out lollies and postcards I’d probably find it inappropriate.”
Asip Demiri, Secretary of the St Albans Business Association said he was baffled by the slogans.
“It is bizarre,” Mr Demiri told Star.
“Is this their way of educating people? You’ve got to wonder how much money they’re spending on this.”
But the council has refused to reveal the cost of the campaign.
Ms Grigsby said the “Walk St Albans” campaign had been designed in partnership with the St Albans Connect Project, TAC, Victoria Police and Metro Trains.
Around 40 per cent of all pedestrian injuries and fatalities in Brimbank in the last five years occurred in St Albans.
