Forget driving lessons, pedestrians need some road safety advice

OPINION:

Let me set the – dangerous, shocking and avoidable – scene.

It was last month in July, the midst of winter, when the days were at their shortest and it was dark by 6:00pm.

As usual, I had picked my daughter up from sports training, and we were driving the twenty-minute journey home, rounding a bend on a busy road heading out of town, with a 70km/h speed limit and poor street lighting.

While I’m always vigilant for kangaroos along that road, especially around dusk, what ran out in front of my car was not Skippy or one of his mates but… a runner.

As I slammed on my brakes, muttered a reactionary expletive or two, with my daughter in shock in the passenger seat next to me, the runner, who did not have a torch or reflective gear and was dressed in dark activewear (something I could see in the close spotlight of my headlights as they ran in front of me), just proceeded along their merry way without a worry (such as their near death) in the world.

However, I was left with a definite worry, one that fills me with dread every time I’m driving home along that road, now making me anticipate the same runner, or one of their runner friends, doing the same thing.

While I’d like to say this sort of pedestrian behaviour was a one-off, unfortunately, from my own first-hand experience, it is becoming more commonplace across settings far and wide.

There are the reckless late-night or early-morning runners (like the one above), who not only run across roads, or even on (both with and against the flow of traffic) dark, poorly lit country or suburban roads without bright clothing, reflective gear and/or head torches, seemingly prioritising their Strava stats over life itself.

There are also the carpark wanderers: the people, young and old, who believe entire carparks are fair game for walking at a snail’s pace, multiple people abreast, and often without looking where they are going.

While many public carparks are considered shared zones where vehicles, bikes and pedestrians are expected to share the same space, there are others that also have well-signed pedestrian pathways or lined sections that are actually dedicated to this purpose.

But it seems there are some pedestrians who, rather than prioritising safety, choose to walk in the centre of carpark roadways, cross over them, and often while looking at their phones, or paying no attention to drivers reversing or driving behind them, expecting that the driver will wait, give way or go around.

This brings me to the tech pedestrians. Those who walk with noise-cancelling headphones or looking down at their phones, paying no attention to their surroundings. This happens when crossing busy roads, on footpaths in suburbia that cross driveways, and at school crossings.

And then there are the combo pedestrians, those who do a bit of everything on the list above and stroll out onto roads, busy or not, without looking, sometimes at unmanned school crossings as if crossing there makes it permissible; they seem to expect all other road users to just stop for them.

The truth is, like most people, I am a pedestrian too.

I like getting outside in the fresh air and hitting my step count for the day, and I regularly walk a 7km trail near my home. I also wear headphones and listen to audiobooks while I walk; I cross one super busy road that does not have an allocated crossing or lights, and I go along a footpath with many driveways.

But the difference for me is that when I cross the road, I take my headphones off. I stop, look both ways (just like my parents taught me), and cross when it’s safe, then put my headphones back on.

Then, as I continue walking, I keep my audio at a level where I can hear it but still hear my surroundings, including bike bells dinging to alert me that they are coming past, or any other sounds I may need to be aware of.

When I’m walking, I stay on the designated path on the left-hand side so other people who are faster than me – or cyclists – can pass by, and when the sun isn’t out, I wear appropriate, high-vis gear to make myself visible.

I do this because I want to be safe, respectful and courteous to other road users, and, simply, I want to stay alive.

As of June 2026, TAC figures showed 1,325 fatalities on Victoria’s roads over the past 12 months, a 0.2 per cent increase from the same period last year. Fatalities among ‘vulnerable road users’ (categorised as cyclists, motorcycle riders and pedestrians) rose 2.6 per cent, with 512 deaths – 52 of those were pedestrians.

In Australia, the number of pedestrians killed in 2025 was 197, the highest since 2007.

While the data does not record who was at fault for these accidents – or how other factors, such as vehicles with bull bars contribute – it’s safe to say that many accidents were at least partly the fault of the pedestrians themselves or could have been avoided if a pedestrian had taken safe, responsible measures, such as wearing high-vis gear or not crossing a road while looking at their phone.

Ultimately, responsibility needs to be taken by all road users, pedestrians included, or this number will, without a doubt, continue to rise.

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