People urged to keep cars at home, give streets back to kids on Saturday

Brisbane motorists are being urged not only to drive safely on Halloween – Bicycle Queensland wants them to not drive at all, to give children a rare chance to retake the streets.

Bicycle Queensland chief executive Dr Matthew Burke said Halloween, which this year falls on a Saturday, was not the time to drive through the suburbs.

“It’s one of the few nights of the year when children are allowed to take over neighbourhoods, running and riding between homes,” he said.

Burke said children once played in Australian streets every single night, not just on Halloween.

“But we made roads less safe with more and more car movements, and allowed bigger vehicles like these US-style pick-up trucks,” Burke said.

“The rest of the world has dropped local street speeds, but governments here refuse to do it.

“Now children only appear en masse a couple of nights a year.

“We want safe, local streets where parents feel comfortable letting their children ride a bike, go outside and play with friends, and where people of all ages feel safe getting around without a car.”

In September, Japan halved speed limits to 30km/h on all narrow city streets, about 70 per cent of general roads, to reduce pedestrian deaths and injuries.

The speed limit in built-up areas in Queensland is 50km/h, unless signed otherwise.

“International and Australian experts are all but unanimous that our 50km/h streets are way too high for neighbourhood streets,” Burke said.

Aussie children are much more likely to be driven than walk or ride than they were 40 years ago, with 70 per cent of Brisbane students driven to school.

To promote the road safety message, and for fun, Bicycle Queensland is joining with Pedal Party Magandjin for a free family Halloween ride on Saturday, leaving from the Brisbane sign at South Bank.

There will be costumes, lights, Halloween-themed bikes, a scavenger hunt, and a sound system on wheels pumping out tunes.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.