Melbourne's worst pedestrian problem spots.

It is the corner of Flemington Road and Grattan Street in North Melbourne, a complex intersection in the city's hospital precinct, which has 16 lanes of traffic in all, plus a busy tram corridor.

Melbourne's worst pedestrian problem spots

Source: ABC Australia

According to five years of crash data, it is the corner of Flemington Road and Grattan Street in North Melbourne, a complex intersection in the city's hospital precinct, which has 16 lanes of traffic in all, plus a busy tram corridor.

Eleven pedestrians have been seriously injured while crossing the road there in the past five years, VicRoads crash stats show.

The area is expected to get even busier for pedestrians in the next decade, particularly when a new underground station opens as part of the Melbourne Metro rail project. Grattan Street was identified in the City of Melbourne's current walking plan as a difficult street to cross.

The city's other pedestrian black spots include Lonsdale Street in the CBD, which had 10 serious incidents at the corner of Exhibition Street and nine one block west at Russell Street.

CBD intersections accounted for four of the worst 10 spots for pedestrian crashes, including the city's busiest for foot traffic at the corner of Swanston and Flinders streets.

Church Street in Richmond, Maroondah Highway in Mitcham and Pascoe Vale Road in Glenroy also emerged as dangerous areas.

So what is it that makes a street safe or unsafe for walking, and how could it be improved?

The safety of Melbourne's streets for pedestrians will be put under the microscope in a crowd-sourced project called WalkSpot, launched on Tuesday.

The TAC-funded project will seek to identify parts of Melbourne where it is not considered safe to walk, especially because of the risk of being hit by a moving vehicle.

It is hoped the results will help government and councils to plan and build better walking environments in Melbourne.

In the past 10 years, 444 pedestrians have been killed on the state's roads.      

Thirteen Melbourne councils are involved in WalkSpot, as is VicRoads.

Members of the public can "add a spot" to an interactive map that has been created by CrowdSpot, which is running the project with Victoria Walks.  



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By Madhura Seneviratne, Adam Carey
Source: ABC Australia


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