Improving school crossings and hiring more crossing supervisors tops the list for parents in the electorate of Wollongong.
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It was a concern also for Shellharbour parents, but they mostly wanted the NSW Government to address congestion issues associated with drop off and pick up zones.
Wollongong and Shellharbour residents were among 3400 residents across the state who completed a NSW School Safety Survey.
The survey, which comes as parents grapple with congestion around schools as students return to full-time teaching after COVID-19, encourages parents to speak up on road safety issues around local schools.
Nearly 300 responses to the Wollongong electorate survey were received during Term 1 and the resounding message was that improvements to crossings and crossing supervisors (28 per cent), footpaths (10 per cent), and better driver behaviour around schools (11 per cent) would help get school kids out of cars and either walking or riding to school.
Member for Wollongong, Paul Scully, said that there was a clear desire to improve the journey to and from local schools.
"Parents and carers said that they drive their children to school because they thought walking or riding was not safe enough," Mr Scully said.
"There is a great deal of pressure on budgets at all levels of government at the moment but I want to work with agencies to develop improvement plans so that we can seize funding opportunities as they arise."
Mr Scully added that the need for more crossing supervisors was an issue frequently raised for local schools.
Member for Shellharbour Anna Watson said parents and carers were concerned about existing pedestrian crossing because some are poorly marked or unsafe because of pedestrian visibility (blind spots), or simply there's a need for marked pedestrian crossings around some schools.
Drop off and pick up zones were a problem for all schools in the Shellharbour area, with cars double parking, parking in no parking zones, parking on corners creating "blind spots".
There was a call for traffic calming devices to be put in streets where schools are and more crossing supervisors.
"Thank you to the 90 residents who filled in the Shellharbour School Safety Survey," she said.
"There is no cookie-cutter solution to traffic issues around our schools. We must listen to the parents, teachers and neighbours who know better than anyone how to fix these issues."
A Transport for NSW spokesperson said the school crossing supervisor program is on track with the roll out of the first 80 supervisors for this financial year now complete.
"Every school that asked for a school crossing supervisor in the first round received one," the spokesperson said.
The program has in fact been fast tracked - all 300 new school crossing supervisors will now be in place in three years.
"There will be 110 new supervisors provided to schools in each of the next two financial years.
"We are finalising the list of schools that have asked for a school crossing supervisor in the next round and we expect to be able to announce those schools soon."