CITY of Kalamunda says investigations into traffic conditions on Canning Road show a pedestrian crossing installation near Kalamunda Glades isn’t necessary yet.

City of Kalamunda Mayor Margaret Thomas said the city is committed to ongoing investigations into traffic conditions to ensure community safety.

“The city is aware of a community survey aiming to gather support for the installation of a pedestrian crossing on Canning Road at Kalamunda Glades,” she said.

“The city has undertaken a comprehensive review.

“This includes two detailed traffic investigations: a 24-hour survey conducted on Friday, April 26 and an automatic traffic count from June 25 to July 1.

“These surveys assessed pedestrian and cyclist movement as well as vehicle speeds at the Canning Road and Lewis Road intersection.

“Additionally, a review of Main Roads’ crash data over a five-year period from January 2019 to December 2023 revealed no reported incidents involving pedestrians or cyclists at the two pedestrian crossings on Canning Road.

“This data suggests that the existing crossings have a strong history of safety.

“The city values community input and will keep residents informed about any developments or decisions regarding this issue, should the status of this intersection change.”

Kalamunda resident Chris Jones letterboxed 350 homes to see if the community agrees a pedestrian crossing should be installed on Canning Road to make a trip to the shops safer.

He received 55 digital responses with a 90 per cent support rate of pedestrian crossing installation.

Mr Jones has been gauging the community opinion on the crossing installation since January, as reported in Call for another pedestrian crossing on Canning Road (Echo News, January 24).

He said the bar was set too high for what the city needed to see before installing a pedestrian crossing.

“Following Main Roads guidelines, not laws, monitoring 60 pedestrians per hour is what warrants a pedestrian crossing being installed,” he said.

“I don’t think any part of Kalamunda has that many pedestrians per hour.”

Mr Jones said it was illogical to base the installation of a crossing by using that method of measurement.

“To me, that’s like saying if only one or two people swim across the Swan River, why would we build a bridge?” he said.

“The point is more people would cross the Swan River if there was a bridge because they wouldn’t have to swim.

“It’s the same thing with pedestrians.

“They would be more than happy to walk across if it was safer to do so.”