By Mikayla van Loon
Mount Evelyn residents are tired of the unsafe conditions caused by a lack of parking at sport facilities and units on Hereford Road, making for a series of near misses and close calls.
A small accident outside the futsal centre on Monday 13 December sparked a chain reaction of comments on social media about the dangers of driving along Hereford Road.
Stan van Leeuwen, a resident on Rangeview Road, said in the 38 years he has lived in his house, the parking problem was never quite as bad as it is now.
Although not entirely caused by the futsal centre, Mr van Leeuwen said because the sporting facility has such limited parking, players must park on the road, blocking the view of turning vehicles coming out of Rangeview and Bailey Roads.
“When it was the tennis centre, we had nowhere near the issues. Occasionally they would have a weekend tournament and then you would have a problem,” he said.
“Earlier on, the martial arts place used to own the property next door so that was all used for parking but they put units on there and that’s made it a lot more difficult.”
Nathan Dezza only moved into his house on Bailey Road just over two years ago but in that time has become aware of the challenges of turning out of his street during peak times.
“You just get built up traffic through there. I know there’s after school sports and things like that, but most people decide to just park on Hereford Road,” he said.
“So you can’t see when you’re pulling out. Half the time you’re blindly pulling out of that road because there’s so much traffic and then there’s kids running across the road. It was an accident waiting to happen basically.”
For Abbie Peacock, having young children herself, her major concern is the lack of pedestrian access along Hereford Road, to either cross the road or walk along the Bailey Road side.
“There’s no safe crossing area, particularly for elderly and kids that need a bit more time to cross a road,” she said.
“There’s a little pedestrian crossing [near Birmingham Road] but in my opinion, drivers would be focusing more on the cars than they would on kids or people crossing the road.”
Mr Dezza and Mr van Leeuwen said during those peak parking times from 4pm onwards, a designated car park on the corner of Bailey and Hereford Roads would be completely empty.
“People that are going to these after school sports, if they just went to the car park at the end of Bailey Road, it would stop a lot of the issues,” Mr Dezza said.
While making one side of Hereford Road a no standing would be a possible solution, Mr van Leeuwen said there still isn’t enough parking to cater for those 15 parking spaces that would be removed.
“That would be a solution but I have no idea where they park those cars because especially when there are adults playing, every person’s got a car and if you’ve got 40 or 50 people playing that’s a lot of cars,” he said.
Mr van Leeuwen said he has contacted Yarra Ranges Council on multiple occasions to organise a meeting with council staff but because of Covid-19 those have been cancelled.
“Hereford Road is managed by the Department of Transport, who we have spoken to previously addressing our concerns regarding safety on that particular road,” Director of Environment and Infrastructure Mark Varmalis said.
“There have been occasions where motorists would park on the road reserve at the corner of Rangeview and Hereford Roads, so bollards were then installed in the area to define the footpath and car park area to deter motorists from parking on the nature strip.”
The Department of Transport confirmed traffic monitoring had taken place on York Road, Monbulk Road and Swansea Road to gauge traffic conditions for a potential upgrade but nothing had been done about Hereford Road.
“We are currently undertaking investigative works – including routine traffic monitoring – to allow us to understand the environmental and social impact of the project, develop design options and confirm the project scope,” a Major Road Projects Victoria spokesperson said.
Ms Peacock said she already takes different routes to avoid Hereford Road during peak times and can only imagine the traffic congestion when potential roadworks do happen.
“It really relies on people giving way to people at times and trying to be courteous drivers. You shouldn’t have to rely on that at an intersection. It should be set up so that it is going to function safely,” she said.
Neither Ms Peacock, Mr Dezza or Mr van Leeuwen have just one solution to fix the problem but said with a pedestrian crossing, no standing zones, traffic lights, dedicated footpaths, tree trimming and perhaps speed limit changes, the issue could at least become lesser.
“I don’t see an easy solution but it shouldn’t be allowed to keep going the way it is because a life will be lost I have no doubt.”
