Responding to the "loudest voices" wasn't the best way to deliver road safety improvements, Wollongong Councillor Mithra Cox said.
Cr Cox supported the motion, adding that when she first came on the council she wanted a pedestrian crossing on Murray Road so she could take her son to pre-school - he was now almost in high school and the crossing is still not there. She felt there had to be a better approach than just responding to individual requests for crossings and the like.
"It's about having a strategic view of what's better for everybody," Cr Cox said.
"I find it frustrating that instead of achieving this through coming at it from a strategic lens of having a policy in place for the places that have preschools and shops and hairdressers all in one spot that we then have to come and say, 'okay, we want it on this road'.
"I find it's not the right process and not the right way of going about it. And you end up just advocating for the loudest voices rather than having the best outcome for the community."
Cr Cox said there should be a pedestrian focus for Murray Road, rather than catering to cars. "The only people that go up that road are the people that live at the end of it that are getting out to Memorial Drive or to Pioneer Road," she said.
"It's more important that people are able to cross the road, go to the shops in a safe way, that all of those kids are able to get to preschool and school."
Story by Glen Humphries in the Illawarra Mercury, 7 May 2024.