You must not stop on or close to a pedestrian crossing (leave an area of 20m before and 10m after a crossing clear). Crossings need to be kept clear so children using the crossing are clearly visible. Never drop off or pick up a child in this area.
Road safety
Road Safety is an important community focused initiative that aims to reduce the number and severity of crashes on Canterbury-Bankstown roads, by providing targeted information to the whole community
Drive safely in school zones - don’t lose your licence!
Protect our kids and your licence by driving safely around schools.
There are more than 120 schools in Canterbury-Bankstown. School zones operate at all schools between 8-9.30am and 2.30-4pm on school days, with a speed limit of 40km an hour.
School zones - know the rules
The rules around driving and parking in school zones are designed to keep children safe. Breaking these rules is illegal and comes with heavy fines and demerit points.
Never block a driveway or footpath with your car. This can force children to walk on the road. It also blocks access for those using the driveway especially emergency vehicles – and is a frequent cause of frustration for school neighbours.
- Fine: $387+
- Demerit points: 2
You must always be extremely careful when making a u-turn. In some places, you are not allowed to make a u-turn at all, including at traffic lights or at/or near a crossing.
- Fine: $514+
- Demerit points: 4
You must not stop in a No Stopping area for any length of time, no matter how short, even just to drop off your child. This is to keep sight lines clear for children and drivers. These areas are shown by signs, or by a continuous yellow edge line.
- Fine: $387+
- Demerit points: 2
You may stop in a No Parking area for no longer than two minutes to pick up or drop off goods or passengers, and you must stay within three meters of your vehicle.
- Fine: $215+
- Demerit points: 2
- Fine: $514+
- Demerit points: 2
You must never stop in a bus zone. Buses need a safe place to drop off and pick up children and parking in bus zones can endanger those children. It’s also dangerous for a large vehicle like a bus to be forced to double park or make its way through small spaces.
- Fine: $387+
- Demerit points: 2
Never stop next to legally parked vehicles, even for a short time. Double parking reduces visibility for other drivers and pedestrians and can force other drivers to drive on the wrong side of the road.
- Fine: $387+
- Demerit points: 2
Never block a driveway or footpath with your car. This can force children to walk on the road. It also blocks access for those using the driveway especially emergency vehicles – and is a frequent cause of frustration for school neighbours.
- Fine: $387+
- Demerit points: 2
You must always be extremely careful when making a u-turn. In some places, you are not allowed to make a u-turn at all, including at traffic lights or at/or near a crossing.
- Fine: $514+
- Demerit points: 4
You must not stop in a No Stopping area for any length of time, no matter how short, even just to drop off your child. This is to keep sight lines clear for children and drivers. These areas are shown by signs, or by a continuous yellow edge line.
- Fine: $387+
- Demerit points: 2
You may stop in a No Parking area for no longer than two minutes to pick up or drop off goods or passengers, and you must stay within three meters of your vehicle.
- Fine: $215+
- Demerit points: 2
You must not stop on or close to a pedestrian crossing (leave an area of 20m before and 10m after a crossing clear). Crossings need to be kept clear so children using the crossing are clearly visible. Never drop off or pick up a child in this area.
- Fine: $514+
- Demerit points: 2
You must never stop in a bus zone. Buses need a safe place to drop off and pick up children and parking in bus zones can endanger those children. It’s also dangerous for a large vehicle like a bus to be forced to double park or make its way through small spaces.
- Fine: $387+
- Demerit points: 2
Never stop next to legally parked vehicles, even for a short time. Double parking reduces visibility for other drivers and pedestrians and can force other drivers to drive on the wrong side of the road.
- Fine: $387+
- Demerit points: 2
Road Safety is an important community focused initiative that aims to reduce the number and severity of crashes on Canterbury-Bankstown roads, by providing targeted information to the whole community.
As part of our commitment to road safety, Council has two full-time Road Safety Officers, funded through the Local Government Road Safety Program.
Road safety is a priority! Education programs and strategies are developed to address several road safety issues, and are listed below.
Speeding: Slow Down in Canterbury-Bankstown
Speeding is the biggest killer on our roads.
In NSW, speed is a factor in about 40 per cent of road deaths. In 2021, there were 75 crashes involving speed in Canterbury-Bankstown.
Managing speed is everyone’s responsibility and is critical to keeping our community, and you, safe.
We are working with the community to create a Safe System approach, through Safer People, Safer Roads, Safer Speeds and Safer Vehicles. We want to encourage greater awareness of the dangers of speeding and the different speed limits in Canterbury-Bankstown. This includes:
- Speed management and reduced speed limits in areas where there are a lot of pedestrians, like town centres
- Speed boards displaying your speed, which are moved every three months to different locations
- Partnering with local police to enforce speed limits in key locations
- Variable message signs with ‘slow down’ messaging used at different locations throughout the year
If you see anyone driving at high speed, please report this to the police at 1 800 333 000 or use the online form.
Help us stamp out speeding
We have created bin stickers as a quick reminder to all drivers to Slow Down in Canterbury-Bankstown. Contact us if you would like to help us to deliver this message by putting the sticker on your bin – you can order up to three, one for each bin in your household.
We are looking for members to join our community jury to share ideas and come up with initiatives to increase safety on our roads.
The group will be made up of local community members and you will meet four times over a period of four weeks.
This is a Community Action for Safe Speeds (CASS) study by The George Institute for Global Health and City of Canterbury Bankstown.
A community jury is a group of local community members who gather together to listen to a range of experts talk about a topic (in this case speeding and road safety), then deliberate (discuss) what they have heard and make suggestions from the community’s perspective.
As a group, you will create a set of community-driver recommendations for local education and awareness initiatives that could be trialed in your community to help curb speeding and keep all road users safe.
To be eligible to participate you must:
- Be aged 18 or older
- Live, work or frequently drive through Canterbury-Bankstown
- Be able to commit to taking part in all four community jury meetings – see details below for the time involved
- Be willing to travel to Bankstown Library and Knowledge Centre to take part in the in-person meetings
- Be comfortable speaking English
You will receive $40 per hour for your time and expenses.
Who is not eligible: if you have worked in a road safety profession (i.e., police officer, road engineer, road safety officer), you are not eligible to participate in this study. Socio-demographic targets will be set, and once these targets are met, additional participants from those groups will be placed on a participation waitlist in case of drop-out.
Yes, you will receive $40/hour to cover your time and expenses.
You will take part in four meetings over four weeks which will take 14 hours in total.
Three meetings will be in person at Bankstown Library and Knowledge Centre, and one will be online. You must be able to attend all the meetings.
The exact dates and times of the meetings are yet to be finalised, but they will occur once a week, starting in mid-February 2025 and ending in mid-March 2025.
Meeting 1
- 1-2 hours, weekday, in person
- Bankstown Library and Knowledge Centre, 80 Rickard Road, Bankstown
- At Meeting 1, you will meet your group facilitator who will explain the process, introduce you to the topic (Speed, Speeding and Speed Management) and give you the chance to get to know each other.
Meeting 2
- 4-5 hours, weekend, in person
- Bankstown Library and Knowledge Centre, 80 Rickard Road, Bankstown
- At Meeting 2, you will hear from experts in road safety, be able to ask them questions and then talk together about the information provided. At the end of your discussion, you will be asked if you have any more questions for the experts.
Meeting 3
- 4-5 hours, weekend, in person
- Bankstown Library and Knowledge Centre, 80 Rickard Road, Bankstown
- At Meeting 3, you will have another chance to question the experts (if you want) and then you will work together to come up with a set of initiatives that could be implemented in the local area to encourage safer speeds.
Meeting 4
- 1-2 hours, weekend or weekday, online
- At Meeting 4, your facilitator will present a report containing summaries of your discussions and decisions and ask you for any feedback. The facilitator will then finalise the report.
The report summarising your discussions and decisions will be given to Council who will decide which initiatives can be trialed to help curb speeding.
Australian law requires children travelling in cars to be secured in approved restraints.
Council conducts FREE child restraint checks to the community throughout the year.
For more information, call Council's Customer Service Centre on 9707 9000 and ask to speak to the Road Safety Officer.
Council conducts two free workshops per year for supervisors of learner drivers. Learner drivers need to practice driving for 120 hours (including 20 hours at night) and they need to be supervised the whole time.
Our workshop offers practical advice including:
- Supervising learner drivers;
- Completing the learner driver log book;
- The benefits of driving practice; and
- Planning on-road driving sessions.
For more information, or to reserve a place, call Council's Customer Service Centre on 9707 9000 and ask to speak to the Road Safety Officer.
Under NSW Road Rules, bicycles are considered to be a vehicle and may be ridden on the road unless prohibited. To remain safe on your bicycle, especially when riding in traffic, follow the following rules:
- Always wear an approved bike helmet, properly fitted and fastened to your head;
- Always obey the road rules, including traffic lights, stop signs and give way signs;
- Ride in a predictable manner that does not require other road users to react suddenly to your movements;
- Give hand signals when changing lanes or turning left or right;
- Plan your route using quieter streets, bicycle paths or shared paths, wherever possible; and
- Maintain control of your bike at all times. It's an offence to ride with both hands off the handlebars, feet off the pedals or to carry anything, which prevents you from having control.
When you're driving, you can only use a mobile phone to make or receive a call if the phone is securely mounted to the vehicle (excluding P1 and P2 drivers), or you're using an automated audio device (excluding P1 and P2 drivers). It's against the law to touch the phone while driving.
Before you cross the road:
- Always look - just because someone else decides to cross, doesn't mean it's safe;
- Unplug your earphones and put away your phone;
- Never assume that an approaching vehicle can see you, or will stop for you – wait until all vehicles have stopped before you step off the kerb;
- Avoid crossing between parked cars or at the front or back of buses and large vehicles;
- At intersections, check for turning vehicles before you leave the kerb, and while you are crossing the road;
- Wear bright, light coloured clothing at night or in reduced visibility conditions; and
- Always use pedestrian crossings.
Safe driving requires precise skills, clear judgement, concentration, and being able to react to what happens on the road. Alcohol, drugs and medicines can affect all of these skills.
Fatigue is one of the three big killers in NSW. Fatigue-related crashes can happen on any trip, no matter how long or short, or what time of day. Make sure you Stop, Revive, Survive.
Our Road Safety Officers are available to present road safety information sessions to all community groups.
For more information, or to organise a presentation, call Council's Customer Service Centre on 9707 9000 and ask to speak to the Road Safety Officer.
This provides us with the direction needed to address priority road safety issues over a FIVE-year period, demonstrating how we can work together to create a safer place for all road users.