Dear Better Streets supporter,

It might feel a little late to say this — but welcome back to 2026!
The Better Streets Board has already met this year to set our direction, and we’ll be sharing our strategy with you next month. In the meantime, there’s plenty happening: updates on the Safe Speeds campaign, new tools like AI visualisation, opportunities to connect and access funding. So read on!

As the year gets underway, many of us are asking the same questions: When do the kids go back to school? And when do our streets stop feeling calm and quiet — and start filling up with school drop-off traffic again?

A new Australian School Travel Survey (with responses from over 4,900 families) reveals just how car-dependent the school run has become:
🚗 61% of Aussie kids start the day in a car
📏 Over 40% of kids who live within 1km of school are still driven

Read the report here.

At Better Streets, we believe kids should be able to walk and ride to school safely — and that streets should support families, independence and everyday movement, not just traffic. Perhaps we need to redesign streets as suggested in the Learning to Walk Again report.

Safe Speeds campaign update - 30 is the new 50

Our Safe Speeds position paper is draft and we plan to release it next month. Work is already underway on a national case study library, a letter-writing tool, and new communications assets. If you’d like to be involved — whether you have experience or are keen to learn — we’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for being part of the movement for safer, more welcoming streets 💛 

Jullietta Jung 

Better Streets President

🎨 Better Streets in Action with AI Visualisation

Want to help people see what safer, calmer streets can look like? Better Streets has a simple guide to using  Gemini AI (for free) to visualise street transformations — and it’s already being used in real campaigns like Project K-Shift for Enmore Road (Newtown)!

You don’t need design skills — just a street photo and a little imagination. Turn everyday streets into welcoming, people-friendly places and share the vision with your council and neighbours.

👉 Check the Better Streets step-by-step AI visualisation guide today and see your Better Streets idea come alive and share with us!

VICTORIA

💰The Transport Accident Commission has a new grant for organisations / charities to apply for funding for road safety projects! If you have a project please register to find out more. Better Streets has a contact at TAC who is able to provide a pre-briefing, please reach out if you’d like an introduction. 

Register here for the TAC briefing webinar session. 

TASMANIA 

🌲​Streets People Love Hobart invites you to discover the future of cycling  Hobart with Oliver Oglesby discussing their 2025 Hobart Neighbourhood Greenways Study – a comprehensive blueprint for transforming our suburbs into safe, accessible cycling networks. Wednesday 28 January - Register here

☕Better Streets Online Café 🍵

Better Streets Café is a fortnightly online meeting space for people actively working to create better streets (only open to members and newsletter subscribers). Hosted by Dr. Megan Sharkey, it’s not a webinar, but a trusted café-style forum for practical support, peer learning, and problem-solving on real local challenges. Bring a cuppa and a problem or just a ear to listen to others and connect with the Better Streets community. More information here.

📩 Session details:

Second Monday of each month 7:30pm to 8:30pm AEST, meeting invite here

Last Friday of each month 12:00pm to 1:00pm AEST, meeting invite here