00:00 For John Barlow, walking to the shops is riskier than it should be.
00:06 John is blind and his guide dog, Luigi, is still learning the streets of Cook, Macquarie and Jamieson.
00:12 At the end of the day, like anybody else, I'm just trying to cross the road.
00:16 A lack of traffic lights with pedestrian crossings on some busy intersections means John and Luigi have had some near misses.
00:23 So as I was in the middle of the pedestrian, or it was an actual cement refuge,
00:27 I had to really, really yank on the chain and pull him back.
00:30 John took his concerns about walking infrastructure to local Greens member Jo Clay a year ago.
00:35 Since then, the government has released its Active Travel Plan, which does include an upgraded crossing on Bowman Street.
00:41 But Ms Clay says this doesn't go far enough.
00:44 What we're not seeing is a full active travel filter put on Jamieson.
00:49 We probably need to be doing that in all of our group centres and across Canberra.
00:54 The petition was started by Pedal Power, who want better crossings on Redfern Street and upgrades to cycle routes and footpaths around the area.
01:01 John has come to us multiple times to say this is not safe for him and that he's fearing for his life crossing the road.
01:07 While Jo Clay has raised the issue with her colleagues in governments,
01:10 some locals now feel a petition put before the Assembly is needed to get safer streets,
01:16 perhaps highlighting a difference in policy focus within the Greens-Labour coalition.
01:21 Active travel is a really big priority for the Greens.
01:24 I've got to say we get a lot of agreement in principle,
01:27 but we're not seeing the infrastructure rolling out the way that we need to.
01:31 The government says it's spending $90 million on active travel across the capital.
01:35 capital.
01:35 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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