Pedestrian safety no joke at Melbourne Comedy Festival

Published date: 25 Mar 2025

The TAC will have a presence in Melbourne’s CBD throughout this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival, encouraging all road users to play their part in keeping pedestrians safe.

TAC Head of Community, Jacqui Sampson today joined the Festival’s Executive Director, Dylan Cole to announce the key partnership, which will focus on the shared responsibility for pedestrian safety in metro Melbourne.

There are more than 680 shows on the Festival’s calendar between 26 March and 20 April, drawing a large and diverse crowd to Melbourne’s city streets – and a significant rise in foot traffic is expected.

The TAC will have a strong presence in Melbourne CBD throughout the Festival, with an activation outside Melbourne City Town Hall to educate passers-by about the importance of staying vigilant when travelling on or around the city centre’s roads.

A 90s corporate-style online content series, ‘Be safe out there, folks, so you don’t miss the jokes’, involving the Festival’s comedians will encourage festival-goers to put safety front of mind as they commute to and from Melbourne shows.

Ms Sampson said the partnership was aimed at encouraging Victorians to put their best foot forward in the interest of pedestrian safety.

“By partnering with Melbourne International Comedy Festival, we can inform, educate and promote road safety to a broad cross-section of Victorians, creating a safer road system for everyone”, said Ms Sampson.

The Festival’s Executive Director, Dylan Cole is proud to continue the Festival’s partnership with the TAC this year and the associated commitment to road safety for attendees.

“With over 700,000 attendees, many catching multiple shows in one night, comedy takes over the city – from the CBD to the suburbs. Whether travelling by foot or by car, it’s important to us that everyone gets to and from our shows safely”, said Mr Cole.

Pedestrians are among Victoria’s most vulnerable road users. In the past five years, 194 pedestrians have been killed on Victorian roads with 69% of these deaths occurring in the metro Melbourne area. Over the same period, 2883 pedestrians were hospitalised as a result of a road crash with 79% of these incidents occurring in metropolitan areas.

Highly vulnerable, pedestrians stand little chance of avoiding injury or death when hit by a vehicle. The TAC encourages pedestrians to remain visible, obey traffic signals, and avoid distractions such as mobile devices when using our roads and streets.

Drivers can make metropolitan roads safer for pedestrians by slowing down, particularly when approaching pedestrian crossings, and by giving way to pedestrians crossing the road.

The Victorian Government is delivering safety improvements for pedestrians at more than 100 high-risk urban sites across the state as part of the Victorian Road Safety Action Plan 2.