Rob Moore was walking down Royal Parade to meet his wife for a coffee when a tram pulled up to a stop to let passengers off and on — and five cars drove straight past its open doors.

“It was disgusting,” he tells upstart. “They were actually screaming at the cars over the PA system.”

For Parkville locals, moments like this are disturbingly common — and now they’re calling for urgent safety upgrades.

Around 5km from the city, with 8,293 residents, Parkville is home to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Royal Children’s Hospital and the University of Melbourne’s Parkville campus. During peak hours, trams run every five minutes along Royal Parade, with dozens of passengers getting on and off at every stop.

Route 19, which runs from the city and along Royal Parade is the main form of public transport for locals, and stops are either made up of “super stops” or exist without platforms. To make the situation more complicated, small slip roads flank either side of the main road, containing busy bike lanes divided by median strips.

Pedestrians leaving trams from the main road must cross a small part of the main road, the median strip and a small lane to get to the safety of a footpath. An exception to this format has been The Royal Hospital tram stop, recently renovated to include an accessible platform for passengers to exit—improving access for a lot of residents.

For the remainder of the route, passengers step directly onto the road — often hoping passing cars will actually stop. There’s no physical barrier between pedestrians and traffic, only a white painted line or small sign to alert drivers.

Public Transport Victoria have put rules in place. These include cars needing to slow down when passengers are getting on or off the tram and once tram doors are closed and the road is clear, cars should drive past at 10km/h. Despite this, locals have become all too aware of vehicles driving straight through.

This is an issue affecting many areas of Melbourne where trams, pedestrians and drivers share space. In 2022, the Department of Transport launched their ‘When a Tram Stops, You Stop’ campaign, using posters with lines like “your gran could be stepping off the tram today”, to evoke drivers’ guilt.

“Every year we see far too many incidents and close calls when a driver fails to stop behind a tram when its doors are open and passengers are boarding or alighting, which is incredibly dangerous,” Yarra Trams CEO Julien Dehornoy said at the time.

Stop 12—Morrah Street—is surrounded by student housing and local businesses. Doug Veal has run the Australia Post branch located in front of the stop since 2020. He tells upstart that tram bells have now become part of the daily background noise, targeted at drivers just speeding through without a care.

“I’m surprised more people aren’t getting injured,” he says.

Min Ha Kim, owner of Felix Café two doors down, sees cars ignore stationary trams all too often—even when passengers are visibly disembarking.

“This morning, I was serving customers, and a truck drove past. A passenger was getting off and it still kept driving through,” she tells upstart.

Kim says that some drivers might miss signs displayed on older trams, and newer tram doors open differently, but says, still, “you’d think they’d notice”.

Rob Moore isn’t just a frustrated local, he’s also president of the Parkville Association, a long-standing community group that has taken concerns to the Department of Transport. After the association’s lobbying and through collaborations with Trinity College officials, he says that the government now have a plan to narrow a side road next to Morrah Street in May 2025.

This will physically encourage cars to slow down for trams, and Moore says the urgency of the plan matches the concern in the area overall.

“In a meeting with someone from the Department of Transport, they said Royal Parade is probably one of the most dangerous, if not the most dangerous of roads for tram stops,” he says.

While Moore acknowledges that platform upgrades (super stops) are expensive and are less likely to be implemented by the government, he maintains this plan is still valuable for the community. Though the structural changes mark an upgrade for Parkville’s wellbeing, there are still broader signs that the city needs to maintain a strong focus on tram safety.

“I think what is about to happen is a major step, an incredible step at safety, but it’s just a matter of hopefully resolving a situation.”

Cover Photo ‘A no. 19 tram on Royal Parade, Melbourne, 2012’ by PeterChickenCampbell found HERE and used under a Creative Commons License. This image has not been modified.