Pedestrains left stranded on Shabbat
OBSERVANT Jews who do not press the buttons to activate pedestrian crossing on Shabbat and holidays were again left stranded at some key intersections in Caulfield over Pesach.
PETER KOHN
IN what is becoming a comedy of errors, observant Jews who do not press the buttons to activate pedestrian crossing on Shabbat and holidays, were again left stranded at some key intersections in Caulfield and surrounding suburbs over Pesach, after a VicRoads plan to switch traffic lights to automatic failed.
Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) executive director Geoffrey Zygier said he received reports about lights staying on manual at a couple of corners and he personally noticed that the lights at the corner of Glenferrie and Malvern Roads, near the Chabad House of Malvern, were not on automatic.
The light failures triggered an apology from VicRoads, with Duncan Elliott, regional director for the Metropolitan South East region, stating that some lights “were not automated during this week’s holy period. VicRoads apologises for this oversight and will ensure that all lights are automated during all future Jewish holy periods”.
Around 18 months ago, after two Jewish pedestrians were approached by police for crossing the street illegally during the 2008 high holy days, a flurry of activity resulted in an action plan involving the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, police, VicRoads and City of Glen Eira, which was meant to solve the problem by automating lights on Shabbat and yom tovs.
But the plan fell flat at its first major test, Pesach last year, and some corners also stayed on manual lights during last year’s high holy days.
Zygier said this week the problem intersections over Pesach this year were in VicRoads’ domain, but he suspects that the plan was snagged by “staff turnover” in the organisation.
However, The AJN has learned that the irregularity of when Jewish holidays fall on the secular calendar makes fully automatic programming for yom tovs difficult.
Zygier complained to VicRoads about the latest system failure.
“It will be a case of reminding VicRoads every time there is a Jewish holiday,” he told The AJN, although he believes the system should work without prompts from the community.
In 2008, six crossings, at Kooyong and Balaclava, Kooyong and Glenhuntly, Hawthorn and Glenhuntly, Hawthorn and Balaclava, Malvern and Glenferrie and Glen Eira and Kooyong Roads, were added to 18 existing intersections where traffic lights are automated on Shabbat and Jewish holidays.
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