Citation

Pyta V, McTiernan D. Proc. Australas. Road Safety Res. Policing Educ. Conf. 2010; 14.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, copyright holder varies, Publisher Monash University)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Child pedestrians are some of our most vulnerable road users and governments spend large amounts of money providing safe infrastructure to protect them. The NSW Roads and Traffic Authority’s Centre for Road Safety (CRS) recognised that a systematic needs-based allocation system for infrastructure funding could assist the prioritising and selection process for school zone safety remedial measures, and engaged ARRB to assist in the development of a research model to support this approach. Literature on child-related and school zone factors contributing to crashes including child pedestrian casualty crash data in NSW was reviewed. Crash data from the NSW Crashlink database and the Safety Around Schools database was analysed. In consultation with the CRS, ARRB then developed a risk model to objectively prioritise school zone road environments in terms of risk to young pedestrians. The model factors were: approach speed limit, peak hour pedestrian crossing volume and AADT, number of traffic lanes, on-street parking configuration, sight distance, the number of conflicting directions of traffic, speed management and pedestrian management schemes. The CRS used the SchoolRisk model to firstly identify and then prioritise school zones to assist their decision making for the allocation of funding for flashing lights on school speed limit signs.