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Abstract
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During the 20th century, road fatalities steadily increased to peak in the early 1970's, but then plummeted over the next 30 years. Graphs showing this pattern are often included in reports by road authorities and similar organisations. While we should be proud to have arrested this burgeoning public health problem over the past decade or two, numbers of road fatalities have levelled in many countries including Australia and New Zealand, and even increased in recent years. Unfortunately, our Towards Zero targets are looking less likely in the near future.
Why is this happening? Were the striking road safety improvements in the last century the result of solving the easy problems so now we must tackle the hard ones?
The introduction of the Safe System approach in the early 2000's was an attempt to change thinking from acceptance of road trauma to a 'vision zero' and to put forward strategies about how best to improve road safety. The approach recognises the fallibility of road users and the need for the road system is be designed to minimise the consequences of crashes in terms of deaths and serious injury. The approach is now used widely in Europe, and many other parts of the world including Australasia (ITF, 2022).
Unfortunately, however, evidence on the impact of Safe System on road safety outcomes is lacking. In Australia, Mooren, Grzebieta and Job (2011) reviewed the implementation of Safe System in Victoria, NSW and WA and reported that for each jurisdiction: the approach was different and that it was difficult to link any subsequent road safety gains to the adoption of the approach. Furthermore, in terms of road fatalities, most jurisdictions in Australia have shown little improvement over the last decade, suggesting that the Safe System approach is not producing the benefits for road safety that many expect. ...
Language: en |