Setting Safety Performance Measures in Australia

and New Zealand

Tony KaneSCOHTS 2011 Annual Meeting

June 15, 2011Austin, Texas

Developed by Austroads and Eric Howard and Associates (Melbourne)

Sponsored by FHWA

In cooperation with AASHTO and NCHRP

Setting Safety Performance Measures in Australia and New Zealand

This is a follow-up to an international scan on performance measures conducted in 2009

Safety was singled out to do a follow-up based upon the similarities in the US and Australia—with regard to system of government; aggressive safety goal setting; and the role of Austroads—similar to AASHTO

Establishing a Safety Target A 10 year target was established in 2000 for

the period 2001 to 2010—a 40% reduction was targeted from 9.3 to 5.6 fatalities per 100,000 population

The target was established by the Australian Transport Council the ATC (the federal minister of transport; all state and territorial transport ministers and a local gov. rep.)

Given it is federal system of government; the targets were set by the states/territories and local government

Achieving the Target A fresh & flexible national action plan

updated every two years; results reviewed by the SCOTS (the standing committee on transport) and the ACT

Actual national results for the 10 year period was a 33.3% reduction to 6.2 fatalities per 100,000 population (wide variation across the states and territories: from 1 to 49%)

Comparative results for all the states and territories published in each action plan (a menu of options for each state)

International comparison—fatalities per 100,000 pop

2009 data by Australian state and territory (fatalities per 100,000 pop)

New South Wales

Victoria

Queensland

South Australia

Western Australia

Tasmania

Northern Territory

Australian Capitol Territory

Australia

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

2009 data by example USA state (fatalities per 100,000 pop )

US

DC

NJ

OH

IN

DE

SD

LA

OK

WY

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Achieving Agreement for 2011 to 2020 30 % reduction target set Safe Roads; Safe Speeds; Safe Vehicles;

Safe People Safety Standing Sub-Committee (SSSC)

recommends actions to the SCOT (similar to AASHTO’s BOD /SCOH) and then to the ATC

Decade of Action tie-in

2011-2020 guiding principlesfor safer roads component People make mistakes Human physical frailty A forgiving road system Shared responsibility

Potential Lessons for US Preparation for National Strategy

Development (11 suggestions, including the following:)

States should develop their own strategies and targets

Regular communication among the technical staffs of the feds & states

Regulatory reviews every two or three years One size does not fit all Aggressive states will greatly exceed the

national target Etc.

Potential Lessons for US

Strategy Development Process (8 suggestions; including the following)##Share knowledge of the practices of the high

performing states##Have media share knowledge of the issues##Federal funding incentives for innovation

and strategy testing##Setting aspirational targets encourages state

action

Potential Lessons for US

Strategy Implementation(2 suggestions)

## regularly publish progress of each state using proven indicators

##promote voluntary adoption of sound interventions

NEXT STEPS IN THE USA

SCOHTS The BOD Individual State actions