Road Safety: e-Newsletter edition 7
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In this issue...

Road Safety eNewsletter

Edition 7
April, 2010

Government of South Australia

> 2010 a focus on young road users

> Ahoy! Tougher penalties for drivers and boaties

> Creepers cause carnage

> Speed - it's all about attitude

> Slow down, take it easy

> How speed limits are set

> Smart infrastructure in SA

 
2010 a focus on young road users

Phil Allan

Phil Allan

Executive Director, Safety and Regulation

Young children, primary school students and novice drivers are the focus of major road safety changes this year.

Each year, some 20 very young South Australians (under the aged of 8) are killed or seriously injured on our roads. Far too many of these children were not wearing a restraint at the time of the crash or were wearing a restraint that was not appropriate for them.

New national child restraint laws to be introduced in South Australia later this year aim to provide maximum protection for small children when travelling in motor vehicles. Once introduced, it will be mandatory that all children, from birth up to the age of 7 years, are restrained in an approved child restraint.

The focus on young children continues with a new Way2Go program rolling out to South Australian primary schools. A key principle of the program is that everyone has a role to play in keeping children safe on the road.

Way2Go encourages primary school students and their families to explore all the options available to them for safe travel to and from school – whether they choose to walk, cycle or catch public transport.

The program will help schools to develop their own travel plans that will include identifying preferred routes to and from school and ensuring adequate safety signage at entry/exit points and crossings. Likewise, Way2Go will work with local councils to improve road infrastructure and create safer school travel environments.

At the other end of the spectrum and on the back of banning L and P1 drivers from using any type of mobile phone function while driving, further changes to the Graduated Licensing Scheme (GLS) will be introduced later in the year.

To better prepare young and inexperienced drivers to safely progress to a full driver’s licence, Parliament passed a number of key measures last December, including:

  • increasing the minimum time required on a learner’s permit from six to 12 months for drivers under the age of 25 years
  • increasing the minimum supervised driving time for learner's permit holders to 75 hours (including 15 hours at night); and
  • banning P1 and P2 drivers under 25 years of age from driving high-powered cars.

The key message for the community this year is that everyone has a role in keeping young road users safe. 

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Ahoy! Tougher penalties for drivers and boaties


ahoy there

Tougher drug and drink driving penalties were introduced on 1 February 2010 and, given 39% of fatal boating accidents in South Australia involve alcohol, it is important to note that these new drug and alcohol laws are equally applicable to boat operators.

In a move aimed at boosting safety on the state’s coastal and inland waterways, police can now undertake on-the-spot drug testing of a boat operator for the use of illegal drugs (including cannabis, speed and ecstasy). This is in line with drug testing requirements that have applied to drivers of motor vehicles since 2006.

Anyone who commits a drink or drug driving offence, whether on land or on water, may now face:

  • a three month licence disqualification for a first court conviction
  • heavier penalties for repeat offenders, with courts considering previous drink and drug driving offences during sentencing
  • an alcohol or drug dependency assessment may be required (depending on the number of previous drink or drug driving offences committed).

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Creepers cause carnage
creepers

Speeding remains the major cause of death and injury on our roads and creeping just a bit over the speed limit has an enormous human and social cost.

While the pain and suffering felt by victims and their families is immeasurable, the quantifiable expenses associated with road crashes in South Australia – such as emergency and health services – cost the community $3.2 million
a day.

To dispel the myth that driving 5 to 10km/h over the speed limit is ‘safe’ and to drive home the dangers of irresponsible driving, MAC recently launched a series of new anti speeding commercials. Central to the campaign is a television commercial using real crash footage taken from CCTV cameras on
Adelaide streets.

“This footage has not been made up or dramatised for effect. These are crashes that have happened here in Adelaide on our streets and have resulted in people in our community being seriously injury or killed”, points out Ben Tuffnell, MAC General Manager Corporate Affairs.
 

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Speed - it's all about attitude
speed attitude

MUARC (Monash University Accident Research Centre) recently released the results of a collaborative research study undertaken across four Australian states, Assessing community attitudes to speed limits: final report.

A total of 4,100 respondents aged 18 to over 55 years from SA, WA, Victoria and Tasmania (1,175 South Australians) participated in the survey to investigate community attitudes towards speed limits and speeding in general, and to try and uncover some of the underlying factors behind these attitudes.

The survey also canvassed participants’ level of understanding about the relation between speed limits and crash involvement; and their understanding of the environmental, amenity and travel time consequences associated with speed limits.

The study found that many people still do not fully understand the consequences of speeding in relation to crash risk and injury, the environment, amenity and travel time. For this reason, the report recommends that more work be done to improve community awareness of these issues, as key to improving attitudes towards speed limits and speeding among motorists in South Australia.

The survey also found that most South Australians believed that the current 50 and 60km/h speed limits for residential and urban arterial streets were about right, while approximately two-thirds felt that reduced limits of 40 and 50km/h would be too low for these roads.

44% of SA respondents thought a 100km/h speed limit for an undivided rural road was too high, and 85% believed it was too high for a rural gravel road. In fact, most believed that 90km/h for an undivided rural road and 80km/h for a rural gravel road would be about right at best, or even still too high.
 

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Slow down, take it easy
slow down

Each year the South Australian Government engages the University of Adelaide’s Centre for Automotive Safety Research (CASR) to perform speed monitoring programs on various metropolitan and rural roads.

The key objective of this program is to measure the effects of road safety counter measures and to monitor the speed behaviour of South Australian motorists over time.

Speed data – volume and speed statistics and speed distributions – is collected for one week at 130 sites across the state involving urban, rural and outback roads. Changes in speed measurements for each road type are then tested for statistical significance.

In addition to monitoring and evaluating 60, 80, 100 and 110km/h limit roads, the result of the latest program compared speed monitoring studies undertaken in previous years, such as the 2004 evaluation of the South Australian default 50km/h speed limit.

Importantly, the latest study found a statistically significant reduction in the proportion of vehicles exceeding the speed limit across all 130 sites surveyed.

While the report concludes that it is not clear what the reasons for the observed speed changes are, it surmises that a lower police enforcement tolerance and a high profile anti-speeding advertising campaign undertaken by the Motor Accident Commission in late 2008 may have played a role in the speed changes noted on some road types.

Further information and a copy of CASR’s speed survey reports can be found at  (http://casr.adelaide.edu.au/publications/researchreports/). 
 

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How speed limits are set?

setting speed limits 1

 

 

setting speed limits 2

The fundamental objective of speed management is to contribute to safety, mobility and amenity on the road network by providing a system of speed limits that are compatible with the speed environment.

Speed limits indicate the maximum vehicle speed permitted on a road and are determined in accordance with national guidelines contained in Australian Standard AS 1742.2. Default speed limits have been set in response to research findings that a direct correlation exists between travelling at speed and increased crash risk.

In South Australia and across Australia, two general default speed limits apply:

  • 50 km/h is the maximum speed limit on roads within a built up area unless a different speed limit is signposted
  • 100 km/h is the maximum speed limit on roads outside a built-up area where no other speed limit is signposted.

Any road with a speed limit different to the default limit is signposted accordingly.

Setting speed limits that are appropriate for the conditions can reduce the number and severity of crashes, so there are many factors taken into account in establishing speed limits. These include, but are not limited to road function, abutting roadside development (type and density), a road’s characteristics (e.g. standard of design, frequency of intersections and parking provisions), its traffic composition (i.e. volume, pattern and mix including vulnerable road users) and crash history.

In South Australia, speed limits are reviewed on an ongoing basis and the Commissioner of Highways – currently, the Chief Executive, Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure has the delegated authority to set speed zone limits in this state.

To inform any review of speed limits, the department regularly liaises with local councils and takes into consideration the interests of motorists, residents and other community groups.
 

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Smart infrastructure in SA
smart infrastructure

Growing traffic volumes, changing urban form and urban fringe development; and resultant changes in population density, have all contributed to a worldwide growth to traffic congestion.

As a result, there has been increasing interest in how intelligent transport systems can be used to counter the effects of urban congestion and infrastructure bottlenecks – reduced transport network efficiency and increased travel time, air pollution and fuel consumption.

Many new transport infrastructure projects are under construction in South Australia and the majority incorporate intelligent transport systems into the design and construction.

The ability and benefits of these systems is broad ranging, from road safety benefits to traffic flow improvements. In many cases, information and warning signs can be made available for vehicle drivers, water vessel operators and train and tram operators.

Variable speed signs, warning lights and variable message boards are an example of system currently operating throughout South Australia.

Variable speed limit signs on the South Eastern Freeway regularly alter in display to advise drivers of the current speed limits due to changed road conditions, commonly affected by inclement weather and traffic conditions ahead. Signage can be altered to display speed limits of 40, 60, 80, 90
(tunnel only) or 100km/h.

smart infrastructure 1

Likewise, red and amber warning lights located along the length of the Southern Expressway can be operated individually or in set segments, as required and these will be upgraded to variable speed limit signs this year.

The systems are controlled remotely by the department's state-of-the-art Traffic Management Centre at Norwood. The centre manages metropolitan Adelaide’s traffic flow – monitoring and taking any necessary remedial action at over 800 sites (including traffic signal sites in the Adelaide City Council); on the Southern and Port River expressways and the South Eastern Freeway, including the Heysen Tunnels.

To prevent accidents and minimise delays, the Traffic Management Centre welcomes being alerted to signal faults, incidents or congested sites on its
24-hour, toll free number: 1800 018 313.

smart infrastructure 2

smart infrastructure 3 

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