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Safe System Snippet #67 – Safe System Assessment
The Victorian Government publishes a list of recommended Safe System Assessors.A Safe System Assessment is a process for assessing and quantifying the alignment of infrastructure with Safe System principles. Resources available:Austroads Safe System Assessment...
Safe System Assessment Scoring – Fact Sheet 4 – Intersection Scoring
Safe System Assessments are taking off as the best-practice for assessing a road or project’s alignment with Safe System principles. To aid consistency in scoring across industry, we’re releasing a series of Safe System Assessment Scoring Fact Sheets. Here is our...
Safe System Snippet #66 – The dilemma zone
The ‘Dilemma Zone’ at traffic signals is the period in time and space when a driver is unsure if they will make it through the traffic signals before they turn red.Narrowing the Dilemma Zone can assist in reducing the likelihood of crashes. This can be achieved in a...
Safe System Assessment Scoring – Fact Sheet 3 – Likelihood is Relative
Likelihood is relative The probability of a crash occurring at even the most dangerous locations on the road network is extremely small on a per-vehicle basis. So how can we ever justify a likelihood score of more than 1 (highly unlikely)? The number of vehicles...
Safe System Assessment Scoring – Fact Sheet 2- Bicycle Facilities
How to assess bicycle facilities One complicating factor with bicycle facilities is that even with off-road paths, some cyclists will choose to ride on the road. It is tempting to eliminate the cyclists on the path as they are not directly exposed to traffic. However,...
Safe System Snippet #65
The height of a road safety barrier is an important feature to ensure that it contains and redirects a vehicle. The greatest concern is the barrier being too low as it increases the likelihood of a vehicle vaulting the barrier. Barrier systems have increased in height...
Safe System Assessment Scoring – Fact Sheet 1 – Exposure at Intersections
How to score exposure Exposure is the number of times, or for how long, road users are exposed to a hazard. This is mainly driven by trafficvolume (the more traffic (or pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists), the more likely a hazard will cause a crash). On the face of...
Road User Perspectives
When conducting Road Safety Audits, it’s essential to consider the point of view of different road users. Recently, our Senior Road Safety Auditor Max McCardel led an audit that involved changes to existing bus stops and parking arrangements. To experience how the...
Safe System Snippet #64
A Barnes Dance (aka Scramble Crossing) lets pedestrians cross in all directions. This treatment can reduce pedestrian crashes by up to 51%, but may actually increase crashes for other vehicles (Chen et al, 2012). In terms of efficiency, they can increase both the...
Safe System Snippet #63
The Government of Québec has started attaching speed advice displays to children to remind drivers why they need to slow down. The speed radar (not located on the children) sends the vehicle speed to the variable electronic sign on the child’s back. (it’s also...
Safe System Snippet #62
Freeway ramp metering can reduce crashes by up to 36% (Liu and Wang, 2013). The signals reduce the incidents of rear end and side swipe crashes by smoothing the flow of vehicles on the mainline.
Safe System Snippet #61
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT8t2p1Ca4E[/embedyt] The immediate next step change (happening right now) in vehicle safety technology is autonomous emergency braking (AEB). This uses laser, radar and/or camera systems to detect impending collisions and...
Safe System Snippet #60
Directional signs are more important than just telling road users where to go; they provide advanced warning of approaching intersection type and geometry. The correct placement, design and maintenance is critical to getting the safety outcomes.
Street Dining – 8 Road Safety Considerations
In an attempt to boost economic activity post-lockdown, hospitality venues across Victoria will be utilising the footpaths and streets/lanes/roadway for additional, socially-distanced dining spaces. While we support these initiatives, we want local governments and...
Safe System Snippet #59
The three main factors to be considered in the severity outcomes of intersection designs are: - Speed - Impact angle - Kinetic energy threshold (human biomechanical tolerance to harm). This graph shows the passenger vehicle relationship between these three using a...
Welcome Nathan Louey to the Team
Welcome Nathan Louey to our team as a Graduate Engineer. SSS: What did you study? Nathan: I studied a 4 year course in a Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Honours) at Monash University. SSS: Why Safe System Solutions? Nathan: I chose Safe System Solutions as it was a...
Compact Roundabouts: Key Design Considerations
Compact Roundabouts – we’re loving them. Our Senior Engineer, Mohammad Fahim Zafar, runs through some of the key design considerations in this 2min video. Lower cost, more intersections treated, more lives saved. Good things do come in compact packages. ...
Hollow Tree Road: Upgrade Plan for Motorcyclists’ Safety
Congratulations to Central Highlands Council and the Road Safety Advisory Council of Tasmania for their investment in the safety of motorcyclists on the Hollow Tree Road. The upgrade plan has just been endorsed for funding. It was early in 2020 (pre-Covid19) when we...
Safe System Snippet #58
Active Advanced Warning Signs (AAWS) have been shown to effectively alert road users to the presence of a train at a railway level crossing. In studies of AAWS in different road environments, Polanis found they reduce risk by up to 35% (Polanis, 1999). Would you have...
Safe System Snippet #57
For undivided open road highways, the dominant Fatal and Serious Injury risk changes from Run-Off-Road to Head-On at between 4,500 and 6,000 AADT. (Swedish research 4,500 and NZ research 6,000) Graph Source: NZTA 2011