Latest News
Safe System Snippet 366: Mitigating Risks at Gore Areas: A Key to Highway Safety
The gore area (the wedge between a freeway/motorway exit and the continuing road) has inherent danger due to its presence in the middle of the traffic lanes. Drivers need to navigate, decelerate, and change lanes at, or on the approach to, the gore areas through...
Safe System Snippet 365: Reverse Angle Parking
Click on the factsheet above to check out some pros, cons and handy pointers. What’s been your experience with Reverse Angle Parking? ------------- Sign up to our mailing list for more snippets and news:...
One thousand people now licensed to work with road safety barriers
One thousand people are now trained and licensed to work with road safety barriers through the Austroads Safety Hardware Training and Accreditation Scheme (ASHTAS) operative course delivered by Safe System Solutions. Since July 2023, Safe System Solutions has...
Safe System Snippet 364: Seagull intersections
While seagull intersections can reduce traffic delays through their staged right-turn movements, their implementation has not always translated to improved safety outcomes. Studies have revealed increased crash rates at some seagull intersections. This can be...
Safe System Snippet 363: What influences drink driving?
What influences drink driving? Compared with sober drivers, drink drivers are significantly more likely to be alcohol dependent. Compared with sober drivers, drink drivers are significantly more likely to be male, have lower socio-economic status, and no academic...
Safe System Snippet 362: Optimising the Crossfall of a Roundabout’s Circulating Carriageway
Choosing the appropriate crossfall (slope) for a roundabout's circulating carriageway can be a challenging task. Some key considerations include: Adverse crossfall or positive superelevation?: Adverse crossfall (tilts downward from the center) provides good visibility...
Safe System Snippet 361: Safe Travel to School
Keeping kids safe traveling to and from school isn’t rocket science; prioritise the most vulnerable mode (walking, riding, scooting), remove vehicles where possible, slow any vehicles that remain. Of course, the devil’s in the detail, but click on the image above to...
Safe System Snippet 360: Lateral Protection Devices
Fitted to trucks, Lateral Protection Devices (LPDs) are an effective way to lessen the severity of a crash with a pedestrian or cyclist. According to Knight et. al (2005) the effectiveness of LPDs in preventing fatalities in crashes with the side of large trucks range...
Safe System Solutions on Channel 7 Road Torque series
Safe System Solutions’ Max McCardel was interviewed for Channel 7’s Road Torque series about safety on rural roads in Tasmania. A road safety specialist, Max spoke about the pivotal role of the Safe System approach in reducing road trauma – including the key pillar of...
Safe System Snippet 359: Continuous barriers
High volume roads with high speeds require continuous safety barriers because users will leave the road at random points along the whole route. Rather than designing isolated barriers to shield road users from specific hazards, continuous barriers are designed as a...
Safe System Snippet 358: Same Vehicle, Different Safety
Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) tests are undertaken on standard vehicles, without bullbars or other accessories fitted. As part of the ANCAP rating, a vehicle must provide protection to pedestrians and other vulnerable road users that may be struck by...
Safe System Snippet 357: New Guidelines for Assessing Roadside Risk: Tree Hazards by Trunk Diameter
The new process for calculating roadside risk (in accordance with Austroads Guide to Road Design Part 6) involves working out the exposure, likelihood and severity of a crash. For the severity, roadside hazards are categorised into ‘significant hazards’, ‘less...
How we can reduce road trauma through a Safe System approach
By Kenn Beer, Safe System Solutions Principal Engineer When we think about workplace safety, there’s no question that we need to put reasonable measures in place to prevent injuries and death while we’re at work. So why doesn’t society view safety on our roads in the...
Road safety barrier training helps to address skills gap
Australia and New Zealand are on the international stage as leaders in road safety barrier expertise this week as it’s revealed more than 600 local road designers, technicians and engineers have undertaken specialist barrier training since late 2016. Kenn Beer, Safe...
Road safety project support now available
Safe System Solutions is proud to be involved with the TAC’s Local Government Grants Program again this year, from pre-application support to post-construction auditing. Councils across Victoria can apply for grants of up to $100,000 for road safety projects that...
Safe System Snippet 356: Hay, stop that!
Larger vehicles exhibit significant track shift, a phenomenon where the rear axle trajectory diverges from the front axle path due to their axle spacing. This spacing, measured from the centre of the rear trailer axle to the centre of the lead axle, directly...
Safe System Snippet 355: Motorcyclists in the bus lane – does it increase or decrease risk?
There are still many unanswered questions around the safety of motorcyclists using bus lanes. Recent trials/studies from the UK and Tel Aviv help to paint the picture, yet there are still inconclusive results. The safety question these trials are trying to determine...
Safe System Snippet 354: Rear-end crashes
Converting Auxiliary Right Turn (AUR) lanes to Channelised Right Turn Lanes (CHRs) is expected to reduce rear-end crashes by 30% (TMR Road Safety Policy Fact Sheet). This is because the vehicle propped to turn right has their own dedicated road space. ------------- ...
Safe System Snippet 353: Barrier Systems
The facts: motorcyclists crashing into barrier systems represent 1.4% of all fatal crashes in Australia and New Zealand. What type of barriers are in these 1.4% of fatal crashes? W-beam (72.7% of the 1.4%) Concrete (10.4% of the 1.4%) as per the above video Wire rope...
Safe System Snippet 352: Design vehicle and checking vehicle
Road/street designers use a ‘design vehicle’ to set characteristics of the road or intersection. However, designing for comfortable use by the occasional large truck often results in overly wide roads or high-speed turns by cars, and opportunities are lost to create...