Australia and New Zealand are both moving towards an ethical approach to road safety in the context of overarching transport strategies, which is potentially beneficial for road safety progress. This approach takes the view that the owners of road networks and the makers of vehicles have a responsibility, within resource constraints, to protect the safety of road users; humans are flawed creatures and expectations of 100 per cent error-free road use are unrealistic; road users should behave responsibly, but the system should be as forgiving of their fallibility as possible; and we all have a duty to manage such services so that they are safe. This approach needs to be communicated and opened up for further discussion, both within and outside the road safety community. At the same time we need to be sharpening our road safety tools, inventing new ones and creating opportunities to use them effectively. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E214057. Printed volume contains peer-reviewed papers. CD-ROM contains submitted papers.
Abstract