With New Zealand's road safety targets expiring in December 2001, New Zealand's Road Safety Strategy 2010 was developed to establish a new set of targets backed up by new or improved road safety interventions, and a new performance management framework with accountability assurances for the Strategy's implementation. Initial work on the Strategy began with the development of a robust target-setting model. A realistic and achievable level of safety was determined to form the basis of proposals for the consultation, taking into account current safety performance, anticipated efficiency and effectiveness gains, forecast increased mobility, and a set of new or intensified interventions. Research was undertaken concurrently which looked at world's best practice measures and into strategic directions being developed overseas. A new performance management framework was proposed, which recognised that interventions which address road user behaviour are not the only way to tackle road safety problems. Changing the roads and/or vehicles instead can often be more effective. Three sets of interventions which reflected strategic trade-offs between standards and compliance measures were identified as broad options for improving road safety: an engineering based option; an enforcement based option; and an option with a mix of engineering and enforcement measures. A public consultative process was developed to determine the desired level of safety for 2010, before the final targets could be set. This paper outlines the development process of strategic proposals for New Zealand's road safety effort over the next decade. Government decisions will be made later in 2001. (Author/publisher) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E206143. This paper may also be accessed by Internet users at: http://www.rsconference.com/index.html
Abstract