The ACT has an established and well-designed road system in a general urban environment, resulting in a good road safety record. Nevertheless, road crashes remain a significant issue for ACT residents. In the ACT all road crashes are required to be reported to Police. In 2008 there were 7,229 reported “on-road” crashes, of which 14 involved a fatality and some 413 involved an injury. The economic cost to the community of these crashes was some $221 million. The ACT Government has endorsed the ACT Road Safety Strategy 2007-2010 and ACT Road Safety Action Plan for 2007 and 2008 to target these figures and reduce the economic cost of crashes. A revised Action Plan for 2009 and 2010 was finalised in the first part of 2009. In line with national developments, speed management is a particular focus for these Action Plans. In the national, as well as the ACT context, road safety improvements continue to be guided by “safe system” principles. A safe transport system acknowledges that human error is inevitable and makes allowance for this error. It also recognises there are limits to the forces humans can withstand in a crash and limits to the physical energy that can be absorbed by the protective systems. Speed management is a critical factor in limiting the energy of crashes. The ACT safety camera program is an important element of speed management efforts in the ACT, and has been gradually expanded over the last 10 years. Currently the ACT has: * 13 intersection locations with fixed red light/speed cameras; * 9 midblock locations with fixed speed-only cameras (some locations have cameras monitoring both directions); and * 5 mobile camera vans. Point speed enforcement systems, such as those installed in the ACT, are acknowledged to be effective at reducing speeds at the camera site but not within a wider area surrounding the camera. Research has shown the road safety benefits of network speed reductions, and other community benefits such as reduced pollution and noise. For these reasons Point to Point (P2P) speed enforcement systems have been developed to manage average speeds between two points that can be several kilometres apart. P2P systems are currently operational overseas (UK, Netherlands, Austria, Italy) and in some Australian states (Victoria, NSW). The ACT does not currently possess a Point to Point (P2P) speed enforcement system. Therefore, the Chief Minister has asked Roads ACT to investigate the potential for and issues associated with the introduction of P2P Speed Enforcement in the ACT, with the objective of delivering improved speed compliance across the road network. (Author/publisher)
Abstract