A method for evaluating the 40 km/h initiative around school buses in NSW

It is often the case that new road safety programs and initiatives are introduced without a detailed understanding of their true impact on road safety. To assist road safety professionals in determining the benefits of introducing various road safety programs it is vital to conduct an evaluation of the overall effects, for example changes in community attitudes, driver behaviour and crash occurrence.

Part of the evaluation process is determining an appropriate framework, scope and set of performance measures to determine the possible impact on road safety. This paper presents the method adopted by ARRB Transport Research (ARRB TR) to evaluate the 40 km/h speed limit around school buses in NSW. It should be noted that the results of the evaluation are not presented in this paper.