Development and use of the Austroads Safe System Assessment Framework
Keywords: General
ACRS
Submission Date: 2016 Conference: ARSC
Abstract
Australia adopted the Safe System approach more than a decade ago. The first action item from the Australian National Road Safety Strategy is to ensure that all new road projects consider Safe System principles. Although the main objectives of this approach are clear, there is limited direct guidance on how this can be implemented, especially in the provision of road infrastructure. Austroads has developed a tool to directly address this issue. A framework is presented that assists in assessing how closely road design and operation align with the Safe System objectives, and in clarifying which elements need to be modified to achieve closer alignment with Safe System objectives. A treatment hierarchy was also developed to identify effective Safe System infrastructure solutions. The development of both the assessment framework and treatment hierarchy are discussed.