Effect of past black spot programs on motorcycle safety.

The State Government of Victoria has implemented numerous accident black spot programs since the late 1970s. Commencing in the early 1990s, two substantial black spot programs, each funded by the Transport Accident Commission’s (TAC), have been completed. The first of these programs was implemented from 1992/93 to 1995/96 and had a budget of $85M. In total, there were 559 distinct sites treated under this program. A subsequent black spot program, with a budget of $240M, was implemented from 2000/2001 to 2003/2004. This program is generally referred to as the $240M Statewide Black Spot Program (SBP) and was made up of two distinct components; the Accident Black Spot component and the Potential Black Spot component. The 841 sites treated under the Accident Black Spot component were selected based on their poor history of casualty crashes over a number of preceding years. Similar methods of selecting sites for treatment were also used for earlier black spot programs. However the 285 sites treated under the Potential Black Spot component of the SBP were identified using an alternative method that did not rely on crash histories of sites. Of the $240M allocated to the Statewide Black Spot Program, approximately $20M was allocated to the Potential Black Spot component, with the remaining funds allocated to the Accident Black Spot component.