Road Safety Benefits of Intelligent Speed Adaptation for Australia

The NSW Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) trial was the largest road safety technology trial ever conducted in Australia. Over one hundred light vehicles were fitted with an Advisory ISA device. Over 7.6 million vehicle speed data records were collected and analysed to measure changes in speed compliance. Modelling suggested that if all vehicles in New South Wales (NSW) were equipped with the Advisory ISA system trialled, road deaths would be reduced by 8.4% and the number of people injured would be reduced by 5.9%. This paper presents further analysis of the road safety benefits of ISA for Australia both in terms of potential crash reductions and money saved by the community. Analysis conducted included the impact of Advisory ISA at various vehicle penetration levels within Australia as well as estimated reductions in the number of serious injury and fatality crashes in future years. This paper also outlines whether there is a ‘critical mass’ or an Advisory ISA vehicle penetration level that is effective enough to provide rapid increases in road safety benefits and considerably slow down the entire network.