Towards Safe System Infrastructure: A Compendium of Current Knowledge

Abstract

This report provides a compendium of knowledge on Safe System treatments and identifies real world experience in the practical application of solutions that can mitigate crash severity. The Safe System is internationally regarded as the best practice approach to road safety. Although Australia and New Zealand have been early adopters of the approach since 2004, there has generally been a lack of clarity amongst practitioners on how best to integrate the approach into their daily activities. Assessment frameworks and tools are also now emerging that allow the alignment with Safe System be better quantified. A hierarchy of treatments is described that provide practitioners with a basic understanding of the types of practices that should now be applied on a trajectory towards a Safe System. Primary treatments are capable of virtually eliminating death and injury and certain supporting treatments can transform the network a step closer to reducing the overall harm being caused.