US takes note of Australian experience

How Australia is implementing the Safe System approach has created significant interest among US road safety officials.

ARRB’s Dr Blair Turner, Chief Technology Leader, Transport Safety, has just returned from Minneapolis in the US.

He was a guest of the Federal Highway Agency (FHWA) where he was the keynote presenter at the National Safety Engineer Peer Exchange.

The event was focused on safe road infrastructure, and included new and innovative approaches to improving road safety. There were 180 representatives from nearly every state, comprising senior Department of Transport officials and their FHWA state and federal counterparts.

The key focus of Dr Turner’s keynote presentation was on how the Safe System approach is being implemented in Australia, and some of the lessons from this experience.

There was very strong interest in this topic, as around 40 cities, and a number of states, have now adopted this approach in the US.

The visit also provided a very useful opportunity to identify innovative approaches to road safety that are being adopted in the US, particularly those relating to pedestrian and cyclist safety; roadway departures; intersection crashes; and speed management, topics that are also of high interest in Australia.

In addition, Dr Turner visited several locations to identify why Minneapolis has been voted as one of the best cycling cities in the US, reviewing a number of innovative safety improvements.

Information on these cycling treatments as well as other innovative approaches will be shared with practitioners in Australia to help improve safety in this part of the world.

Learn more about ARRB and road safety