Safer Roads, Safer Queensland Forum 6

Summary and key themes

Date: Tuesday 16 July 2019

Place: Undumbi Room, Queensland Parliamentary Annexe, Brisbane

Background

On 17 July 2019, the Department of Transport and Main Roads hosted the sixth Safer Roads, Safer Queensland forum in Brisbane, which focused on whole of life education, sharing the road and speed.

The event gathered more than 70 representatives from industry, government, research organisations, peak bodies and the community to discuss the key road safety issues facing our State.

The forum was opened by the Honourable Mark Bailey MP, Minister for Transport and Main Roads who spoke about the recent summit on the important issue of driver distraction. Speakers included Assistant Commissioner Mike Keating, Road Policing Command, Queensland Police Service who talked about the place of community engagement and policing initiatives throughout Queensland.

This event was designed to build on road safety forums held in Townsville and Toowoomba in 2018 and Maryborough and Rockhampton in 2019. The forum included breakout groups focused on three of the key themes raised by regional stakeholders: whole of life education; sharing the road; and speed. Delegates considered questions including: how do we encourage all road users to share the road better? How do we influence people’s road safety decisions across their whole life? How can we address the social, economic and health issues that influence people’s behaviour on the roads – such as fatigue, impatience and addiction? And why is speeding still acceptable to many people and how can we influence this through infrastructure and education?

Where to from here

The Queensland Government sincerely thanks everyone who attended the forum for their time and input. The ideas put forward during the forum is considered as part of the development of the next Queensland road safety action plan. Key themes, discussion points and a sample of specific initiatives are outlined below.

Key themes

Note: The following summary aims to capture the key discussion themes raised by a range of participants at the forum and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Queensland Government or all participants. The forum included small breakout groups, supported by a facilitator and scribe, in which delegates discussed what the key themes of the day meant to them and articulated a vision for whole of life education, sharing the road and speed.

Participants then discussed in further detail the barriers to achieving this future state and identified potential solutions. Each group reported back on the outcomes of their discussion to the whole forum.

Several dominant themes emerged consistently across all groups, however the primary issue each discussion kept returning to was the culture of road use in Queensland.

Two principles were developed to underpin approaches to promote cultural change.

• Cultural change requires a shift from “my right” to “my responsibility”
• Environmental change supports cultural change, and a shift from “my road” to “our road” was suggested as a means of reflecting these ambitions

Delegates identified the success of lower speeds in school zones as an encouraging starting point for this culture change more broadly and shifting community thinking around speed specifically – as it demonstrates people slowing down and considering the surrounding environment and other road users, and speed limits that accommodate the environment and the users.

Other consistent themes involved community ownership of solutions and the need for greater coordination and partnerships across government and non-government organisations.

For example, the need and opportunities for coordination across a range of government and non-government agencies emerged as a dominant issue with respect to developing a whole of life approach to road safety education.

Actions were proposed that could be implemented in the short, medium and longer term, reflecting a multi-faceted, staged approach to broadening the scope and delivery of road safety education throughout Queensland.

Strengthening the role for industry, particularly those with fleets, was also widely discussed. This included elevating safety on the road to be considered as a corporate responsibility, not just as a workplace health and safety issue.

Ideas

The six breakout groups generated a range of ideas for consideration in the new Queensland road safety action plan. These spanned roads and roadsides, speed management, communications and education. The ideas had a strong regional focus, particularly with respect to community ownership of road safety.

A sample of ideas is provided.

Sample of the ideas from the forum

• A centralised repository of information about existing road safety education programs
• The identification of existing contact points between TMR and customers and finding opportunities to engage at these points, including via interactive learning programs and modules
• Local trials of different approaches to speed management
• or example, use deidentified compliance data to help select engineering treatments on sections of network, and/or trial perceptual countermeasures, chevrons, guide posts and signed alerts of unsafe roads
• Link with or incorporate road safety into non-school based activities (for example, interactions with health system)
• Develop strategic alliances with various key road safety influencers, particularly within regional communities
• Increase factual awareness of behavioural factors contributing to crashes within communities
• Communicate other, non-fatal costs of speeding, such as environmental (emissions) and fuel (inefficiency) costs, along with the economic impact of crashes. Note the cost imposition of serious injury crashes as a compounding cost with an impact on the health budget and insurance premiums
• Workplace health and safety policies to recognise vehicles as a workplace
• Assess compliance with technical standards on high speed rural roads.