EVALUATION OF THE QUEENSLAND RANDOM ROAD WATCH PROGRAM (original) (raw)
Related papers
Evaluation of the Queensland road safety initiatives package
AUSTRALASIAN ROAD …, 2008
The RSIP aimed to target the road toll through increased hours of speed camera operation, increased hours of on-road Police enforcement to target the "Fatal Four" behaviours (drink driving, speeding, fatigue, and non-seat belt wearing), increased mass-media publicity to target the "Fatal Four" and increased hours of Police educative activities. This study has evaluated the effectiveness of the Road Safety Initiatives Package implemented in Queensland over the period December 2002 to January 2004. The evaluation has examined the crash effects of the program and their associated economic worth for both the program as a whole as well as for specific program elements. It has also assessed changes in speeding behaviour and general attitudes through analysis of speed monitoring data and attitudinal surveys respectively.
Effectiveness of Selective Enforcement in Reducing Accidents in Metropolitan Toronto
1977
The enforcement of traffic laws is based on the belief that it induces greater driver compliance with the rules of the road, which leads to a reduction in the number of accidents. Conclusive empirical evidence substantiating this belief has, however, not previously been presented. The availability of computerized accident records for the Metropolitan Toronto Police Selective Enforcement program provided a unique opportunity to test whether increased enforcement was followed by a reduction in the number of accidents. By using accident records for 1800 locations over a period of 4 years, estimates of accident rates were obtained that accounted for a time trend and seasonal variations. The expected number of accidents so obtained was compared to the number of recorded accidents. Locations that received increased enforcement showed consistently fewer than the expected number of accidents. In the experiment, all important factors except increase in enforcement are randomized. Thus, unles...
Generalised linear models of road trauma outcomes have been found to be a powerful way of representing the trends and variations over time and to explain the effects of influential factors such as countermeasure initiatives. This report covers their application to monthly casualty crash frequencies and injury severity outcomes in Victoria during 1998. During 2000, the mobile speed camera program in Victoria was changed by introducing "flashless" camera operations during daytime and other modifications to make the enforcement more covert and unpredictable, increasing the targeted camera operating hours from 4200 to 6000 hours per month, and reducing the speeding offence detection threshold in three stages. In December 2002, the thresholds for penalties applying to different levels of speeding offence were generally reduced by 5 km/h. Associated with the speed enforcement initiatives was a program of speed-related advertising known as the "Wipe Off 5" campaign launched in early August 2001 without specific reference to the enforcement changes. A subsequent announcement took place in late November 2001 specifically mentioning the more covert speed camera operations as well as the increase in camera hours. A third announcement took place in the print media at the end of March 2002, emphasising that the former 9 km/h speeding tolerance no longer applied. As well as the enforcement changes, the statistical models included the reduced urban speed limit in January 2001, the penalty restructure, the speed-related advertising and the announcements, plus the impact of the fixed speed camera controversy that arose in late 2003.
2007
Generalised linear models of road trauma outcomes have been found to be a powerful way of representing the trends and variations over time and to explain the effects of influential factors such as countermeasure initiatives. This report covers their application to monthly casualty crash frequencies and injury severity outcomes in Victoria during 1998 to 2003. During 2000 to 2002, the mobile speed camera program in Victoria was changed by introducing "flashless" camera operations during daytime and other modifications to make the enforcement more covert and unpredictable, increasing the targeted camera operating hours from 4200 to 6000 hours per month, and reducing the speeding offence detection threshold in three stages. In December 2002, the thresholds for penalties applying to different levels of speeding offence were generally reduced by 5 km/h. Associated with the speed enforcement initiatives was a program of speed-related advertising known as the "Wipe Off 5" campaign launched in early August 2001 without specific reference to the enforcement changes. A subsequent announcement took place in late November 2001 specifically mentioning the more covert speed camera operations as well as the increase in camera hours. A third announcement took place in the print media at the end of March 2002, emphasising that the former 9 km/h speeding tolerance no longer applied. As well as the enforcement changes, the statistical models included the reduced urban speed limit in January 2001, the penalty restructure, the speed-related advertising and the announcements, plus the impact of the fixed speed camera controversy that arose in late 2003. The study concluded that generalised linear modelling of crash outcomes as a function of potential explanatory factors needs realistic assumptions to be made about viable functional forms connecting a measure of each factor and the outcomes. The assumed functional form of the relationship between monthly speed camera hours and road trauma appears to represent this relationship well. There is doubt that the flashless speed camera initiative and the enforcement threshold reductions have been adequately represented in the monthly crash outcome models. It was concluded that the effect of these initiatives on crash outcomes is unknown at this stage. The assumed functional form of the relationship between monthly speed-related advertising levels and road trauma appears to represent this relationship well. The speed-related television advertising had a statistically significant association with a decrease in monthly casualty crash frequencies during times of increased advertising levels. In general the relationships connecting speed camera hours and levels of speed-related advertising with road trauma reductions in Victoria confirmed previous research on the effectiveness of these road safety programs as operated in the State.
Overall impact of speed-related initiatives and factors on crash outcomes
Annual proceedings / Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine. Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine, 2007
From December 2000 until July 2002 a package of speed-related initiatives and factors took place in Victoria, Australia. The broad aim of this study was to evaluate the overall impact of the package on crash outcomes. Monthly crash counts and injury severity proportions were assessed using Poisson and logistic regression models respectively. The model measured the overall effect of the package after adjusting as far as possible for non-speed road safety initiatives and socio-economic factors. The speed-related package was associated with statistically significant estimated reductions in casualty crashes and suggested reductions in injury severity with trends towards increased reductions over time. From December 2000 until July 2002, three new speed enforcement initiatives were implemented in Victoria, Australia. These initiatives were introduced in stages and involved the following key components: More covert operations of mobile speed cameras, including flash-less operations; 50% i...
Not by accident: An analytical approach to traffic crash harm reduction
Journal of Criminal Justice, 2012
Purpose: This study examines whether a problem-oriented approach used by police in Cincinnati, Ohio called the Crash Analysis Reduction Strategy (CARS) corresponded with a change in the number of traffic crashes that resulted in injuries after implementation onset. Under the CARS model, police developed tactics that focused on targeting high-risk driving behaviors, impaired drivers, and crash hotspot locations within the city. Methods: Using a two-phase strategy we first assess local impact by examining injury-related traffic crash patterns at targeted locations. Second, we examine whether traffic crashes that resulted in injuries in Cincinnati significantly diverged relative to similar outcomes across a number of comparison sites. Results: Difference-in-difference negative binomial regression analyses indicates that traffic crashes were significantly lower in Cincinnatidown roughly 5.7% to 10.3% in the post-intervention periodwhen contrasted with comparison sites. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that comprehensive problem solving approaches can significantly reduce the risk of life changing events such as automobile crashes that result in injuries beyond traditional policing efforts that explicitly focus on crime and violence.
1992
A major speed camera program was launched in April 1990 in Victoria which involved a dramatic increase in the detection of speeding offenders and a multi-million dollar, Statewide publicity campaign through all mass media. This report describes Phases 1 and 2 of an evaluation study examining its effects on crashes. Phase 1 examined the general effects Victoria-wide, in Melbourne, and in the rest of the State separately, and Phase 2 attempted to link the effects to the various speeding deterrence mechanisms (both specific and general deterrence) associated with the program.
What factors actually affect crash severity and how can road safety programs be better targeted
2008
The aim of this study was to develop a methodology that would better focus scarce road safety resources to fix those areas of the road network that have the greatest number of fatal and serious injury crashes. Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is used to prioritise black spot projects with the economic benefit of a remedial treatment being the difference between predicted costs of crashes with and without the proposed treatment. This was found to have practical implications for improving the prioritisation of road safety crash reduction programs. Categories of crashes were identified, based on differences in average severity and their relevance to possible treatments. The analysis demonstrates the higher priority of projects that address more severe crashes when crash values are determined using: 1. RUM codes rather than DCA codes to include run-off-road on bend crash type codes that indicate the side of the road which the vehicle went off; 2. three speed limit groups rather than two; 3. ...
The Impact of Enforcement on Accidents
ESCAPE project, European Commission , 2002
Theoretical estimates of the potential accident reduction impact of policing, based on enforcement inducing full compliance (and assuming a major role of non- compliance in accidents) are fairly high, up to 50% reduction. Estimates based on statistical analysis of empirical studies dealing with specific enforcement elements generally suggest much lower estimates, with 10% being on the high end. A large and permanent increase in policing resources is not a feasible option in most countries, and the evidence on the effectiveness of this approach is equivocal. The ‘common wisdom’ is that increases need to be at least 3-5 times over ‘current levels’ before substantial safety gains could be maintained. However, what is already being done with ‘current level’ of traffic policing, what is the ‘current’ incidence of non- compliance, and what safety level is enjoyed in a jurisdiction must also be important in determining thresholds for police impact, base- level and ceiling effects.