The Australian experience with road safety policy and traffic enforcement: Actions speak louder than words (original) (raw)

This report provides the text of a keynote paper presented to the National Conference on Traffic Laws and Rules: Opportunities and Challenges Ahead, held in Tehran, Iran on Sunday 22 April 2012. A number of elements – commitment, cooperation and co-ordination, communication, evaluation, and courage – are needed for success in the future road safety effort in Iran. Traffic policing is about guiding, enforcing and promoting safe road behaviour within the road transport system. It is not just enforcement – the detection, the ticketing, and the penalties. The Safe System approach provides a framework in which guidance, enforcement and promotion are the three core taskings for traffic policing. Our recommendations are: (1) adopt the Safe System approach in Iran; (2) adopt a general deterrence approach that uses high visibility police enforcement strategies to focus on the identified problem areas impacting on road safety in Iran; develop a parliamentary mechanism to oversight of road saf...