9.1 Focus on safety

Issue

Dunedin currently has the highest level of overall road safety risk of all New Zealand cities.

Course of action

Prioritise safety improvements according to risk in order to reduce the number of fatal and serious injury crashes occurring on Dunedin’s road network, with particular focus on improving safety in the central city and local centres, and for vulnerable road users.

Outcomes

• Reduced rate and number of injury crashes on Dunedin’s transport network.
• Reduced rate and number of injury crashes at intersections.
• Increased perceived safety for pedestrians, cyclists and users of public transport.
• Reduced rate and number of injury crashes involving Dunedin’s six worst Safer Journeys areas of concern: intersections, young drivers, older road users, motorcyclists, pedestrians and cyclists.
• Reduced rate and number of fatal and serious injury crashes on Dunedin’s transport network.

Goal

Dunedin is not ranked in the 10 worst local authorities for road safety risk, in any of the Safer Journeys areas of concern by 2024.

Strategic approach

Ensuring Dunedin is a safe city is important to the DCC. Safety in all aspects of life, including the transport network, is prioritised in the Social Wellbeing Strategy, Spatial Plan and Long Term Plan (outlined in Section 1.3). The Transport Strategy plays a key role in achieving the vision for a safe Dunedin set out in all these documents.

The national road safety strategy, Safer Journeys (see Section 1.1.2) highlights several key areas of concern for road safety that the Government has prioritised as needing attention. The Communities at Risk Register (summarised in Section 2.1), highlights that Dunedin has a high level of risk in several of the Safer Journeys areas of concern compared to other New Zealand councils. Currently Dunedin has the highest level of overall road safety risk of all New Zealand cities.

The DCC and partner agencies, such as the NZTA, the NZ Police and ACC, have been working to improve many of these issues. Overall, Dunedin road safety is improving and the level of risk has been trending down for the past five years, but there is still more work to be done.

Safety is an overarching emphasis of this Strategy and accordingly, all the areas of focus contribute in some way to safety. For instance, improving safety for cyclists and pedestrians is at the heart of the focus on providing travel choices (as discussed in Section 9.2), while creating vibrant thriving local centres (Section 9.3) entails making these areas, and the access to them, safe for people. The strategic approach to achieving a safe transport system will be as follows.

Road Safety Action Planning

Under a Safe System approach, everybody is responsible for road safety. This includes road controlling authorities, partner agencies and the community working together to achieve a safe road system. A key method of achieving this is the Road Safety Action Planning process. Road Safety Action Planning is a collaborative approach recommended as best practise by the NZTA. Its purpose is to ensure all partner organisations understand their district’s road safety issues, share responsibility, are accountable, and develop innovative and best-practise approaches across all aspects of the Safe System.

The key Road Safety Partners who work together to deliver road safety action planning in Dunedin include the DCC, ORC, NZTA, ACC and the NZ Police. Other key road safety partnerships include working with Community Boards, schools, private companies and stakeholder groups (such as freight, older persons and youth representatives, disability groups, taxi, bus and cycling groups). Many of these transport stakeholder groups participate in the Dunedin Road User Forum (DRUF) which provides feedback and input to the Road Safety Partners group.

The Road Safety Partners group may draw on sector-specific expertise from the DRUF as and when required to better inform the Road Safety Action Planning process. For example, when the Road Safety Partners are planning interventions regarding cycle safety, they may invite cycle advocacy groups to participate in the process to provide a better understanding of cycling issues.

Under the Safe System approach the Road Safety Partners will address risk and improve safety through a mixture of engineering, education and enforcement measures across the ‘four pillars’ of the Safe System (namely Safe Use, Safe Speeds, Safe Roads and Roadsides, and Safe Vehicles).

Targeting risk

Analysis completed in June 2013 highlighted that approximately 50% of all reported road injury crashes occur on 3.5% of the Dunedin transport network (by length).

The DCC and the NZTA will continue to prioritise interventions, resources and investment focussing on risk with a particular emphasis on targeting this 3.5% of the network. This is likely to have a significant impact on reducing death and serious injuries from road crashes in the City. An integrated approach will be taken and may involve several Council departments working collaboratively with the NZTA and road safety partners (see below). Typically these interventions will be the more costly and complex, such as upgrades of signalised intersections, construction of roundabouts, and so on.

Where safety issues arise on the balance of the network these will be investigated and low cost interventions implemented taking into account available investment funds. Such interventions may include speed limit reviews, improved signage, and safer footpaths and crossing points.

Dunedin’s highest risk area is the central city and some local centres surrounding it (as shown in Figure 13).

Figure 13. Central city high risk area identified through predictive modelling trial. There are some other high risk sections of road in other parts of the city not illustrated here, but the majority are within the area shown.

Vulnerable road users

Vulnerable road users are those who do not have a protective ‘shell’ around them and thus are more likely to experience serious injury or death in a crash. This includes pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists of all ages (although within this broad category, the elderly are the most vulnerable)³⁰. Those using wheelchairs, mobility scooters and skateboards are often referred to as ‘wheeled pedestrians’ and are generally considered pedestrians in crash statistics and when talking about vulnerable users.

The risk facing vulnerable users can put people off using active travel modes, such as riding a bike or walking, as some people perceive being in a car to be safer. This is a common reason many parents choose to drive their children to school even when they live within walking or cycling distance. Many adults also indicate they would like to travel by active modes but cite perceived lack of safety as their reason for driving instead.

This creates a self-fulfilling cycle in which there are more cars and fewer active mode users on the network, which increases the risk level, and perceived risk, for vulnerable users. Due to an ageing population Dunedin is also experiencing an increase in the use of mobility scooters and wheelchairs. This highlights the need to create a safe and attractive transport environment for these vulnerable users in which they are not disadvantaged or endangered by the dominance of motor vehicles.

Figure 14. The influence of collision speed on the probability of pedestrian death³²

Within local centres

Most vulnerable user activity occurs in and around local centres, with the vast majority concentrated in the central city. The DCC will focus on increasing safety and accessibility for vulnerable users by targeting and prioritising these highest risk areas. Within centres, the DCC will focus on reducing traffic volumes where possible, reducing traffic speeds, and reducing conflicts between all road users. This will include improving pedestrian safety and accessibility at key crossing points, and providing a more pedestrian and cycle friendly environment in general. The overall approach to centres is discussed in more detail under the ‘Focus on Centres’ (Section 9.3).

Safe Speeds

Speed limits will be set according to the ‘principle of homogeneity’. This principle states that,

… where vehicles or road users with great differences in mass have to use the same road space, speeds will have to be so low that, should a crash occur, the most vulnerable road users involved should not sustain fatal injuries. In addition, where traffic is moving at high speeds, road users should be separated physically

The effect of speed on vulnerable users is shown in Figure 14. This illustrates that as speeds increase, the risk of serious injury or death in event of a crash also increases. Research has shown that a pedestrian (or other vulnerable road user) hit at 30 km/h has a 5% chance of dying, whereas this increases to a 40% chance of death when a vulnerable user is hit at 50km/h. If a vulnerable user is hit by a vehicle travelling above 60km/h there is very little chance that person will survive. This clearly suggests that an urban speed limit of 50km/h is too fast in areas with high vulnerable user activity and can no longer be considered acceptable.

The Safer Journeys strategy has also acknowledged the problem of speed under New Zealand’s current speed limit standards, and has made a national priority of reviewing this to achieve more appropriate speeds across the country.

Based on these facts, in Dunedin’s local centres (where there is the highest concentration of vulnerable user activity, and generally the highest risk) the DCC will work toward achieving lower speeds. This will be implemented through the Centres Programme discussed in Section 9.3. The DCC will also conduct speed limit reviews in other parts of the city where there is a need. Where reviews are required in multiple areas, these will be prioritised according to the level of risk.

In order to achieve safe, predictable and coherent speeds that users can easily understand, it will generally be most appropriate that the DCC takes an area-wide approach to reviewing and implementing speed limits. In most cases this area-wide approach is preferable to one-off spot treatments on specific sections of road, as spot treatments can result in a fragmented speed limit that is indecipherable to users. Small-scale speed limit reviews (such as on a specific section of road) may be appropriate in particularly dangerous areas, and again, these will be addressed case-by-case according to the level of risk.

It is important to recognise that a speed limit is simply one tool in the road safety toolkit and it will not usually achieve the desired reduction in traffic speed by itself. The road environment itself needs to be self-explanatory to the motorist, so that the posted speed limit is consistent with what the driver subconsciously interprets to be an appropriate speed for that area. This is called the ‘design speed’. A section of road with a higher design speed (for example one that has wide and/or multiple traffic lanes, poor pedestrian facilities, narrow footpaths, little streetscape or amenity value, and high traffic priority at intersections) will signal to the motorist that it is appropriate to drive faster. Conversely, where the design speed of the road is lower, the driver will tend to drive slower. This will tend to be the case regardless of the posted speed limit. To achieve a desired speed, it is important that design speed and speed limit are consistent with each other.

Schools

Schools are another key area of vulnerable user activity. As discussed in Section 2.1, the traffic environment around schools is highly complex and requires a special approach given the interaction between vehicles and children, and the very specific times at which those activity peaks occur. Dunedin has approximately 80 schools, plus kindergartens and early childhood centres, each of which has a unique set of issues and different levels of risk. To achieve the best use of limited resources, it is critical to develop a robust system for prioritising work around schools. In keeping with the overall strategic approach for road safety, the DCC will continue to take a risk-based approach to prioritising work around schools. There are two primary avenues by which road safety will be addressed around schools, the DCC risk ranking system and the School Traffic Safety Group, as follows.

1 Risk ranking system for schools

The DCC has established a two-tier ranking system to guide work with schools:

• Top 12 Partnerships: the 12 schools with the highest risk have been identified. The DCC will approach these schools with the aim of reducing road safety risk around the school, (e.g. through measures such as early warning signs, active warning signs, traffic calming, reduced speed limits, improved crossing provision, or parking changes). This approach will enable highest risk schools to work in partnership with the DCC to reduce risk by supporting and promoting complimentary initiatives such as better parking, drop-off and pick-up behaviour, walking school buses, active travel. The Top 12 list will be reviewed every six months. As improvements are made to these schools, their risk profile may improve to the extent that they will be removed from the list and replaced by other schools with poorer risk profiles.
• Lower risk schools: these are being addressed on a reactive basis as issues are identified and requests are brought to DCC. These issues and requests will be prioritised based on the level of risk, as will the level and timing of intervention.

2 School Traffic Safety Group

A collaborative partnership called the School Traffic Safety Group (STSG) has been established to identify ways of working together to improve school road safety. The STSG partnership includes the DCC, NZTA, ACC, Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD), Dunedin Kindergarten Association, Otago Primary Principals Association and Dunedin Secondary Schools Association.

The STSG exists to enable more effective communication and collaboration between the organisations working in road safety for Dunedin’s kindergarten, primary and secondary schools. The group seeks to develop awareness of local work in relevant programmes, align goals, and to increase opportunities for collaboration between the agencies to identify, understand and address road safety issues around schools.

Road Safety Education

Road safety education is an important and ongoing part of the work of the Road Safety Partners. Campaigns to raise awareness of specific issues, highlight appropriate behaviours and so on are critical to encouraging safe behaviour on the roads.

Footnotes

30. SWOV (2012) Fact sheet: Vulnerable road users. SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research. Leidschendam, the Netherlands, July 2012.
31. Wegman, F. and Aarts, L. (eds) (2005) Advancing Sustainable Safety: National road Safety Outlook for 2005 – 2020. SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research.
32. NZTA (2009) Pedestrian Planning and Design Guide. NZ Transport Agency, October 2009. Ch.3.8.
33. ACC and LTSA (2000) Down with Speed: A Review of the Literature, and the Impact of Speed on New Zealanders. Accident Compensation Corporation & Land Transport Safety Authority, 2000. p.38.

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