Identifying local road safety issues
Identifying and describing road safety problems and issues is an essential part of developing your application. These should be identified by stakeholders and/or community members.
The following steps will help identify the road safety issue.
Step 1: Talk to people to identify key road safety issues in your community
- This will help decide who should be involved in defining and solving the issue. People's perceptions about the importance of some road safety issues may differ. Successful community programs rely on a shared understanding of the problem and potential solutions.
Step 2: Collect and analyse relevant information to support your application
- You need to show there are good reasons to target your chosen issue. Good sources of information include:
- TAC road safety information available on the TAC website.
- Government road safety strategy documents available on-line at the Victoria Road Safety Strategy
- Employees of government road safety stakeholders – such as VicRoads' staff, traffic engineers in your area, your council's road safety coordinator, teachers responsible for traffic safety issues in local schools, local Police involved in traffic law enforcement (e.g. members of Traffic Management Units)
- Members of local road safety groups (eg RoadSafe)
- Road safety researchers at organisations such as the Monash University Accident Research Centre. MUARC publications are available on-line.
Step 3: Work with your community to decide which issue to address
- The information you collect will help you prioritise the road safety issues in your community. You could also consider:
- Injury level – which issue results in the worst injuries or highest number of injuries?
- Public concern – which issue is the community most concerned about?
- Increasing risk – is this problem becoming more serious?