2018 Best Practices Award Winner

Using Spatial Analysis of Crash Data to Target Road Safety Enforcement, abley

Abstract:  Recognizing the influence of police enforcement on road user behavior, the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) in Victoria, Australia invests a significant portion of its total budget each year in police enforcement activity. One example of this investment is the Local Enhanced Enforcement Program (LEEP). For over a decade, LEEP has encouraged Victoria Police members to submit applications for funding to conduct operations targeting road safety issues in their local areas, over and above their usual enforcement capacity. Previously, applicants gathered their own data to provide evidence of a road safety issue. Feedback indicated this process was time consuming and at times difficult for those whose expertise lies in planning and deploying enforcement rather than data analysis. In July 2016, the TAC launched a revamp of the LEEP. As part of this revamp, a geospatial methodology and a web-based application was developed to support police in identifying high-risk locations for targeting in LEEP funding applications. The first round of the revamped LEEP specifically targeted speeding on high-speed rural roads. The decision to initially focus on these roads was made because Victoria’s Towards Zero Strategy highlighted rural roads as an area for action, due to their disproportionate levels of trauma. The methodology to identify rural road corridors with a history of speed, high-severity crashes was based on ten years of injury crash data extracted from VicRoads’ Road Crash Information System. Since the launch of the web application, the TAC has received over 220 applications to fund enforcement operations. Feedback from police indicates that the application is also being used to inform business-as-usual road policing. The web application provides the TAC and Victoria Police with a robust evidence base for local enforcement activity. The positive feedback from the speed enforcement web application has resulted in the analysis being extended to include other road users (motorcyclists and vulnerable road users), an alcohol program and a seasonal enforcement model. The suite of targeted enforcement intelligence models is improving the targeted deployment of police enforcement activities to parts of the network where unsafe behaviors are most likely to occur. This presentation will be of interest to everyone wanting to understand how data analytics can be used to enhance road safety police enforcement activities.

 

Paul Durdin – Director of Abley Transportation Consultants Limited. He has 20 years’ experience in the field of traffic engineering and transportation planning where he has worked exclusively as a consultant in both New Zealand and Australia. Paul is a nationally recognised expert with specialist skills in the areas of road safety, strategic and integrated transport planning, and the development of best-practice guidance. Paul is a trusted technical adviser to state and local road-controlling authorities in New Zealand and Australia on road safety matters. development and delivery of a number of Safer Journeys initiatives and other road safety tools that will have a significant influence on the shape of road safety in New Zealand for many years to come..