Safety in the Heavy Vehicle Industry: A Collaborative Response. The management and regulation of heavy vehicles, particularly in relation to safety, is recognised as an urgent issue at all levels of government across Australia. In the absence of research that identifies the key determinants of heavy vehicle crashes, countermeasures will continue to be based on anecdote. The proposed study will determine the role key risk factors, namely scheduling and sleep-related factors, play in heavy vehicl ....Safety in the Heavy Vehicle Industry: A Collaborative Response. The management and regulation of heavy vehicles, particularly in relation to safety, is recognised as an urgent issue at all levels of government across Australia. In the absence of research that identifies the key determinants of heavy vehicle crashes, countermeasures will continue to be based on anecdote. The proposed study will determine the role key risk factors, namely scheduling and sleep-related factors, play in heavy vehicle crashes and will identify cost-effective strategies to reduce the growing economic burden associated with these crashes.Read moreRead less
Best Fit Interventions in Fleet Safety. Work related vehicle crashes account for 20% of workplace fatalities and 13% of the national road toll. Industry often, unsuccessfully, initiates single intervention strategies to address all fleet related road safety issues. However, road safety research suggests that approaches need to be multi-dimensional. CARRS-Q (a leading centre in road safety research) in conjunction with Telstra (who operate Australia's largest national vehicle fleet) intend t ....Best Fit Interventions in Fleet Safety. Work related vehicle crashes account for 20% of workplace fatalities and 13% of the national road toll. Industry often, unsuccessfully, initiates single intervention strategies to address all fleet related road safety issues. However, road safety research suggests that approaches need to be multi-dimensional. CARRS-Q (a leading centre in road safety research) in conjunction with Telstra (who operate Australia's largest national vehicle fleet) intend to develop a multi-dimensional approach to improving fleet safety and establish the true industry costs of fleet related crashes. This research will enable industry to reduce work place death and injury resulting in socio/economic advantage to Australia. Read moreRead less
Work related road safety countermeasures in a large fleet (QFleet). Despite accounting for more than 20% of the road crashes, relatively little research has been conducted on fleet safety in Australia. This research will develop guidelines for current best practice and design, implement and evaluate several new countermeasures. More importantly, it will develop a comprehensive model for future design, implementation and evaluation of fleet safety that will extend the frontier of knowledge in cra ....Work related road safety countermeasures in a large fleet (QFleet). Despite accounting for more than 20% of the road crashes, relatively little research has been conducted on fleet safety in Australia. This research will develop guidelines for current best practice and design, implement and evaluate several new countermeasures. More importantly, it will develop a comprehensive model for future design, implementation and evaluation of fleet safety that will extend the frontier of knowledge in crash analysis and prevention. By working closely with QFleet, current fleet safety thinking will be advanced to reduce the frequency and severity of road crashes thereby reducing road trauma and increasing business effectiveness.Read moreRead less
Improving Road Safety and Driver Security: The Case of High Risk Fleet (Taxi) Drivers in Australia. Road crashes constitute a major cause of death and injury in Australia and taxis have a 22 times higher crash rate compared to private passenger vehicles. In addition to their high crash risks, 1/3 of all taxi drivers have experienced physical assaults. This innovative study will examine the circumstances that contribute toward taxi crashes and assaults on drivers and more importantly, it will des ....Improving Road Safety and Driver Security: The Case of High Risk Fleet (Taxi) Drivers in Australia. Road crashes constitute a major cause of death and injury in Australia and taxis have a 22 times higher crash rate compared to private passenger vehicles. In addition to their high crash risks, 1/3 of all taxi drivers have experienced physical assaults. This innovative study will examine the circumstances that contribute toward taxi crashes and assaults on drivers and more importantly, it will design, implement and evaluate a program of countermeasures to improve the safety and security of taxi drivers, which will contribute significantly toward reducing the truma related to road crashes in Australia and assaults on public transport drivers.Read moreRead less
Fleet safety in the nonprofit sector. This project offers three unique opportunities. First, this research will improve the safety of work-related drivers within the nonprofit sector by implementing a multilevel fleet safety program addressing the key aspects that influence driving behaviour. Second, this research will address the safety of those volunteering their services through nonprofit agencies by developing regulatory frameworks to protect them from personal civil liability. Third, throug ....Fleet safety in the nonprofit sector. This project offers three unique opportunities. First, this research will improve the safety of work-related drivers within the nonprofit sector by implementing a multilevel fleet safety program addressing the key aspects that influence driving behaviour. Second, this research will address the safety of those volunteering their services through nonprofit agencies by developing regulatory frameworks to protect them from personal civil liability. Third, through achieving successful safety outcomes, this research will reduce the unnecessary costs associated with work-related crashes in a sector least able to afford such services.Read moreRead less
A unique driver assessment tool to improve four wheel drive and sedan driving competencies. Four wheel drive (4WD) sales are booming in Australia. 4WD occupant fatalities occurring in rollovers are over represented in Australian's road crashes. This is a unique project using advanced technology to assess behavioural risks associated with the use of 4WDs and inexperienced drivers. It builds a novel, integrated computer-based screening tool to provide objective and reliable driver training assessm ....A unique driver assessment tool to improve four wheel drive and sedan driving competencies. Four wheel drive (4WD) sales are booming in Australia. 4WD occupant fatalities occurring in rollovers are over represented in Australian's road crashes. This is a unique project using advanced technology to assess behavioural risks associated with the use of 4WDs and inexperienced drivers. It builds a novel, integrated computer-based screening tool to provide objective and reliable driver training assessments with the aim of (i) reducing crashes relating to inexperience and specific 4WD crashes and (ii) recommending public policy with regard to 4WD behavioural risks and driver training.Read moreRead less
A Human Factors Approach to the Design of Visual Information in the Highway Environment. Visual information in the highway environment affects drivers' perception, behaviour, and accident propensity. Using a range of methods and approaches, issues of key importance in road design will be addressed, e.g. (1) how increasing visual clutter in the road environment affects accident-producing behaviour, (2) how certain road situations create particular problems for the increasing number of older drive ....A Human Factors Approach to the Design of Visual Information in the Highway Environment. Visual information in the highway environment affects drivers' perception, behaviour, and accident propensity. Using a range of methods and approaches, issues of key importance in road design will be addressed, e.g. (1) how increasing visual clutter in the road environment affects accident-producing behaviour, (2) how certain road situations create particular problems for the increasing number of older drivers, and (3) how the road environment can be redesigned to reduce fundamental perceptual errors made by drivers. The proposal will generate new guidelines for how future road design can be optimised to minimise crash rates.Read moreRead less
Development and evaluation of a motorcycle training intervention. In 2002, motorcyclists and pillions accounted for 224 road deaths in Australia - 13% of the total road toll although motorcycles accounted for less than 3% of all registered vehicles. They also accounted for nearly 20% of serious injuries. This collaborative project aims to reduce motorcycle crashes through an innovative training intervention focusing on the attitudinal and motivational factors influencing rider behaviour. The in ....Development and evaluation of a motorcycle training intervention. In 2002, motorcyclists and pillions accounted for 224 road deaths in Australia - 13% of the total road toll although motorcycles accounted for less than 3% of all registered vehicles. They also accounted for nearly 20% of serious injuries. This collaborative project aims to reduce motorcycle crashes through an innovative training intervention focusing on the attitudinal and motivational factors influencing rider behaviour. The intervention will be firmly grounded in theory and complement existing training frameworks to produce a highly transferable resource that can be adopted by other rider training centres both in Australia and overseas.Read moreRead less
Ubiquitous Data Mining and Situation-Awareness for Improving Road Safety. Road crashes cost Australia $15 billion a year and 95% of these are attributed to drivers' errors. Risk assessment is at the core of the road crash problem. This innovative project develops a computational model that analyses situational driver behaviour and proposes real-time countermeasures to minimise fatalities/casualties. We develop and evaluate a novel Intelligent Transport System that assesses and acts upon drivers ....Ubiquitous Data Mining and Situation-Awareness for Improving Road Safety. Road crashes cost Australia $15 billion a year and 95% of these are attributed to drivers' errors. Risk assessment is at the core of the road crash problem. This innovative project develops a computational model that analyses situational driver behaviour and proposes real-time countermeasures to minimise fatalities/casualties. We develop and evaluate a novel Intelligent Transport System that assesses and acts upon drivers' risks. This multidisciplinary project integrates recent models of data mining, context-awareness computing, physiological metrics, ubiquitous computing, driver distraction models, risk perception and road safety. This project yields a new understanding of driver behaviour and countermeasures in risk situations.Read moreRead less
Congestion management in key road networks of a major city through real time data collection, intelligent forecasting and real time routing. The project researches the issues for allowing Australian Road Traffic Authorities to automatically capture road traffic data, forecast traffic flows and smartly route traffic flows to avoid congestion on road networks. This will lead to several benefits, such as (a) reducing traffic congestion, shorten travel time and lower pollution, (b) better utilizati ....Congestion management in key road networks of a major city through real time data collection, intelligent forecasting and real time routing. The project researches the issues for allowing Australian Road Traffic Authorities to automatically capture road traffic data, forecast traffic flows and smartly route traffic flows to avoid congestion on road networks. This will lead to several benefits, such as (a) reducing traffic congestion, shorten travel time and lower pollution, (b) better utilization of existing road infrastructure by diffusing traffic to alternate routes, (c) provide economic benefit by allowing one to delay infrastructure expansion, (d) monitoring of aberrant behaviour by road users to ensure a safer road environment, and (e) improved flexibility in deployment of the Wireless Sensor Network to meet the needs of the road authorities and community.Read moreRead less