The Safe System approach
The Safe System approach takes a more holistic view of road safety, putting the focus on the road system design, to:
- make it more accommodating of human error
- manage the forces that injure people in a crash to a level that the human body can tolerate without serious injury
- minimise the level of unsafe road user behaviour.
To achieve these objectives, the human body’s tolerance to crash forces has to be the key design factor for the system. Crash forces must be managed so they do not exceed these limits.
Our safe system goals
For our work, the Safe System approach involves creating safer roads and roadsides, safer speeds, safer vehicles and safer road users. This means:
- Safer user – road users that are skilled and competent, alert and unimpaired. They comply with road rules, take steps to improve safety and demand and expect safety improvements.
- Safer vehicles – vehicles that prevent crashes and protect road users, including pedestrians and cyclists, in the event of a crash.
- Safer roads and roadsides– roads that are predictable, forgiving of mistakes, and self-explaining in that they encourage safe travel speeds.
- Safer speeds – travel speeds matched to the design and function of the road, based on injury tolerance levels, and implemented in a way that people understand to encourage compliance with speed limits.
Learn about what we’re doing to make state highways safer for all road users by:
- giving special attention to more vulnerable road users like motorcyclists
- providing more facilities for cyclists and pedestrians
- creating forgiving roadsides that reduce the likelihood of death and serious injury should a crash occur
- creating readable roads that help prevent road crashes by eliminating ‘surprises’
- using other initiatives that help prevent crashes from occurring.
