New technologies to engage the community/improve road safety

The Transport Accident Commission (TAC) is working to achieve the vision of no deaths or serious injuries on our roads by 2050; a future where every journey is a safe one. To bring stakeholders and the community on the journey towards a future where every journey is a safe one, the TAC must maximise its impact through best practice engagement methods.

Today, technologies exist that help communities, stakeholder groups and decision makers to understand road safety in a more immersive, real-world-like and engaging manner exist. The TAC is seeking a review of current knowledge and best practice in this area of technology and engagement.

The ability to use modern technologies to assist in shaping future infrastructure projects by capturing accurate data and sentiment, will be of benefit to many organisations, especially by providing robust information for business cases and strategic plans.

Participants

• Transport Accident Commission
• La Trobe University

Project background

TAC has adopted a safe system philosophy to road safety. This method aims to minimise risks and considers the interaction between roads, vehicles, speed, and road users.

The principles underpinning this approach are that:

• People make mistakes
• People have a limited tolerance to injuries
• Safety is a shared responsibility

For the TAC to achieve the goal of zero deaths and serious injuries we must all work together – not only at a government level – the whole community must get behind it and we must all believe that these zero targets are achievable. TAC’s road safety education programs and campaigns, community partnerships and local government engagements are all part of bringing the community on the journey towards zero.

To bring stakeholders and the community on the journey towards a future where every journey is a safe one, TAC must maximise its impact through best practice engagement methods. Today, technologies that help communities, stakeholder groups and decision makers to understand road safety in more immersive, real world like and engaging manner exist.

These include technologies like augmented reality and virtual reality, which are often referred to as ‘mixed reality’. There are also a range of other, less costly, techniques that exist that may be useful if applied with a better understanding of how they can best succeed. These include collaborative mapping tools (e.g. CrowdSpot), online engagement tools (e.g. Engage Victoria), and traditional engagement methods.

Project objectives

The outcomes of the study will deliver:

• A review of current research and application of technologies* in engagement – with a particular focus on the road safety and transport areas;
• A set of clear guidelines including an engagement technology toolkit. The toolkit will consider the full range of technology options to identify which audiences benefit from each and which areas of road safety (roads, vehicles, speed and road users) is best applied;
• A comparison of newer engagement methods to traditional methods, considering the context of audience and road safety area used for the toolkit; and
• Approximate budget/investment required for each technology or method.

* With new technology we broadly refer to new technology to present content, new ways for end users to experience and engage with content or new ways to engage end users at a certain location and time.

Project wrap-up

This project has been completed. Find a wrap-up of the project at: Easy and novel ways to engage communities around road safety.Included are details on the project’s objectives, how new technologies can help, the technologies assessed, toolkit, and conclusions.