Date: Thursday, 4 March 2021
Location: Online, 1:00 – 2:00pm AEDT
Organiser: Austroads
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Raised Safety Platforms (RSPs) are a vertical deflection device increasingly used to reduce the maximum comfortable operating speed for vehicles to Safe System collision speeds, particularly at intersections. While the use of vertical deflection devices has typically been limited to lower speed environments, there is increasing interest in the use of RSPs in higher speed environments and for other locations where pedestrians and cyclists would typically be injured.
The purpose of Austroads’ research report ‘Effectiveness and Implementation of Raised Safety Platforms’ was to provide clarity around the design and operation of RSPs and deepen the understanding of leading international practice across a range of applications and performance dimensions. The research included a review of literature, sample investigations and edits to relevant Austroads guides. The literature has shown that, outside of the Netherlands, where RSPs have been used extensively, a ‘community of practice’ is developing in Australia and New Zealand, with the majority of applications at signalised intersections above 50 km/h to date being in Victoria. There is evidence that RSPs are a promising road safety countermeasure.
In this webinar Fabian Marsh, Hamish Mackie and Rebekah Thorne will outline the research approach and the key findings from the information review and sample investigations that have implications for future practice.
Fabian Marsh is Senior Manager Road Safety for Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency. Fabian is responsible for leading and influencing a step change in New Zealand’s road safety performance by driving an increased understanding and implementation of the Safe System approach and establishing a clear strategic direction for Waka Kotahi’s contribution to Road to Zero, New Zealand’s national road safety strategy.
Hamish Mackie is co-director of Mackie Research and has 22 years of research and consultancy experience in various areas of human factors, with the last 14 years spent mostly in the transport sector. As a certified Human Factors professional, and often working very closely with engineering projects, all of Hamish's work has the underlying theme of more human focussed systems and he has a particular focus on road safety and sustainable transport. Hamish has led a number of important road safety projects and trials including Hamilton Raised Safety Platform evaluation, Intersection Speed Zones evaluations, and Safe System course development. Hamish was the project lead for Te Ara Mua – Future Streets, a neighbourhood street retrofit to test safe and user-friendly streets in South Auckland.
Rebekah Thorne is a Researcher at Mackie Research and has previously worked in public engagement and communications in the transport sector and is interested in health promotion, sustainable urban planning and behavioural psychology. Rebekah has coordinated a number of road safety and active travel trials and significantly contributed to evaluations of Raised Safety Platforms and Intersection Speed Zones.
No charge but registration is essential. Can’t make the live session? Register and we’ll send you a link to the recording.