Acknowledging the devastating impact of road crashes in Western Australia, road safety was a focus area of one of the Concurrent Sessions.

RAC Group Executive Social and Community Impact Pat Walker took the audience through the upcoming three-year safer speed trials earmarked to begin later this year in the Shire of Augusta Margaret River and City of Busselton. 

209 people have been seriously injured or killed in those two Local Government areas between 2017 and 2021.

The trial, due to start in September, came about because Local Government leaders and the community were demanding speed zone reductions in their area.

“Community sentiment is really growing around reducing speeds and credit to a number of towns who have actually reduced speeds,” he said.

“Interestingly our state politicians haven’t caught up with this changing community sentiment.”

Mr Walker gave an example of three roads – one with sealed shoulders and lane marking, one with no shoulders and a narrow road with no line markings – which all had a 90kmh speed limits to highlight how many roads in regional areas had speed limits which may be too high and confusing for motorists.

He also sought to debunk claims that reducing speed limits would blow out drive times, noting the journey from Perth to Geraldton would take an extra seven minutes, if the speed limit was reduced from 110kmh to 100kmh.

A focus on regional speed limits was needed, Mr Walker said, as most crashes on country roads were single vehicle – where stopping distance was a major issue.

This was backed up by Australian Road Research Board’s Malcolm Mak, who canvassed several options available to improve road safety, such as sealing shoulders, lowering speed limits and installing audible lines.

Mr Mak said WA’s huge road network, low traffic volume and limited Local Government budgets presented significant challenges to improving road safety.

ARRB and Main Roads WA are developing a guide to help Local Governments better allocate budgets to appropriate treatments and is due to be completed in July 2023.

Fatalities on WA roads cost approximately $7.1 billion between 2018 and 2022.

And new tools and guides are needed, according to WALGA Road Safety and Infrastructure Policy Officer Max Bushell, who said existing tools required a high level of expertise and were not always suitable for Local Governments.

The Road Safety Rating project is one such solution which can be used to assess roads and recommend safety treatments anywhere from the City of Stirling to Shire of Menzies.

“The tool is rooted in science and methodology to give an accurate star rating,” Mr Bushell said.

View Max Bushell's Presentation here

View Malcom Mak's Presentation here

View Patrick Walker's Presentation here