Australasian Road Safety Conference
Glenys Byrne, Road Safety Coordinator for the West Coast has recently returned from attending the Australasian Road Safety Conference in Cairns, Australia. Glenys was one of two South Island Road Safety Coordinators to be offered a scholarship from the Australian College of Road Safety to attend the four-day conference.
There were many excellent keynote speakers, one in particular was Professor Jan Theeuwes – Professor of Cognitive Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Jan Theeuwes worked at the TNO Human Factors Institute in the traffic behaviour group conducting human factors research for various national and international government agencies, and automotive companies. This research indicated that roads should be designed in such a way that road users immediately know how to behave and what to expect on these roads, known as “self-explaining roads”. This has become the leading principle in road design worldwide. While at the conference, it became apparent to me that the relationship between the three West Coast Councils’ transport departments and Waka Kotahi, offer the same unified response to West Coast roading, and as Road Safety Coordinator for the West Coast, I am responsible for keeping the road safety messages aligned to the Councils policies and plans, this includes speed limits, signage, advertising and driver education.
Another workshop I attended was ‘Woman in Road Safety’, during which a group was formed to disseminate information to the Road Safety sector. I volunteered to feed information back to our New Zealand group (SASTA – Safe and Sustainable Transport Association of New Zealand).
The conference has allowed me the opportunity to network with others in the Transport and Road Safety industries, it has been a very valuable experience, and I am hoping to have the opportunity to deliver a paper at the next Road Safety Conference.
Text and images: Glenys Byrne
