❓ The WA government is reviewing speed enforcement and implementing strategies to reduce speeding and improve road safety in rural areas, including increased police presence and camera technology. Specific strategies are targeted for the Midwest, Southwest, and Wheatbelt regions.
AnsweredQoN 157Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
(a) what measures are being considered for implementation to combat the trend for decreased speed limit compliance rates in rural areas;
(b) what specific and local strategies are being targeted for the Midwest, Southwest, Wheatbelt South and Wheatbelt North regions; and
(c) given that latest survey results showed significantly higher proportion of drivers in rural areas on 110 km/h speed limit roads were travelling 10+ km/h above the speed limit than in the previous speed surveys, what consideration is being given to reducing speed limits or other measures; and if so, what reduction is being considered?
(b) what specific and local strategies are being targeted for the Midwest, Southwest, Wheatbelt South and Wheatbelt North regions; and
(c) given that latest survey results showed significantly higher proportion of drivers in rural areas on 110 km/h speed limit roads were travelling 10+ km/h above the speed limit than in the previous speed surveys, what consideration is being given to reducing speed limits or other measures; and if so, what reduction is being considered?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
1 February 2009
Responded by
Minister for Road Safety
Response time
68 days
(a) A review of the speed enforcement operating in WA is currently underway which seeks to reduce the incidence of speeding on our roads through the implementation of best practice initiatives in speed enforcement including on-road policing by officers using hand held devices and the use of camera technology.
The Enhanced Speed Enforcement Steering Committee, established in 2007 at the request of the then Minister for Community Safety, is responsible for co-ordinating the development of a strategy to enhance speed enforcement to reduce serious injury and death on WA roads and develop a supporting business case for consideration by Government.
Membership of the Committee comprises senior representatives of the WA Police, Department for Planning and Infrastructure, Department of the Attorney General, Main Roads WA, Department of Treasury and Finance, Western Australian Local Government Association and the Office of Road Safety (ORS) (Chair).
In 2009, the Committee expects to make recommendations to increase the effectiveness of speed enforcement operations substantially, with specific reference to rural roads, which will contribute to reducing the death rate per 100,000 drivers on WA roads to a level consistent with the best in Australia.
(b) The Regional WA Road Policing Strategy targets areas which have been identified through Main Roads WA data and local knowledge and concentrates police resource toward these areas.
Midwest
The Mid West - Gascoyne District conduct intra and inter district traffic patrols targeting the main arterial routes, towns and other roads through out the Midwest and surrounding areas.
Specialist traffic patrols target black spots areas as highlighted by the Office of Road Safety along with areas of complaint identified through trends and intelligence gathered at a local level.
Traffic Enforcement Group patrols have been implemented on the Brand Highway from the metro area though to the Geraldton town site and a full time Multinova operator has commenced in the Mid West - Gascoyne District in December 2008.
As with all of Regional WA a tolerance of 8 kilometers an hour is in place regarding all vehicles in 110 kilometer speed zones.
Peel District
The Peel and South West District perform coordinated intra and inter district traffic patrols targeting main arterial routes that traverse through Peel to the South West. Speed cameras are deployed to identified areas in conjunction with patrols.
Officers have been instructed to be mindful of the speed camera tolerance and that in order to send an effective and consistent message they should consider infringements rather than cautions in line with speed camera policy.
Dedicated patrols and speed camera operations are dispatched from the Peel District Traffic Unit and supported by out stations.
South West District
The South West Police District has implemented a planned, co-ordinated and sustained Road Policing Enforcement Strategy targeted to reduce fatal and serious crashes on major arterial roads.
This strategy involves police station increasing road policing efforts within town sites to change driver behaviour of road users travelling on local rural roads and major arterial roads.
Each police station has ownership of a 'Road System' and the responsibility for performing planned, coordinated and sustained high visibility patrols during identified 'HOT' and 'WARM' periods.
The Strategy also includes police performing highway patrols to conduct static road policing for 15 minutes in the hour to counter the effects of fatigue. Motor Driver's Licence checks and Quality Vehicle Stops are conducted by police in a stationary capacity will reduce fatigue experienced by drivers and further increase visible presence across the South West District.
Wheatbelt Police District
Wheatbelt Police will continue to place a high priority on road policing and traffic enforcement. Enforcement of speed limits will continue to be addressed by mobile radar, static laser and speed camera. Deployment of cameras and all associated enforcement operations is target focused and based on intelligence with maximum use of resources during peak periods.
Wheatbelt will continue to work closely with key partners such as the Office of Road Safety and participate in driver education at every available opportunity.
Great Southern District
Each police station within Great Southern Police District performs traffic patrols based on local demographics, available historic traffic statistics and emerging trends and intelligence.
Intelligence to identify speeding hotspots and problem areas is derived from local police knowledge, crash records, reports from the public and sources such as Main Roads traffic counters which provide individual and averaged speed data at a number of sites.
Each OIC has the autonomy to select the time, date and place of their traffic activity to meet traffic priorities. Stations focus on periods where maximum traffic flows occur or certain traffic offences are prevalent.
Emphasis is placed on detecting speed-related offences through the use of mobile radar units in police vehicles, as well as the use of road-side hand-held laser speed detection operations. This provides opportunities for detecting speeding motorists in both the urban and rural and remote environments found with Great Southern Police District.
A speed detection camera is also based at Albany but deployed throughout the District on a regular basis.
(c) The Road Safety Council (RSC) has presented to government recommendations for a 12 year strategy (
Towards Zero: Road Safety Strategy for Western Australia 2008 2020
) for the future directions of road safety activity in Western Australia.
Safe speeds is a key element of the recommended Strategy, with a focus on both speed enforcement and speed limit policies. Speed management strategies are, however, a source of much debate within the community. This was evident during consultation on the Strategy where much of the discussion and focus was on the speed management elements, particularly speed limit reductions.
In light of the consultation feedback, the Road Safety Council has adopted a conservative approach to speed limit reductions in its recommended Strategy. While the evidence (presented by Monash in its optimal strategy recommendations) clearly shows that reducing speed limits across the network will give immediate and substantial gains, the collective view of the Council is that the community is not ready to fully embrace speed limit reductions, particularly in rural areas. In this regard, implementation of the Safe Speed recommendations in the RSC's Strategy will yield fewer road safety benefits than would be expected with a stronger commitment to speed limit reduction policies (11,000 fewer deaths and injuries compared with 15,300 under the optimal solution).
The Government will soon consider the RSC's recommendations.
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The Enhanced Speed Enforcement Steering Committee, established in 2007 at the request of the then Minister for Community Safety, is responsible for co-ordinating the development of a strategy to enhance speed enforcement to reduce serious injury and death on WA roads and develop a supporting business case for consideration by Government.
Membership of the Committee comprises senior representatives of the WA Police, Department for Planning and Infrastructure, Department of the Attorney General, Main Roads WA, Department of Treasury and Finance, Western Australian Local Government Association and the Office of Road Safety (ORS) (Chair).
In 2009, the Committee expects to make recommendations to increase the effectiveness of speed enforcement operations substantially, with specific reference to rural roads, which will contribute to reducing the death rate per 100,000 drivers on WA roads to a level consistent with the best in Australia.
(b) The Regional WA Road Policing Strategy targets areas which have been identified through Main Roads WA data and local knowledge and concentrates police resource toward these areas.
Midwest
The Mid West - Gascoyne District conduct intra and inter district traffic patrols targeting the main arterial routes, towns and other roads through out the Midwest and surrounding areas.
Specialist traffic patrols target black spots areas as highlighted by the Office of Road Safety along with areas of complaint identified through trends and intelligence gathered at a local level.
Traffic Enforcement Group patrols have been implemented on the Brand Highway from the metro area though to the Geraldton town site and a full time Multinova operator has commenced in the Mid West - Gascoyne District in December 2008.
As with all of Regional WA a tolerance of 8 kilometers an hour is in place regarding all vehicles in 110 kilometer speed zones.
Peel District
The Peel and South West District perform coordinated intra and inter district traffic patrols targeting main arterial routes that traverse through Peel to the South West. Speed cameras are deployed to identified areas in conjunction with patrols.
Officers have been instructed to be mindful of the speed camera tolerance and that in order to send an effective and consistent message they should consider infringements rather than cautions in line with speed camera policy.
Dedicated patrols and speed camera operations are dispatched from the Peel District Traffic Unit and supported by out stations.
South West District
The South West Police District has implemented a planned, co-ordinated and sustained Road Policing Enforcement Strategy targeted to reduce fatal and serious crashes on major arterial roads.
This strategy involves police station increasing road policing efforts within town sites to change driver behaviour of road users travelling on local rural roads and major arterial roads.
Each police station has ownership of a 'Road System' and the responsibility for performing planned, coordinated and sustained high visibility patrols during identified 'HOT' and 'WARM' periods.
The Strategy also includes police performing highway patrols to conduct static road policing for 15 minutes in the hour to counter the effects of fatigue. Motor Driver's Licence checks and Quality Vehicle Stops are conducted by police in a stationary capacity will reduce fatigue experienced by drivers and further increase visible presence across the South West District.
Wheatbelt Police District
Wheatbelt Police will continue to place a high priority on road policing and traffic enforcement. Enforcement of speed limits will continue to be addressed by mobile radar, static laser and speed camera. Deployment of cameras and all associated enforcement operations is target focused and based on intelligence with maximum use of resources during peak periods.
Wheatbelt will continue to work closely with key partners such as the Office of Road Safety and participate in driver education at every available opportunity.
Great Southern District
Each police station within Great Southern Police District performs traffic patrols based on local demographics, available historic traffic statistics and emerging trends and intelligence.
Intelligence to identify speeding hotspots and problem areas is derived from local police knowledge, crash records, reports from the public and sources such as Main Roads traffic counters which provide individual and averaged speed data at a number of sites.
Each OIC has the autonomy to select the time, date and place of their traffic activity to meet traffic priorities. Stations focus on periods where maximum traffic flows occur or certain traffic offences are prevalent.
Emphasis is placed on detecting speed-related offences through the use of mobile radar units in police vehicles, as well as the use of road-side hand-held laser speed detection operations. This provides opportunities for detecting speeding motorists in both the urban and rural and remote environments found with Great Southern Police District.
A speed detection camera is also based at Albany but deployed throughout the District on a regular basis.
(c) The Road Safety Council (RSC) has presented to government recommendations for a 12 year strategy (
Towards Zero: Road Safety Strategy for Western Australia 2008 2020
) for the future directions of road safety activity in Western Australia.
Safe speeds is a key element of the recommended Strategy, with a focus on both speed enforcement and speed limit policies. Speed management strategies are, however, a source of much debate within the community. This was evident during consultation on the Strategy where much of the discussion and focus was on the speed management elements, particularly speed limit reductions.
In light of the consultation feedback, the Road Safety Council has adopted a conservative approach to speed limit reductions in its recommended Strategy. While the evidence (presented by Monash in its optimal strategy recommendations) clearly shows that reducing speed limits across the network will give immediate and substantial gains, the collective view of the Council is that the community is not ready to fully embrace speed limit reductions, particularly in rural areas. In this regard, implementation of the Safe Speed recommendations in the RSC's Strategy will yield fewer road safety benefits than would be expected with a stronger commitment to speed limit reduction policies (11,000 fewer deaths and injuries compared with 15,300 under the optimal solution).
The Government will soon consider the RSC's recommendations.
Notice: This document is created or edited using unregistered or evaluation copy of rtLib valid for testing or development purposes only. To use it for productive or any other purposes please register it. You may purchase the license on
http://www.rtlib.com
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