Safe System

The Safe System approach covers all aspects of our road transport system and provides a framework to improve the safety of road users.

Road safety is a responsibility we all share. As government officials, community organisations, employers, and road safety advocates, we all need to do our bit to promote safer roads, vehicles, speeds and behaviours. Adopting the Safe System approach reduces the chance of a small mistake resulting in serious injury or death.

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Conventional road safety management involves identifying high-risk locations based on previous crashes. In contrast, the Safe System actively assesses all road safety risks so that actions can be taken to reduce the number of crashes and their severity.

The table below shows the differences between conventional and Safe System approaches to thinking about and improving road safety.

Questions	Conventional	Safe System
What's the problem?	Crashes	Fatalities and serious injuries
What causes the problem?	Mainly poor road user performance. Speeding, drink driving, inattention, deliberate risk taking	System failures
Who's ultimately responsible?	Individual road users	System designers and operators
What's the major planning approach?	Incremental approach to reduce the problem with an associated residual crash problem	A systematic approach to build a safe road system and minimise harm
What's the appropriate goal?	Optimum number of fatalities and serious injuries based on compelling objectives	Towards the near elimination of deaths and serious injuries
What's the trade-off?	A balance between mobility and safety	Maximising safe mobility
How's the effort coordinated?	Incremental gain within individual pillars (roads / speeds / vehicles / people)	Optimise solutions across pillars (roads / speeds/ vehicles / people) - pillars compensate for each other where performance is poor
What are the cultural manifestations?	Legal liability avoidance and risk aversion	Risk assessment, innovation, trials and demonstrations
Context of tools in use	Bias towards pre-existing crash history, understanding crash causes and likelihood, optimising the network for motor vehicles	Risk analysis based on network design attributes supplemented by crash data, understanding crash consequence, optimising the network for all road users and human frailty

Source: Austroads Guide to Road Safety Part 1 - Introduction to Safe System AGRS01-21

Safe people

People are at the heart of the Safe System approach to road safety.

Explore 'Safe people'

Safe roads

Safe roads are designed and built to be more forgiving and account for human error.

Explore 'Safe roads'

Safe vehicles

Safe vehicle choices can greatly affect your ability to survive a crash.

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Safe speeds

A small increase in speed can make a big difference to the severity of a crash.

Explore 'Safe speeds'

Safe System in action

Refer to annual NSW Road Safety Progress Reports to get an overview of how our teams are working collaboratively across all levels of government and with communities to deliver Safe System aligned projects.

The Local Government Road Safety Program Guides explain how the Safe System approach applies to local councils from a behavioural and community education angle. It also provides examples of each Safe System principle, as all components of the system should be considered in relevant projects.

Case study

Protecting motorcyclists along the Oxley Highway

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Council Road Safety Officers can log into the Hub to access RSO case studies.

Resources

Safe System approach
Road safety technology
Safe System research
Road safety reports & studies
Movement and Place
- Framework that delivers on NSW policy and strategy directions to create successful streets and roads by balancing the movement of people and goods with the amenity and quality of places. The framework supports the Safe System approach.