Developing a Local Road Safety Strategic Plan

Get started

Use the side arrows to navigate each step of developing your Local Road Safety Strategic Plan. We provide a quick overview of what your team should consider when developing the plan.

Identify a project manager to lead and take responsibility. Development of the plan is a collaborative effort from all relevant areas across council, but a project manager will streamline the process.

Once your team is ready to work on the plan, refer to the detailed information available in the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA NSW & ACT) ‘Guide to Developing a Council Road Safety Strategic Plan’ for in-depth support.

There are also examples of other local road safety plans that may help you develop your own.

Developing a Local Road Safety Strategic Plan

Background research & preparation

First gather background information. Identify how your plan fits within your council’s Community Strategic Plan and the Local Government Integrated Planning and Reporting Framework. The framework recognises that council plans and policies are interconnected.

Road safety assessment

Briefly describe the road safety problems in your local community. These may be caused by road users’ lack of knowledge or skills, or by limited resources. They may include physical considerations, such as the types of vehicles on certain roads. Analyse road crash data from your local government area (LGA) over past years. Collect as much relevant information as possible about each problem.

Questions to ask:

• Why is this a problem?
• Who does the problem impact?
• When did it become a problem?
• What time of the day, week or year is the problem worse?
• What aggravates or alleviates the problem?  

Detail the road safety efforts, programs and policies that are already in place or in development. Identify which efforts are being evaluated, and which should be implemented for the future.

Other considerations

• Who should be involved and how will they be involved (directly and indirectly)?
• How will the plan be implemented and monitored by council?
• How will the plan be documented and published?  

Ensure you are adopting a Safe System approach to improving road safety in your community.

Developing a Local Road Safety Strategic Plan

Work out a project strategy

Set objectives

Not all problems can be resolved quickly and simultaneously. Balance your long-term and short-term objectives in terms of priorities and resources. Rank the problems in order of priority, list the target groups that are associated with each problem and identify who can help solve them. Define SMART objectives for each one:

• Specific: link the objectives to the specific problems or target groups you have identified.
• Measurable: you should be able to quantify what will be achieved.
• Achievable: the objectives are realistic in the context of available funds.
• Relevant: the objectives are worthwhile; they relate to road safety improvement and to your organisation’s priorities.
• Time-bound: decide on a clear time frame and target date for each objective.      

Work with relevant road safety partners

Partner with stakeholders who have similar road safety objectives. Ask your council’s leadership team for guidance.

Contact the appropriate road safety communities, institutions, businesses, organisations, subject matter experts and advocates in your LGA to achieve your objectives and gain community support. Ask for feedback on road safety plans and discuss how you can collaborate on road safety actions and initiatives. Consider your plan’s overall goals and bigger picture, rather than focus on each groups’ individual interests.

Possible road safety partners include:

• local community groups
• advisory councils
• chambers of commerce
• local charities, foundations and not-for-profit organisations
• specific lobby groups or road safety organisations
• NSW Police Force and Police Citizens Youth Clubs (PCYC)
• land holders, road builders and managers
• vehicle and technology designers
• local hospitals and emergency services
• educational institutions, including:
  • primary and secondary schools
  • higher education providers, such as TAFE and universities
• general road users directly affected by local road safety planning changes, including:
  • transport and delivery businesses
  • passenger services
  • the public.

The Collaboration Hub provides examples of community road safety organisations.

Resources and funding

Estimate the cost of each stage of the project and highlight the benefits of improved road safety and potential lives saved.

Your analysis could lead to a redistribution of your current funding for projects and maintenance. State or federal government funding may be available for certain initiatives, especially if they address safety strategically.  

Potential funding sources include the Australian Government Black Spot Program, NSW Safer Roads Program and Local Government Road Safety Program.

Developing a Local Road Safety Strategic Plan

Identify road safety issues using road crash data

Road crash data can be used as a communications tool to encourage behavioural change, motivate road safety initiatives and set priorities for improving the road network. Statistics show trends and help you compare your situation to that of other LGAs. Road crash analysis involves looking for patterns in crash type, driver factors, road features, vehicle factors (including size, mass, age and safety features), or environmental conditions.

NSW road crash data is available from several sources:

• High-level summary crash and casualty data, as well as interactive crash statistics, are on the Centre for Road Safety website.
• Detailed crash data is available to the public on the Open Data site.
• Detailed crash information, downloadable crash statistics and data visualisations are available to local councils through the Safe Systems Analytics (SSA) app.
  • Local councils can email SSA.Support@transport.nsw.gov.au to request access.
  • Learn how to set up your account.

Learn more about using road crash data.

Developing a Local Road Safety Strategic Plan

Council support

A Local Road Safety Strategic Plan is a council’s statement of their commitment to road safety. Involve internal stakeholders early on to ensure the plan is promoted as a whole-of-council project and not limited to areas such as the traffic section or a Road Safety Officer.

Review the road safety implications of current work practices and policies with council managers and identify opportunities for change.

Develop a communication strategy to effectively communicate the plan and gain support. This covers who you need to communicate with before, during and after the actions, and identifies the communication medium. Consider creating a table with these headings:

• Message
• About which task or action (purpose)
• Delivered when
• Delivered how (tool/channel)
• Audience
• Dependencies.

Developing a Local Road Safety Strategic Plan

Design your plan

Once you have completed background research and identified the road safety issues to be addressed, it is time to design your road safety plan.  

Your plan will be specific to your community, but it can be helpful to look at other local council road safety plans.

Circulate your plan for comment and confirm action schedules

Commit to a timeline and review it regularly to maintain accountability. Priorities can be changed by many circumstances, such as funding, resources and urgent need to attend to other issues. Make sure that commitments are regularly reviewed, and that you adapt accordingly. It is fine to change plans, but don’t ignore them.  

Develop working documents for actions, implementation plans and a communication strategy. Note that these planning documents are separate to the annually reviewed Local Road Safety Action plans developed as part of the Local Government Road Safety Program.  

• List of actions
  Once you’ve defined measurable goals, establish your actions.
  Consider creating a table with these headings:
  • Priority (first to last)
  • Action
  • Description of action
  • Target group
  • Tools and methods
  • People involved
  • Measuring success/ indicators
  • Potential risks.
• Implementation plan
  Set a timeframe for each action and assign team members or partners to implement it. You can address the actions through a continuous campaign, or in waves. Update the plan regularly, outlining changes made due to unforeseen circumstances, priority changes and timing miscalculations.
  Consider creating a table with these headings:
  • Task or action
  • Responsible (who)
  • Time needed to complete task
  • Start date
  • Completion date
  • Comments
  • Status.

Developing a Local Road Safety Strategic Plan

Completion and endorsement

Consultation

It’s important to consult road safety stakeholders, including community organisations, professionals and the public. This process will lead to more effective planning and decision making and will reduce the risk and cost of unexpected negative consequences.

Consultation operates on four levels:

• information-giving
• information-seeking
• information-sharing
• shared decision-making.

Finalise the document

Once the Local Road Safety Strategic Plan content has been circulated and refined by your stakeholders and team, it’s time to produce a published document.

You will find tips on designing and writing your document on page 65 of the Guide to Developing a Council Road Safety Strategic Plan.

Developing a Local Road Safety Strategic Plan

Formative evaluation

It is important to monitor progress of your action/s during the development or early implementation phases and adjust where necessary.

• How will you judge the success of the actions?
• How often will the goals be evaluated to measure success (considering how the goals will be funded)?
• When should revision of the plan be considered? (For example, should the plan be a living document; should it be adjusted every two years or less often?)
• How will it be reviewed? Will a committee oversee implementation and evaluation periodically?
• Is further involvement needed from partners outside the council?