Halving Roadway Fatalities: A Case Study from Victoria, Australia 1989-2004

FHWA-PL-06-011

The lowest road crash death rates per capita can be found in Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Australia is close behind, but comes from a far worse starting point.

Australia is a very useful benchmark for the United States, partly because it is also a federation, but mostly because it is part of the "new world" where urban form, regional development, and road transport developed more or less contemporaneously. The two countries share similar land transport systems.

Australia's-particularly Victoria's-success demonstrates the potential that exists for saving thousands of lives per year in the United States. This is a brief account of how that success was achieved and of what it might take for the United States to replicate the outcome.

• HTML Version
• PDF Version (0.8 mb)