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What a great Australasian Road Safety Conference (ARSC2025) in Perth last week, highlighting partners’ life-saving and widespread use of the iRAP methodology and tools to support safer roads and journeys throughout the region.

With the theme ‘Equity, Elasticity and Evolution’, the annual conference brought together more than 600 of the world’s leading road safety and injury prevention decision-makers, practitioners and researchers to advance road safety.

Reflecting on the conference, iRAP’s Chief of Future Impact Rob McInerney said, “iRAP partners around the world are delivering life-saving road upgrades and speed management.  From the Austroads led AusRAP road agency partners in Australia; Network assessments in Brunei, Star Rating for Schools in Indonesia and Vietnam; High risk corridor upgrades in Kenya; high-tech AI and big data success in the UK, Australia and Vietnam; and Mobility Snapshots in South Africa we are so proud of their impact and the sharing of their success for the mutual benefit of all”.

Just some of the key highlights included:

  • The AusRAP Workshop reviewing the new Austroads AusRAP dashboard and 2025 results covering over 70,000km of roads, next steps for developing crash history and vulnerable road user mapping, and planning ahead for the programme’s development to 2030. iRAP Chief of Future Impact Rob McInerney joined the expert panel to share success stories and experience from other iRAP partners around the world. The dashboard provides a single resource with access to the Star Rating results and Fatal and Serious Injury Crash Risk History, explanatory videos, case studies of success and detailed background and methodology details.

  • Keith Simmons, the Austroads AusRAP leader also shared the outcomes of the public launch of the Star Rating results with some 400 pieces of coverage, an estimated 50 million people reached with 100% positive sentiment and key message inclusion.

  • Main Roads WA in collaboration with Anditi were awarded iRAP’s Global 5-star performer award for the world’s largest AiRAP assessment. Using LiDAR, imagery and artificial intelligence to Star Rate some 19,000km of roads has transformed how Main Roads WA staff inform and deliver road safety improvements as well as support asset management, vegetation management, over-dimensional vehicle assessments and project reporting functions across the agency.

  • Our very own Judy Williams receiving the 2025 ACRS Women in Road Safety Award sponsored by Austroads. Judy’s outstanding global leadership in road safety was recognised along with her dedication to empowering the next generation of leaders.

  • The wide range of success stories shared by partners around the world as part of the Speed Management in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) Workshop run by Shane Turner, Blair Turner and Anna Bray Sharpin. This included the great work by Estiara Ellizar from Indonesia and Quynh Anh Phan from AIPF and a summary of ThaiRAP, Philippines and UN level success shared by Rob McInerney.

  • The Women in Road Safety Network Workshop: Advancing Equity, Embracing Elasticity and Driving Evolution Together. iRAP Global Programme and Communications Manager Judy Williams joined the panel sharing what we know about women’s mobility and how road designs can be made safer for women, supporting all vulnerable road users in the process.

  • Dr Shane Turner, the International Safe System Specialist from Abley shared iRAP Performance Tracking in Brunei that has seen the safety of the strategy road network improved from 46% rating 3-star or better in 2015, to 76% in 2024.

  • Estiara Ellizar’s (Ministry of Transport, Indonesia), presentation on school zone safety improvements in Solo, Bandung and Bekasi, Indonesia supported by Star Rating for Schools. With government and private sector funding, the evidence-based upgrades improved the schools’ star ratings from 1- and 2-stars, to 3, 4 and 5-stars.

  • William Majani Wambulwa from the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility detailed how iRAP Star Ratings and investment plans, together with targeted road safety audits have defined and delivered the road upgrades that are expected to see 40-70% reductions in road trauma across high-risk corridors in Kenya.

  • David Moyses, the Manager of the Road Safety Branch at Main Roads WA shared the results of Western Australia’s Regional Road Safety Programme which has so far improved a total of 7,200km leading to a 52% decrease in fatal crashes, and 51% reduction in fatal lane departure crashes. The evidence-based improvements have included shoulder sealing, wide centrelines, the installation of barriers and audible edge and centre lines, and removal of roadside hazards.

  • Dr Fritha Argus, Dr Richard Amoh-Gyimah and Nicole Coaker of Main Roads Western Australia shared WA’s LiDAR Point Cloud Data and AusRAP Star Rating Communications Strategy that has empowered staff across the organisation to understand and use the Star Rating results in their work with a range of internal dashboards developed to support safety for pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and vehicle occupants.

  • Dr Lee Randall shared an inspiring insight into road safety apartheid and the imperative of equity. As part of her work, they have been using the Global Alliance of Road Safety NGOs Mobility Snapshots to shine a light on 1-star journeys for pedestrians across South Africa.

  • Michael Kwok from Compass IoT shared the groundbreaking use of connected vehicle speed data to inform iRAP assessments drawing on practical examples from Wales with Road Safety Foundation as part of United Kingdom RAP and Western Australia as part of AusRAP.

  • Alex Price from Main Roads WA providing an entertaining look at a simple KPI like 80% of travel on 3-star or better roads and how it needs detailed specification and agreement of exactly what network of roads is included in any monitoring and routine reporting within the agency and nationally.

… and more …

Click on image to enlarge

Achieving UN Target 4, for more than 75% of travel to be on 3-star or better roads worldwide by 2030, stands to save over 400,000 lives a year, and nearly 330 million deaths and injuries over the 20 year life of the treatments, with an annual economic benefit of $1,000 billion to the global economy – a benefit of $8.80 for every $1 spent.

See  iRAP photos from the event

See official ACRS photos from the event

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