The 2022 Australasian Road Safety Conference, was held in conjunction with Trafinz NZ. With the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic mainly behind, the organising committee were pleased to present the proceedings for the first hybrid format for this conference. Conference attendees were able to attend in person (at the Te Pae conference centre in Ōtautahi Christchurch) or virtually, including live streamed plenary sessions. This is the seventh conference in the series that commenced with amalgamation of the Road Safety Research and Education Conference and the Australasian College of Road Safety Conference. It is the first time the combined conference has been in New Zealand. This conference was a unique opportunity for everyone involved in road safety including researchers, practitioners, policymakers, police, educators, advocates and community groups to meet, present and discuss their work.
These proceedings describe research, educational and policing program implementation and policy and management strategies related to all aspects of road safety and especially related to the conference theme of Changing Today for Tomorrow. Over 600 delegates from 18 countries will be attending the hybrid conference.
This conference covered a comprehensive range of topics including speed, infrastructure and road design, education, licensing, vehicle design, impairment due to alcohol, drugs and mobile phones. The conference plenaries also covered the impacts of climate change on future transport systems and how this might impact on road safety. There was also a special plenary session on safety issues for Indigenous people groups across New Zealand and Australia and how we can work with these communities to achieve vision zero.
The conference also presented both face-to-face and virtual symposium sessions including the following important topics: Integrating road safety into local Government, Automated Enforcement, Implementing Speed Management in Victoria and New Zealand, Gig economy road safety, Changing the way we think about older Australian drivers, Managing the safety of ageing heavy vehicle drivers, How safe is your dinner and Redeveloping Bike Education.
Authors of accepted Extended Abstracts and Full Papers represent international and local institutions from all aspects of their respective communities including research centres, private companies, government agencies and community groups. These Extended Abstracts provide an indication of the important work being done in Australia, New Zealand and internationally as part of the United Nations, One UN Vision for Road Safety to reduce the number of crashes on the road by 50 percent by 2030.
The Conference Organising Committee allowed two manuscript types for the conference: ‘Extended Abstracts’ and peer-reviewed ‘Full Papers’. Using a similar format to the previous successful conference in 2021, the Conference Scientific sub-Committee initially called for submissions in the form of Extended Abstracts (approx. 1 to 3 pages). Each Extended Abstract was reviewed by two independent expert peer reviewers on the following selection criteria: content consistent with the conference theme, novelty of information or data, clarity, relevance to practice or policy, scientific merit, and interest to audience. Over 200 Extended Abstract manuscripts were accepted for face-to-face (F2F), virtual (around 80) and poster sessions. To accommodate more presentations into the four F2F conference streams some authors were offered a rapid-fire presentation slot of 4 minutes, with the option to provide a longer virtual presentation or poster.
Authors were also provided the option of submitting a Full Paper, which is HERDC* compliant. Based on the outcome of the peer review of their Extended Abstract, some authors who requested extension of their submissions into Full Papers for a run on into the Journal of Road Safety, were provided that opportunity by the two peer reviewers. The submitted Full Paper subsequently underwent a further review by three independent peer reviewers for inclusion into the Journal of Road Safety (JRS). There were a record number of Full Paper submissions of which nine of twenty four submitted have so far been fully peer-reviewed and accepted as ‘In-Press’ submissions for publication in the JRS. DOI links to these full papers are included into these proceedings.
For the second time in the conference series the ACRS2022 partnered with Monash University’s Monash Art, Design and Architecture (MADA) to link Poster authors with final year graphic design students and alumni. Like at the ARSC2021 this gave authors an opportunity to develop high quality visual communications of their poster content. The Authors who chose this option that were matched with a MADA graphic design student and successfully completed the Poster, have had their Poster attached to their Extended Abstract pdfs in these proceedings. The Poster authors were also provided a 4 minute oral rapid-fire presentation slot in a concurrent podium session, followed by a 30 minute poster session, where attendees could ask questions.
