The Road Safety Innovation Fund (RSIF) is providing $12 million over four years from 2019–20 to support road safety research and the development of new road safety technologies.
The fund targets innovative projects that reduce harm and trauma-related crashes on Australia’s roads. They contribute to a safe and sustainable road transport system for everyone over the longer term.
Priority areas for funding under the program include:
- improving road safety in regional and remote areas
- reducing driver distraction and drug driving
- improving safety for vulnerable road users
- supporting road safety research and initiatives specific to the Australian context.
Innovations may include road safety management initiatives, new technologies or products, delivery techniques, or research to better informs policy development that are designed to support the Safe System approach and making road safety 'business as usual' for all road users.
They support a shift in the way we address road safety challenges, putting us on a path to zero deaths or serious injuries on our roads by 2050 (Vision Zero).
Under round one, $2 million was shared across 13 projects with activities including:
- protecting vulnerable users including pedestrians, cyclists and children
- crash prediction models
- improving night visibility of signs
- boosting heavy vehicle safety by trialling automated inspection capabilities
- driver decline sensitivity testing.
| Organisation | Project Description |
|---|---|
|
Mobility and Accessibility for Children in Australia |
Develop specifications and guidelines to enable manufacturers to produce products that reduce the risk of buckle release and eliminate the road safety risks from the use of buckle-covers in Australia today. |
|
NT Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics |
To increase the accessibility, uptake and efficiency of Drink and Drug Driving Education (DDEE) Programs through the development of an innovative online learning resource. |
|
City of Busselton |
Research the most effective mechanism for activating driver awareness of cyclists, in order to increase cyclists' confidence in feeling safe sharing the road with vehicles. |
|
Industrial Monitoring and Control Pty Ltd |
Heavy vehicle automated thermographic inspection |
|
Queensland University of Technology |
Development of a generalised mathematical program to better predict road crash frequency and severity. |
|
Sage Automation Pty Ltd |
Deployment and evaluation of smart school zones systems |
|
SmarterLite Pty Ltd |
Enhancing cost effective and low light and night time visibility of road signs, line marking and pavement marking using high performing photoluminescence |
|
University of Ballarat Federation University Australia |
Protecting vulnerable road users from turning semi-trailers using the virtual rail concept to reduce corner cutting. |
|
University of New South Wales |
Identifying in-vehicle measures for driver decline in dementia |
|
University of the Sunshine Coast |
Develop and implement an operational Cyclists Report of Incidents Tool (CRIT) to report and analyse cyclist’s incidents and near misses across Australia. |
|
The George Institute for Global Health |
Investigating the reach of child car restraint fitting services throughout rural and remote areas using remote virtual assistance technology |
|
University of Newcastle |
Investigating how long can an operator stay engaged in an automated vehicle (AV) when they are not actually driving to support future regulation of journey length for AVs. |
|
University of South Australia |
Develop a State-of-the-art user experience approach for assessing pedestrian safety factors through the experiences of older people. |
Under round two, $10 million was shared between 40 projects over three years. Activities to be undertaken by the successful projects announced on 9 July 2021 include:
- testing new ways to detect risks for vulnerable road users
- looking at barriers to the uptake of new technologies that support motorcyclist safety
- new crash barrier types, lighting, intersection design and crash-prediction tools that aim to improve infrastructure upgrades
- new crash-investigation tools and innovation in loading restraints for heavy vehicles
- innovation and technology to reduce risk-taking behaviours.
| Organisation | Project | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| Safe System Solutions Pty Ltd | Frangipole - a road sign post/pole designed for motorcyclist and cyclist safety. Conduct testing from independent accredited testing laboratories for Frangipole to be approved for use on the public road network. | Vulnerable road users |
| The University of Western Australia | Smart road side barriers with enhanced sustainability and impact energy absorption. Development of a new generation of rubberised concrete barrier with high crashworthiness performance using an innovative concept of rubberised concrete incorporating end-of-life tyres with enhanced and high-impact-energy-absorption recently developed at the University of Western Australia. | Infrastructure planning and investment |
| The University of Newcastle | Linking virtual reality with road safety for Indigenous Australians to understand why Indigenous people may or may not obtain a driver licence and the implications for resource accessibility; and to determine Indigenous peoples' VR technology requirements and expectations. | Indigenous Australians |
| University of Sydney | Reducing pedestrian crashes through better intersection design by establishing an Australian evidence base for the relationship between intersection design, delay and safety outcomes. | Infrastructure planning and investment |
| Monash University | Development of on-bike technology to capture objective and subjective measures of cyclist safety | Vulnerable road users |
| The University of New South Wales | Improving road safety delivery cyclists - This project will produce the first comprehensive study of the experience of delivery cyclists in Australia's two largest cities. | Vulnerable road users |
| The University of Adelaide | A novel low-cost Safe System-aligned treatment for regional and remote intersections | Remote road safety |
| ARRB Group Ltd | Using advanced driver assist technologies to inform road safety treatment priority locations | Infrastructure planning and investment |
| Griffith University | Advancing road safety: Identifying the physiological causes of fatigue in professional drivers during vehicle operations | Risky road use |
| Neuroscience Research Australia | Addressing child restraint system misuse through design - now and into the future. | Vehicle safety |
| La Trobe University | Development of planning-stage crash prediction tools for use at the planning stages. | Infrastructure planning and investment |
| The University of New South Wales | Improving young novice and experienced drivers' speed management | Risky road use |
| ARRB Group Ltd | Test effectiveness of a novel approach to roundabout design which will save both time and money, making roundabouts a more cost-effective treatment for addressing intersection crashes which are major contributors to road trauma. | Infrastructure planning and investment |
| Caravan Industry Association of Australia Ltd | To investigate various driver intelligent assistant technologies to improve in-transit driver safety for caravans & light trailers nationally | Vehicle safety |
| HeroSeraph Pty Ltd | Research, development and test a system to detect mobility-impaired pedestrians on and in the vicinity of the roadway to increase their safety and promote inclusivity | Vulnerable road users |
| Swinburne University of Technology | An evaluation of telematics devices for improving the driving behaviour of young drivers | Risky road use |
| Eye Candy Animation Pty Limited | Design, develop and evaluate a virtualised driver training tool designed primarily for those moving through the graduate licensing scheme | Vulnerable road users |
| The University of Sydney | Strategic scheduling and deployment of random breath and drug testing operations | Risky road use |
| Queensland University of Technology | Explore safety issues arising from fundamental changes of the driver's role in Automated Vehicles from an active controller to a passive supervisor, with associated risks of inattention, reduced situational awareness, and human errors. | Vehicle safety |
| Acusensus Australia Pty Ltd | Evaluate techniques to assess the likelihood of drivers to be impaired by drugs or alcohol. | Risky road use |
| Deakin University | Improving cycling safety at intersections using proactive personal safety alerts | Vulnerable road users |
| The University of New South Wales | Study on effectiveness of rigid safety barrier, made of high energy absorbing Crumb Rubber Concrete (CRC), on improving road safety. | Infrastructure planning and investment |
| Queensland University of Technology | Examining barriers associated with the uptake and acceptability of Advanced Rider Assistance Systems | Vulnerable road users |
| OmniGrip Direct Pty Ltd | Improve night-time road safety hybrid reflective, photoluminescent (PL) and solar-charged LED Chevron Alignment Marker (CAM) road signs | Infrastructure planning and investment |
| Flinders University | Determining the effectiveness of vestibular and ocular motor function screening assessments for identifying sleepy drivers | Risky road use |
| Omni-Aware Holdings Pty Ltd | Evaluating crash risk and risky road use using LiDAR based perception technology | Risky road use |
| Monash University | Heavy vehicle safety: developing and evaluating a systems-thinking crash investigation tool | Heavy vehicle safety |
| The University of Adelaide | In-depth no-blame investigations of crashes involving trucks | Heavy vehicle safety |
| Swinburne University of Technology | Road Safety Barriers: Assessment of Standard Systems and optimisation of Emerging Designs | Infrastructure planning and investment |
| Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) Roadwise Program | Road Safety Ratings for Local Government Road Project - Create a tool to assess the safety of local government roads using a simple and clear methodology to help prioritise road network investment. | Infrastructure planning and investment |
| Swinburne University of Technology | Driver monitoring technologies to quantify impairment for medicinal cannabis users | Risky road use |
| The University of New South Wales | Choosing safer vehicles and increasing the competency and confidence of older drivers in the use of advanced vehicle technologies (AVT) | Vehicle safety |
| Queensland University of Technology | A novel real-time risk assessment system for vulnerable road users at signalised intersections using Artificial Intelligence-based video analytics | Vulnerable road users |
| Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology | Heavy vehicle wheel end fire and mechanical failure prevention device | Vehicle safety |
| The University of Adelaide | Mass collection of naturalistic cyclist-vehicle passing distance data for evidence-based road safety intervention | Vulnerable road users |
| The University of Queensland | Prediction of crash risk of school children in Brisbane pilot school zones via artificial intelligence | Vulnerable road users |
| Central Queensland University | How tired is too tired to drive? Reducing fatal and serious injuries from road crashes by establishing the concept of deemed impairment for fatigued driving | Risky road use |
| Australian Forest Contractors Association | Forestry Log Haulage Safety Initiative: Develop tools to be able to be adopted quickly to support risk mitigation with technology and improve current practice to reduce human error factors. | Heavy vehicle safety |
| Little Blue Dinosaur Foundation Limited | This project aims to understand more about the trends, causes and factors that lead to road trauma in children and then implement trial programs to combat the rise and aim to reduce road trauma to zero. | Vulnerable road users |
| University of the Sunshine Coast | Capturing road safety data from gig economy workers: Development and trial of the Gig economy Reporting of Incidents Tool (GRIT) | Workplace road safety |