Why am I cynical?

From the Dilston Road Safety Committee
You and I — and everyone in Tasmania who has a car — are paying an annual $20 levy for road safety. Why? This money is supposed to be spent on improving road infrastructure.

It’s part of the Government’s 2007-16 Tasmania Road Safety Strategy. According to this Strategy, published by the Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources (see http://www.transport.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/16223/70490_DIER_AP_final_28_May_2007.pdf
), we should ‘fund major changes to the roads and driving environment to ensure that if a motorist makes a mistake on the roads, death does not result.’

Why should we care? Well, the Government thinks this is what we want and they want to help us get it. The report is ‘a vision for Tasmania based on the wishes of the Tasmanian people and contains a number of community goals and benchmarks that will help shape government policy, service delivery and budgets into the future.’

Okay, so imagine you live in a place like Longford or Burnie or the West Tamar, what does this mean? The report claims in big bold print: ‘The Tasmanian Government and the Tasmanian Road Safety Council are committed to working towards the elimination of fatalities and serious injuries caused by road crashes in Tasmania.’

And two of its key strategic directions are ‘Safer Travel Speeds’ and ‘Best Practice Infrastructure’.

Okay, so say I live in Dilston. What can I expect?

One of its major initiatives is a ‘MAIB State Black Spot Program’. This program is intended to ‘implement low cost, high return projects at locations on State and local roads with a crash history’. These include ‘installing roundabouts’. Why? ‘Research demonstrates the safety benefits of installing best practice infrastructure’. The report continues ‘What it will achieve’ is ‘reduction in serious casualties through targeted installation of best practice infrastructure and road treatments.’

So why am I cynical, after reading that we are aiming for best practice, that we are trying to reduce accidents, that we are investing the taxpayers’ money in safer road infrastructure? Why am I a little disappointed after reading the Corbin report that tells me that roundabouts reduce accidents by as much as 74%. Why don’t I feel more secure when I learn that a Monash University study shows that roundabouts adopted in Victoria have decreased the incidence of accidents by 80%?

Because I live in Dilston and DIER has told me the safest road is a grade separated one (like an overpass) but it is acceptable to not build one because the numbers where I live do not justify such costs.

Who is the Government’s strategy for? Where is our money going?