Fireseeds North Staff to be featured at CARSP Conference
Fireseeds North Staff will be featured at the Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals (CARSP) conference in Ottawa, May 27 to 30, 2015.
Our presentations at CARSP will feature work in effective road safety budget allocation, effective principles for Vision Zero adoption, the launch of a pilot in-service road safety review program for a provincial highway agency, and a toolbox for integrating gender and security issues with road safety planning.
Setting and allocating a road safety budget is a common challenge faced by transport agencies. On the one hand, everyone knows road safety is important. On the other hand, competing demands for funds and a lack of tools can make addressing this issue quite difficult. Our solution is to build up a set of tools that add up to what we call "Quantitative Road Safety Management." Our services range from building and applying these tools on a case-by-case basis to managing a program that annually delivers rigorous road safety budget allocations on a turn-key basis.
Vision Zero has been an effective campaign to increase attention and funding for road safety, first in Europe and now in the U.S., but Canadian adoption has been essentially non-existent. A number of key players and processes have to come together for effective Vision Zero adoption, and we will highlight what is required for a successful Vision Zero initiative in Canada. Fireseeds North can fill an advisory role for transport agencies who want to be among the first in Canada to take the bold steps of adopting Vision Zero.
An in-service road safety review program is a business process within quantitative road safety management. It starts with a group of identified experiencing higher collision risk levels. A site visit and structured analysis according to the TAC Canadian Guide for In-Service Road Safety Reviews produces short-term recommendations (<$100k) and long-term recommendations (>$100k). The former are usually implemented quickly while the latter enter the capital planning process. This presentation examines one provincial agency's pilot in-service road safety review program, which covered six sites and was completed in the summer of 2014. Fireseeds North can help agencies with in-service reviews on a batch or individual basis, and can also help set up the business processes for sustainable, annual programs, which usually begin with a pilot.
Gender is a big deal in transport safety. Worldwide, collision statistics show a hugely disproportionate number of men involved. Looking beyond collision statistics, another source of injury and harm on the transport system comes in the form of assault and harassment, with the vast majority of the burden falling on women. How we design and plan our infrastructure can impact the gender and security-related dimensions of road safety, which are often overlooked. Fireseeds North can provide agencies with tools and training to be proactive in mainstreaming gender issues in transport safety.
2015 marks the 25th CARSP conference and Fireseeds North looks forward to contributing and participating as road safety professionals across disciplines gather to network, learn, and advance the state of the practice. Contact us to meet up in Ottawa or to discuss any of the presentation topics: craig.milligan@fireseedsnorth.ca.