title: Effectiveness of the black spot programs in Western Australia.
abstract: This study evaluates the effectiveness of the Black Spot Programs in Western Australia. Reduction in crash rate at the treated locations and the economic benefits of these treatments were assessed. The results showed that the programs have been effective overall, reducing all reported crash rate by 15%. The estimated crash cost savings were 50.8 million Australian dollars, of which 89% could be attributed to the reduction in casualty crashes. This led to net savings to the community of 40.4 million Australian dollars ($35.1 million attributable to casualty crashes) after subtracting the capital costs of treating sites, maintenance and operating costs. The benefit cost ratio across all treatment sites was 4.9. Evaluation of the treatments has identified some effective treatment types and others without any significant change in either the rate or cost of crashes. The latter could be due to insufficient number of sites that received the treatment, the post-treatment period being relatively short, or the treatments genuinely had little impact on road safety. Findings of this study provide objective information for the development of effective strategies on road safety investment.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Curtin University of Technology, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: Lynn B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Meuleners
authors.forename: Delia
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hendrie
authors.forename: Andy H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Legge
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000191:economics / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D019992:Databases as Topic; D006801:Humans; D018986:Motor Vehicles / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000191:economics*; D011634:Public Health / Q000191:economics*; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D017751:Safety Management / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014904:Western Australia; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000191:economics* / Q000517:prevention & control