Page 3328 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 22 September 2015
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components of driver licence training and assessment. The recommendations of the review are being considered in developing the next action plan under the ACT road safety strategy.
The final recommendation which has been implemented and is ongoing is to conduct a targeted education campaign to promote the safety benefits of wearing motorcycle protective clothing. The report card notes that the ACT government previously participated in the development of the good gear guide which was commissioned by the commonwealth Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development and funded by the former National Road Safety Council. The good gear guide is available at Access Canberra shopfronts and is still available online. The benefits of protective clothing will continue to be promoted by Justice and Community Safety and ACT Policing.
The recommendations which are identified as being well advanced include the two-year trial of motorcycle lane filtering, which commenced in February this year, the recent same rights, same rules public awareness campaign and a trial of 30 kilometre an hour school zones as part of the active streets pilot program.
In addition, earlier this week I announced the details of a two-year trial of new cycling laws in the ACT. These will commence from 1 November and will require motorists to provide a minimum lateral distance when overtaking bicycles and will allow cyclists to ride slowly across pedestrian crossings. The minimum overtaking rule will educate drivers about what constitutes a safe lateral distance when overtaking cyclists. The pedestrian crossing changes will improve amenity for cyclists without compromising safety for cyclists and any other road user.
Both of these changes will be the subject of an awareness campaign commencing in mid-October to ensure that ACT road users understand the new rules. The campaign will include television, radio, print and digital materials.
As well as vulnerable road users, it is important for the government to continue its strong focus on drink driving. Over the last three years six people were killed in crashes where a driver had a blood alcohol concentration above the legal limit. The ACT alcohol ignition interlock program, which commenced in June 2014, is primarily intended to address repeat and high range drink driving. Participation in the interlock program is a mandatory condition of relicensing for certain high risk drink driving offenders, that is, is high range and habitual drink driving offenders. Voluntary participation is an option for other drink driving offenders who may reduce their disqualification period by agreeing to participate in, and comply with, the interlock program. As at the end of last year there were six mandatory and 21 voluntary interlock scheme participants since the scheme commenced.
The government’s road safety awareness program had another busy year, with the launch of several campaigns. In May the ACT government participated in National Road Safety Week with yellow ribbons being displayed on police and emergency services vehicles and vehicle inspection cars and Telstra Tower, Questacon and Old Parliament House were lit up in yellow at night for the week. National Road Safety Week was launched outside the ACT Legislative Assembly with an empty shoe
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