Ian Faulks

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Researcher at Macquarie University

29. Faulks, I.J. (2013). Goodbye speed limits: The NT’s risky road safety strategy. The Conversation (Online journal), published 17 October 2013. Website: https://theconversation.com/goodbye-speed-limits-the-nts-risky-road-safety-strategy-19241 The Northern Territory government has announced its long-delayed election commitment to remove a 130 km...

Website: https://theconversation.com/point-to-point-cameras-better-than-average-at-nabbing-speeders-18842 Average speed cameras – or point-to-point (P2P) speed cameras – are a relatively new form of speed enforcement that measures persistent or sustained speeding over distances, rather than the (possibly) transitory speed of a vehicle at a particu...

In accord with the UN Global Decade of Action 2011-2020, Indonesia is committed to reducing its traffic fatalities by 50% by the end of 2020. Traffic accidents in 2010 were officially estimated to result in an annual social cost of about 3.1% of the Indonesian Gross Domestic Product (GDP), rising to 3.7% of GDP in 2011 (i.e., ~AUD 29.8 Billion of a...

This paper aims to add to the sparse research on patterns of traffic offending in young novice drivers by examining the trajectories of young Australian novices throughout the graduated driving licensing system (GDLS). Data on licensing, crashes and traffic offences for all persons aged under 25 years first licensed from July 2007 to June 2008 in N...

Faulks, I.J. (2019). Caught red-handed: Automatic cameras will spot mobile-using motorists, but at what cost? The Conversation (Online journal), published 2 November 2019. Website: https://theconversation.com/caught-red-handed-automatic-cameras-will-spot-mobile-using-motorists-but-at-what-cost-125638 The Australian State of New South Wales is abou...

Introduction: In mid-2007 the State of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia introduced modifications to the existing graduated driver licensing system, lengthening the mandatory number of supervised hours for learner drivers aged under 25 years from 50 to 120 and extending the minimum learner period from 6 to 12 months. Additional driving restrictio...

Motorists whose journey has been interrupted by signalized traffic intersections in school zones resume their journey at a faster vehicle speed than motorists who have not been required to stop. Introducing a flashing "check speed" sign 70m after the traffic intersections counteracts this interruptive effect. The present study examined which aspect...

Norfolk Island is an Australian external territory in Oceania. The significant road safety reforms in Australia from the 1970s onward bypassed the island, and most road safety 'silver bullets' adopted in other Australian jurisdictions were not introduced. While legislative amendments in 2010 introduced mandatory seat belt wearing for vehicle occupa...

Electric-motored personal mobility devices (PMDs) are appearing on Australian roads. While legal to import and own, their use is typically illegal for adult riders within the road transport system. However, these devices could provide an answer to traffic congestion by getting people out of cars for short trips (" first-and-last mile " travel). Cit...

The Indonesian National Traffic Police Corps (INTPC) has a central role in achieving a reduction in Indonesia’s crash fatalities in half by 2020, in accord with the UN Global Decade of Action 2011-2020. Legislation establishes Law 22 through the INTPC as the de facto lead agency for road safety. The scope includes: • Road policing • Traffic managem...

"It should be noted that we are not arguing that it is invalid to treat speeding behaviour as an intentional act. Indeed, drivers do deliberately and consciously intend to speed on the roads. What we are arguing is that in some circumstances it is the way the road infrastructure is designed that may encourage and prompt motorists to engage in other...

Website: https://theconversation.com/where-drivers-dont-mean-to-speed-its-no-good-just-fining-them-32747 Blaming motorists for their speeding may at times be undeserved. We have recently shown that, rather than intentional wrong-doing by drivers, cognitive factors can explain speeding behaviour. Policies and enforcement measures to tackle speeding...

Website: https://theconversation.com/self-driving-cars-will-not-help-the-drinking-driver-31747 There is an unexpected revolution underway in road safety. True, the highly visible community-wide programs continue, but behind the scenes there are major changes underway in how safety will be managed within road transport systems. The self-driving car...

Inappropriate speed is a causal factor in around one third of fatal accidents (OECD/ECMT, 2006). But are drivers always consciously responsible for their speeding behavior? Two studies are reported which show that an interruption to a journey, caused by stopping at a red traffic light, can result in failure to resume the speed of travel prior to th...

New vehicles are entering the Australian road transport system, and their entry has been relatively rapid. Alternative vehicles such as motorised mobility devices (MMDs) and personal mobility devices (PMDs) are becoming common features of Australian roads. Their entry marks both the migration from in-home assistive technologies (MMDs), as well as t...

See: https://theconversation.com/new-road-rules-when-can-motorcyclists-beat-the-traffic-24898 Motorcyclists are about to get a green light to "filter" through traffic on New South Wales roads. But what does that mean, for them and others sharing the road? And what are the rules for motorcycles weaving through traffic across the rest of Australia?

This article was published in The Conversation, an online academic journal, on 6 May 2013: https://theconversation.com/electric-unicycles-minifarthings-and-the-future-of-urban-transport-13331 - - - - - Whether we like it or not, there is a pecking order on the road. At the top, either high performance sports cars or the massive B-double freight tr...

In accord with the UN Global Decade of Action 2011-2020, Indonesia is committed to reducing its traffic fatalities by 50% by the end of 2020. Traffic accidents in 2010 were officially estimated to result in an annual social cost of about 3.1% of the Indonesian Gross Domestic Product (GDP), rising to 3.7% of GDP in 2011 (i.e., ~AUD 29.8 Billion of a...

This commentary provides an analysis on the issue of seatbelts on school buses. It was published in The Conversation, an online academic journal, on 2 November 2012 https://theconversation.edu.au/a-national-disgrace-all-school-buses-need-seatbelts-10447 It is a response to the release of the NSW School Bus Safety Community Advisory Committee's repo...

This report is the text of a paper presented to the Innovation Group Fleet Safety Seminar, held at Homebush, Sydney, on Friday 25 May 2012. The relationship between the Safe System approach and work health and safety is examined, and the concept of the 3D Haddon Matrix (see Faulks & Irwin, 2002) is described for work-related driving and commuting....

This report provides the text of a keynote paper presented to the National Conference on Traffic Laws and Rules: Opportunities and Challenges Ahead, held in Tehran, Iran on Sunday 22 April 2012. A number of elements – commitment, cooperation and co-ordination, communication, evaluation, and courage – are needed for success in the future road safety...

This report is a briefing paper in presentation format provided to assist Allan Williams for the workshop “Human Factors H: Innovations in Graduated Driver Licensing—Heading in the Right Direction?” at the 90th annual meeting of the US Transportation Research Board, Sunday 23 January 2011. The presentation briefing reviews: (a) the introduction to...

Traditional road safety advertising via media such as television, print media, and radio and static roadside advertising, is being overtaken by a transition to broader campaigns that include the internet, digital marketing and direct marketing. This paper discusses several examples of recent road safety advertising campaigns that have used novel ap...

This paper looks to the future to consider where traffic enforcement practice will be in the decades to come, and discusses current enforcement practices in order to highlight those that are most effective based on experience and practice. Traffic policing is about detection and deterrence, guidance, and persuasion, to ensure safe and legal road be...

Three different education and intervention programs have been implemented for young drivers in the Blacktown community, in the western suburbs of metropolitan Sydney. These programs are designed and delivered with the expressed aim of ‘keeping young people out of trouble, and keeping your drivers licence’, rather than having a focus on safe driving...

This paper provides the first national survey of the road safety-related activities of service clubs in Australia (such as Lions Clubs International, Rotary International, Apex, Kiwanis, etc.). Service clubs are active in a number of areas of road safety, although most activities target the risks of road trauma involving young people. Lions clubs h...

The management of vehicle speeds within school zones in NSW was examined, using covert naturalistic studies of driver behaviour. Approximately 70.0% of all vehicles entering school zones during the morning school zone period exceeded the 40km/h school zone limit, while 47.6% of vehicles exiting the zone exceeded the limit. During the afternoon scho...

This report is a briefing paper in presentation format provided to assist Allan Williams for the workshop “Human Factors H: Innovations in Graduated Driver Licensing—Heading in the Right Direction?” at the 90th annual meeting of the US Transportation Research Board, Sunday 23 January 2011. The presentation briefing reviews: (a) the introduction to...

This report is a briefing paper in presentation format provided to assist Allan Williams for the workshop “Human Factors H: Innovations in Graduated Driver Licensing—Heading in the Right Direction?” at the 90th annual meeting of the US Transportation Research Board, Sunday 23 January 2011. The presentation briefing reviews: (a) the introduction to...

This paper provides a summary of the debates happening in Australia concerning alcohol over the period 2008-2009. In previous papers, we have outlined the approaches to prevention and to enforcement policies regarding alcohol, other drugs and traffic safety in Australia. Drink driving and alcohol-related road trauma continue to be seen as major fac...

Previously, a comprehensive range of 34 safety-related Intelligent Vehicle Technologies (IVTs) has been evaluated for effectiveness in Australia, based on a business case model developed by the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) in Victoria. This paper reviews new literature from 2008-2009 regarding IVTs. An annotated bibliography of more than 150...

Young driver safety in New South Wales has improved over the past decade. The graduated driver licensing system in New South Wales is a blue ribbon system reflecting world best practice, but further developments are possible. In December 2009, New South Wales introduced a structured lesson plan program for learner drivers where 10 one-hour lessons...

Objective. This paper reviews the status of alcohol, drugs and traffic safety in Australia, with emphasis on developments in the period 2008-2010. Methods. Academic and grey literature was examined to identify specific studies and commentaries addressing alcohol, drugs and traffic safety in Australia. As well, records of parliamentary proceedings...

This paper builds on presentations given at the 2009 Transportation Research Board Occupant Protection Committee meeting in Washington DC; the 2009 Indonesia Transport Safety Assistance Package in Sydney; and the 2010 Road Safety Research, Policing and Education conference in Canberra. The Australian road transport system has to be modified to take...

No abstract available

Recent research using a driving simulation task examined the effects of conversing over a mobile phone to that of conversing with a passenger in the number of errors made by the driver. Young drivers (18-25 years) were engaged in a naturalistic conversation in these two conditions and their performance was compared to that of a group of drivers who...

In Australia, strategies to tackle drivers impaired by alcohol or other drugs are based on general deterrence and targeted operations. Random breath testing is widely used across the Australian jurisdictions to combat alcohol impaired driving (drink driving), and most jurisdictions have adopted, or are to adopt, roadside drug testing of drivers. Ro...

Several trials of speed limiter devices are underway in Australia. The authors review these trials and estimate potential road safety benefits. This review builds on a paper that was prepared for the 20th ESV. It was found that the technology is ready for widespread implementation. Extensive trials of Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) throughout t...

The F3 Sydney-Newcastle Freeway is part of a multi-modal transport corridor north of Sydney comprising the freeway, the older Pacific Highway, and the Main Northern railway line. The F3 Freeway generally operates at a speed zoning of 110 km/h, but there are lower speed limits at its commencement and end and at locations involving significant change...

This paper reviews the status of alcohol, drugs and traffic safety in Australia, with a focus on the problems posed by young impaired drivers. Alcohol remains the most critical drug for road trauma. The use of common impairing substances other than alcohol among young drivers in Australia will be reviewed. Strategies for combating impaired driving...

This paper proposes the introduction of an Enhanced Training Program (ETP) as a structured program that overlays the New South Wales Roads and Traffic Authority's successful graduated driver licensing system and the 120 hour log book requirement. The Enhanced Training Program is an education intervention that allows for the direct targeting of an i...

This paper provides a brief comment on issues associated with learner driver training. Australian jurisdictions started to implement driver licensing systems in the early 1900s, with a primary focus on individual identification. Licensing systems developed additional features, such as fitness to drive, demonstration of required knowledge and compet...

This paper reviews the graduated driver licensing system used in New South Wales to regulate the entry of novice drivers into the driver licensing system, and compares the Australian approaches to graduated driver licensing with systems in use in North America and elsewhere. It is proposed that the Australian approaches, as exemplified by the New S...

This paper is based, in major part, upon the international review and synthesis performed by Barry M. Sweedler, Kathryn Stewart and Ian J. Faulks, of Safety and Policy Analysis International during 2008 as part of a major project examining seatbelts on buses in Singapore. Several issues have been raised regarding unintended consequences and impedim...

The road safety of infants, children and youth encompasses dramatic periods of development and maturation, with a transition from total dependency changing to independence occurring over a timescale measured in decades. Three major phases can be discerned over this time: • A period of passivity in infancy, with a strong focus on occupant protection...

The seminar was aimed at professionals involved in road safety in the community at the local government and state government levels. The NSW (Sydney) Chapter of the Australasian College of Road Safety has conducted a regular series of seminars since 2003, with a continuing annual funding grant from the Motor Accidents Authority. The seminar on road...

The television and outdoor advertising versions of the Little Pinky advertisements of the 'Speeding. No one thinks big of you' campaign have been the subject of formal complaints to the Advertising Standards Bureau, an industry self-regulatory body in Australia. The television component of the Little Pinky advertisement was the subject of complaint...

In recent years, there has been an explosion of new technologies for incorporation within vehicles that are currently on the market or under development by suppliers to the automotive industry. A number of these technologies are aimed at improving safety either by reducing the risk of a crash occurring or by improving the protection offered by a ve...

The paper is in two parts. First, the STAYSAFE Committee’s work promoting the reduction of a 60 km/h to a 50 km/h general urban speed limit is outlined. Drivers might know all the things to look out for as road hazards, but if they are driving too fast then they are the hazard. In the words of a British road safety advertisement: “If you can’t stop...

Fleet and work-related road safety has grown in prominence in recent years as the scale of the problem has emerged. This includes people involved in crashes as pedestrians when they are commuting to and from work, or walking on work-related errands, people involved in crashes whilst working by the roadside, or driving as part of their work, either...

This monograph provides the proceedings of meetings held around the theme of global road safety initiatives in early April 2006, as part of the 4th meeting of the Australasian Parliamentary Road Safety Committees. Following World Health Day in 2004, it became apparent that more needed to be done to promote the evolving global effort to improve road...

Faulks, I.J. (2003). Parliament and corruption. Lecture presented to the Responsible Parliamentary Government course. Centre for Democratic Institutions, Australian National University, Canberra, 19 November 2003.

At the beginning of the 21st Century there has been increasing attention paid to the phenomenon of ‘road rage’, or aggressive and intimidatory and threatening behaviour by drivers towards other road users. A large number of Australasian research and review papers and documents were identified. A considerable number of these papers and documents wer...

Faulks, I.J. (2002). Speech notes for the STAYSAFE Committee at the launch of Fairfield City Council's "Save your street from street racers" initiative, 4:00 p.m., Wednesday 20 March 2002, at Eastern Creek International Raceway

This paper has been written as a commentary or footnote to a perennial issue in road safety—the debate over the need for seat belts to be fitted to buses. It identifies and reviews issues that are commonly raised in community discussions regarding bus occupant safety, and provides a snapshot of the history of high level policy review in this area....

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of injury death for international tourists. This makes road safety an important issue for tourism authorities. Unfortunately, as it is in other areas of tourist health, the common response from the travel and tourism industry is to remain silent about this problem and to leave any mishaps in the hands of...

Chickens that had received bilateral injections of cycloheximide or glutamate into the forebrain on day 2 of life and tested 4 weeks later showed no deficit in acquisition, performance or extinction of continuously reinforced appetitive key-pecking as compared to control birds injected with saline. However, chickens that had received injections of...

Four week old chicks were trained to perform a continuously reinforced appetitive key-pecking response in an operant chamber originally designed for pigeons. They were subsequently tested for tonic immobility. Comparisons between tonic immobility and various stages of operant training showed that those chicks which did not enter the magazine feeder...

Normal saline-injected rats were tested repeatedly on a standard catalepsy test. With repeated testing the animals showed a progressive increase in their catalepsy scores. It is suggested that this behaviour may be a form of tonic immobility and should be controlled for in catalepsy experiments.

Single administrations of LiCl in fluid deprived pigeons produced immediate and sustained drinking which was (a) significantly greater than in NaCl-injected birds, (b) a function of the dosage of lithium, and (c) persistent for several days following the highest dosage used. Experiment 2 employed the same procedures to examine the effects of lithiu...

This 2007 monograph publishes the proceedings of the first ever international conference on distracted driving, held in Sydney, Australia in June 2005. Since 2007, papers from this monograph have been cited in more than 300 publications. Over 100 delegates from New South Wales, Australia, New Zealand, England, Canada and the United States discussed...

This paper is partly based on research and partly on practical real-world experience. From a research perspective, a recent major review of fleet safety in Australia (Murray, et al, 2003) suggested that there may be some type of ‘work driver effect’ that could be used to positive effect in the wider community, in that if work drivers could ‘take sa...