The trees in the forest – perspectives of young New Zealanders on driver licensing & road safety, and insights into safe system case studies

Compilation of Safe System Case Studies

Maria Drinkwater and Colin Brodie (Waka Kotahi)

The Safe System has been at the core of NZ’s road safety strategies for over a decade. Over that time various Safe System initiatives and interventions from across the system have been developed and implemented that show successful application of the Safe System principles.

However, finding information on these, including their cost, effectiveness and lessons learnt, has not been easy. The findings are not always evaluated and published, they often sit in internal organisational reports or only presented at conferences. The Safe System Case Studies project is aiming to compile information on New Zealand Safe System interventions in a consistent, easy to use and accessible format. Waka Kotahi is looking to continue to add to, and build up, a suite of case studies over time.

This presentation will outline the project and give a couple of case study examples.

Maria is Principal Advisor, Integration, in Safety, Health and Environment group at Waka Kotahi. She has worked at Waka Kotahi for over 15 years. Most of that time was focussed on people development, culture change, leadership development, talent management and emerging leaders programmes and career coaching. She took up a new role in Safety, Health and Environment in 2018 to help develop a programme of work to further embed the safe system approach. A key part of that role is redesigning and re-establishing Vision Zero / Safe System development options to build safe system capability across the transport sector.

Prior to retiring from Waka Kotahi almost two years ago, Colin was the Lead Advisor, Road Safety with specific responsibilities for embedding the Safe System, road safety innovation and programme development. He has helped develop numerous International and New Zealand Safe System guides. He continues to work in a part time advisory role on Safe System and Vision Zero implementation.

Perspectives of young New Zealanders on driver licensing and road safety

Yvonne Mitchell (University of Otago)

This study used a qualitative approach to explore both Māori and non-Māori perspectives on different aspects of road safety and driver licensing. The study aimed to better understand how young drivers could be influenced more positively, and to determine which supports young drivers may find most influential during their experience with driving or progressing through the licensing stages.

Yvonne Mitchell (Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Te Rangi), grew up in a small rural town called Cheviot in North Canterbury. She completed her undergraduate study at the University of Otago, finishing a Bachelor of Science majoring in Psychology in 2019. This year, she completed both her Honours year and her first year of Clinical Psychology, also at Otago. She is particularly interested in working with young people and their whānau, and believes understanding the unique dynamic within family systems has real value in a number of contexts, from clinical settings to land transport systems.