Dr Suzy Charman is a leading expert on the Safe System with 20 years of experience. Before joining RSF Suzy was head of international road safety at TRL, and before that she was responsible for overseeing the establishment of the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP). The RSF is the United Kingdom Road Assessment Programme lead providing coordination and leadership of the programme that brings together work for National Highways, Welsh Government, Department for Transport and many local authorities. RSF provides training and tools helping road authorities to unpack the realities of trying to implement a safe system.
Suzy is a Trustee for the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund and a judge for several road safety awards including the prestigious Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards.
What you’ll learn:
Understanding Road Risk: How road risk modelling goes beyond assessment to predictive insights and isn’t as much of a black box as it seems.
The Role of Connected Vehicle Data in the Evolution of Safety Models: How iRAP has adapted to new sources like connected vehicle speed data to improve star ratings to build more accurate, detailed, and inclusive star ratings to benefit all road users.
The Importance of Considering the Business Case for Road Safety: Safer roads aren’t just a public good—they have economic benefits, preventing injuries and fatalities while saving money in the long run.
The Role of Human Error in Road Safety: Accidents will always happen because people make mistakes. The solution isn’t just better drivers—it’s safer road design.
Quotes:
“What that allows us to do is to really understand that risk profile and to know then how to treat it so that our model doesn't stop at just assessing the road.”
"Connected vehicle data has been transformational for understanding speed and road use—it’s absolutely critical for road safety."
“We can estimate the number of serious injuries expected in the future—and that means we can test out countermeasures and build a robust business case.”
"You can’t educate people out of making errors—that’s just how our brains are wired. That’s why we need a safe system approach to road safety."
"We are working toward a future where IRAP surveys can be done instantly using connected vehicle video and auto-coding technology—just click a button, and boom, we’re there."
"We need to make compelling business cases for road safety funding—because without investment, nothing will change."
"Our ultimate goal is to star-rate every road in the world. That’s where connected vehicle technology could take us."
Links:
The Road Safety Foundation’s Website
Connect:
Connected with Suzy via Linkedin
Connect with Emily via email: emily@compassiot.com.au
Connect with Byte Size via LinkedIn
Connect with Compass IoT (the producer of this podcast) via our website
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