The Federal election was called on 28 March 2025. As this website is hosted by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts, the site will only be updated with material in line with the Caretaker Conventions. Please note that the content of this site relates to the Australian Government’s existing policy.

CR 97/1 & CR 97/2: Study on potential to improve fuel economy of passenger motor vehicles (1991)

Summary

This Report provides information about the factors affecting the fuel economy of new passenger cars sold in Australia, and the potential for reducing fuel consumption up to 2005. It does not explicitly consider commercial vehicle derivatives nor does it make recommendations. Qualifying comments are included where appropriate.

Download complete report 97/1

Download complete report 97/2

CR 94: Survey of driving by disqualified and suspended drivers in Western Australia (1991)

Summary

A survey was conducted of 1,313 Western Australian drivers to determine the extent of driving by persons who had had their driver's licence disqualified or suspended. It was found that 35.8% of these drivers chose to drive at least once while under disqualification and that people who drove while disqualified did so as little as possible and in a safe, law abiding way to prevent detection. Persons with one or more previous disqualifications were especially likely to drive while disqualified and to take steps to avoid police catching them.

Signs of trouble to come? A behavioural assessment of the effectiveness of road warning signs

Summary

This report is the final report under a FORS grant to use a driving simulator to measure the effectiveness of some standard Australian road warning signs.

Download Complete Document: rd_warning_sign [PDFPDF: 4276 KB]

CR 179: Women behind the wheel: Driving behaviour and road crash involvement (1998)

Summary

The aim of this project was to explore factors associated with risk of road crashes among two groups of women drivers aged 19-24 and 46-51. Subjects were randomly selected from participants in the baseline survey of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (the Women’s Health Australia or WHA project), which includes women from all walks of life in all States and Territories of Australia. Original selection for the WHA project was by random sampling from the Health Insurance Commission/Medicare database.

CR 175: Benefits of a Hybrid Side Impact Regulation (1998)

Summary

There are two fundamentally different dynamic side impact regulations in existence currently, namely FMVSS 214 in the USA and ECE Reg 95 in Europe. An earlier benefit study (Fildes, Digges, Carr, Dyte and Vulcan (1995) showed that both these regulations would be cost-beneficial if applied in Australia. Subsequently, Australia mandated a new Australian Design Rule ADR72 that calls for all new passenger cars to comply with one of two existing dynamic side impact regulations by 1999.

CR 177: Women behind the wheel: Review of literature relating to male & female drivers (1998)

Summary

In contrast to an extended literature comparing older and younger drivers, limited direct attention has been given to the safety of women as drivers relative to men. As well as reviewing material bearing on this latter issue, the commentary is a technical report that identifies conceptual and methodological issues that need to be addressed in comparing men and women as drivers.

Alcohol and road fatalities in Australia 1996.

Summary

Provides information on the incidence of alcohol consumption amongst drivers, motorcycle riders and pedestrians fatality injured in road crashes during 1996.

Download Complete Document: Alc_fat_2 [PDFPDF: 114 KB]

Women behind the wheel: mid-age drivers

Summary

This monograph is composed of excerpts from FORS CR179 Women behind the Wheel: Driver Behaviour and Road Crash Involvement, and focuses on mid-age driver behaviours.

Download Complete Document: Gender_Fem_3 [PDFPDF: 108 KB]

Improving Side Impact Performance of New and Existing Motor Vehicles

Summary

Some project reports are available on request. For more information please email: roadsafety@infrastructure.gov.au.

Type: Research and Analysis Report
Sub Type: Grant
Author(s): Dr Essie Bidhendi
Topics: Occ protection, Vehicle design
Publication Date: 01/01/98

CR 178: Women behind the wheel: Statistical overview of road crash involvement (1998)

Summary

This report forms part of a series published by the Federal Office of Road Safety (FORS) on women and road safety. It presents national road crash statistics for women, and in particular, women drivers involved in fatal crashes and crashes resulting in hospitalisation. There are two other reports in this series: a review of published female driver research and an analysis of attitudes and driving behaviours of young and middle-aged women obtained through a recent survey of women from across Australia.
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