Promoting Road Safety Through Regulation: Aligning Road Design, Vehicle Design, and Road User Behaviour Laws in Australia

The concept of a ‘self-explaining road’ supports road design for safe road use by all modes to prevent crashes. Law supports self-explaining roads by creating the framework for road and vehicle design standards and establishes legal rules that guide road user behaviour (i.e. road rules). Alignment between different parts of this legal framework is important to achieve road safety objectives but is not always guaranteed. This study examined alignment between road and vehicle design standards and road rules from a legal perspective. A doctrinal research method is applied to explain legal principles and structures that contribute to alignment between laws affecting parts of the self-explaining road. Key findings illustrate that misalignment can occur between road design standards and road rules that apply to traffic management devices. Alignment could be improved by understanding discipline-specific approaches to obligation-setting, terminology and technical reference points. In practice, alignment can be promoted by locating road design standards, vehicle design standards, and road rules from their authoritative source, checking for discipline-specific explanatory guides and interpretive tools, and taking care when exercising discretion to apply standards according to local circumstances. Actionable recommendations for road authorities and lawmakers include: a comprehensive review of relevant laws to identify and resolve existing misalignment, and creating tools to minimise risks of future misalignment (e.g., cross-referencing systems, standardised terms, interpretative guides). Acting on these recommendations will allow law to better contribute to self-explaining roads and minimise liability risks for road users that breach road rules despite following road design.