FAQs

Council needs a plan to address the existing and often long-standing issues around road safety within our LGA. City of Willoughby RSP is that plan. Creating and maintaining a culture of road safety is the shared responsibility of all road users. It is also a continual process. As the manager for most of the road network (including road-related areas such as footpaths) within the boundaries of our LGA, Council recognises that it needs to take the lead in this process.

City of Willoughby RSP represents the first step in this process. It is informed by crash data, demographic information, and federal, state and Council strategic priorities. By defining our road safety priorities and specific actions to achieve our vision, this will ultimately help reduce the number and severity of road crashes within the Willoughby LGA.

The proposed Willoughby Road Safety Plan will demonstrate Council’s commitment to ensuring safe travel for all road users within the City of Willoughby and help achieve Vision Zero by 2050. It will include focus goals and an action plan that will define specific initiatives Council will lead to realise this vision.

The objectives of the Willoughby Road Safety Plan will be to:

• Lead a culture of road safety within Council and the broader community.
• Drive road safety improvements through delivery of a broad and multi-agency framework via several focus areas.
• Improve road safety over the short, medium and long term through ‘hard’ (e.g. the design of road infrastructure) and ‘soft’ initiatives (e.g. education and awareness campaigns).
• Continue to take advantage of federal and NSW road safety funding to achieve road safety outcomes.
• Reduce the number of road related deaths within the City of Willoughby to help achieve the federal and NSW Government’s ‘Vision Zero’ target of zero road deaths and injuries by 2050.

Between 8 November and 11 December 2022, Council sought input from the community to help create this Draft City of Willoughby RSP. This was based on a Have Your Say page created on Council’s website.

During November and December 2022, Council’s Strategic Transport Planner and Road Safety Officer contacted 40 key stakeholders with an interest in road safety, inviting them to go to the Have Your Say Page and complete the survey and/or make a written submission.

Responses were classified into six themes. Within each theme, the top three sub-themes were identified. The below table provides an overview of these responses.

Road safety is a broad and complex societal issue and the factors that both detract and contribute to road safety are generally well understood. 

All road users traveling on Willoughby's road network have the right to request improvements to ensure their journey on our roads are as safe as possible. There may be certain issues which the community and key stakeholders perceive as particularly important in the City of Willoughby. Council seeks to understand the community's view and tailor the final RSP document to consider all stakeholders feedback.

Public Exhibition

This stage of public exhibition will involve exhibition of the Draft City of Willoughby Road Safety Plan – including a public briefing, meeting with key stakeholders and opportunity to make written submissions.

You can have your say and provide your feedback by:

• Completing the submission form below
  
  
• Emailing email@willoughby.nsw.gov.au
  
  
• Writing to Willoughby City Council, PO Box 57, Chatswood 2067, marked 'Draft City of Willoughby Road Safety Plan submission'
  
  Submissions close Sunday 31 March 2025

It is intended for the Willoughby Road Safety Plan to have the following main sections:

• Introduction
• Background: The people and the road safety issues in the Willoughby LGA
• Strategic alignment
• Focus areas and Goals
• Action plan

Yes, Willoughby Road Safety Plan will utilise the ‘Safe System’ approach, a globally accepted framework for understanding road safety. The Safe System has four elements:

•   Safe Roads

•   Safe People

•   Safe Vehicles

•   Safe Speeds

This is an approach that has also been adopted by the federal National Road Safety Strategy 2021-30 and the NSW Government 2026 Road Safety Action Plan. It is intended for the action plan of Willoughby Road Safety Plan to include initiatives that address each of these four elements.

Other NSW transport plans the RSP is aligned with:
- Future Transport 2056
- NSW Motorcycle Safety Strategy 2012-2021
- NSW Motorcycle Safety Action Plan 2017-2019
- Pedestrian Safety Action Plan 2014-2016
- Older Persons Transport and Mobility Plan 2018-2022
- Cycling Safety Action Plan 2014-2016