The most significant cost-effective policy to reduce the road toll — an update

Some of you may have seen a LinkedIn post (here) I wrote discussing the hypothesis that (in Australia and other developed countries):

The most significant cost-effective policy to reduce the road toll involves reforming vehicle insurance markets

As I state in the article there are good reasons to believe the hypothesis is true and true even if preceded by the words 'By a large margin'. I don't believe anyone has raised any reasonable argument as to why this isn’t the case.

Of note, the reforms should encourage the faster adoption (particularly for the 'high risks') of many important road-safety technologies including telematics-enabled usage-based insurance and autonomous vehicles.

I’ve recently released some additional material. Early last year I completed a project for Austroads that involved pulling together the evidence and conducting some indicative modelling as to the benefits of reform. I understand that the paper won’t be published by Austroads but I have received permission to release it as a working paper, so I’ve posted it on my firm’s website (Web page here. Direct file link is here).

As discussed in the paper, the potential benefits appear enormous. I welcome any feedback and — in the interests of road-safety — appreciate any support in raising awareness of the opportunity and getting the investigation of the opportunity on the road-safety research agenda.

Feel free to contact me directly (contact details here).