Shane Turner
Technical Director
Road Safety, Abley

Shane has a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Canterbury. His transportation thesis focused on road safety, and more specifically crash prediction modelling.

He has over 30 years’ experience working in the consulting industry in New Zealand and Australia. Shane joined Abley in early 2019. At Abley he works in New Zealand’s preeminent road safety team and a diverse technology team, working across digital engineering, geospatial analysis and software development.

Shane is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the University of Canterbury where he teaches at the undergraduate and graduate levels in road safety. He is also an experienced researcher having completed over 20 projects for the NZ Transport Agency and Austroads and having written over 70 conference and journal papers.

He is active internationally through iRAP (global technical committee) and the USA Transport Research Board (TRB – as member of road safety and pedestrian committees). He has also delivered presentations at universities and conferences across the USA and Australia. Through these forums he is exposed to best practice in road safety globally and he uses this experience and his international contacts to bring best practice to his consulting work.

Shane is motivated by Vision Zero and the safe system approach, especially in terms of improving safety for vulnerable road users (VRU – pedestrian, cyclists and motorcyclists). He is of the view that achieving vision zero for VRUs requires a combination of infrastructure improvements, speed management and vehicle technology.