Adjunct Professor
Judy Fleiter
Faculty of Health,
Tier 2 Research Centre - Health (U94),
Centre for Future Mobility/CARRSQ
Biography
BackgroundJudy is fascinated by the amazing array of vehicles that humans have created for themselves as well as the way in which different countries use the road and related perceptions about what is safe road use.
Her work is aligned with the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020) which emphasises the need for developed countries to help developing countries in the task of reducing death and injury from road crashes. Judy:
- Completed a Bachelor of Arts (Recreation Management) in the mid 1980s
- Worked for over a decade in the Aged Care and Disability sectors
- Returned to university to further her interests in human behaviour
- Completed a Psychology undergraduate degree with First Class Honours in 2004 at QUT
- Completed a PhD with QUT's Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety-Queensland in 2010. This research examined similarities and differences in the factors that influence speeding on the road in Australia and China.
- Was based at the Institute of Psychology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing for 5 months and found the experience to be extremely rewarding and horizon-altering.
Current research
- Awarded a prestigious National Health and Medical Research Council Research Training Fellowship in 2011 to continue her speeding-related research in China and Australia over four years.
- Was based at Zhejiang Police College in the Chinese city of Hangzhou during 2011 and 2012 to examine road safety behaviours and assist with capacity building activites for traffic policing students
- Continuing to investigate driver behaviour, road safety policies and practices in China and Australia
- Judy returned to CARRS-Q at QUT in Brisbane in 2013 to continue research primarily in the area of speed management as well as other road user behaviours (eg rear end crashes, novice driver training).
Other research involvement at CARRS-Q:
- Consultancy for the World Health Organization for research services to help inform the Global Road Safety Program in China
- Consultancy for Austroads to examine ways to create, sustain and/or increase demand for safer speeds on the road
- Consultancy for Austroads to examine best practice methods for point-to-point speed enforcement
- ARC-funded project to examine repeat speeding offenders prior to and after speeding penalty changes in Queensland
- Research investigating the factors contributing to rear end crashes in Queensland
- Research to investigate avenues for improving novice driver training
- Research to investigate potential incentives for drivers to promote safer road use
- Provided written and verbal evidence to the Queensland Parliamentary Inquiry into the use of fixed speed cameras in 2010
- Secured AusAID funding to facilitate a 5-week Australian Leadership Award Fellowship program visit by police, researchers and educators from Pakistan and China to CARRS-Q in Brisbane in 2009
- Facilitating similar opportunities for cultural and research exchange remains high on Judy’s research agenda.
Personal details
Positions
- Adjunct Professor
Faculty of Health,
Tier 2 Research Centre - Health (U94),
Centre for Future Mobility/CARRSQ
Keywords
road user behaviour, road safety, speed management, speeding, community attitudes, attitude change, normative change, cross cultural road safety issues, traffic policing, road policing
Research field
Other psychology, Public health
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020
Qualifications
- PhD (Queensland University of Technology)
Professional memberships and associations
- Member - Australasian College of Road Safety
- Member - Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (ihbi)
- Member - Australia-China Friendship Society
Teaching
- 2007 - 2010 Unit Co-ordinator and Lecturer in Forensic Psychology and the Law undergraduate unit
- Research methods (qualitative and quantitative) to Undergraduate psychology program
- Guest lectures in road safety and speeding research (Postgraduate short courses and Undergraduate programs)
Experience
Invited presentations:
- 'Traffic psychology in the Chinese context - Factors to consider when attempting to transfer road safety countermeasures' in a Symposium (Advances in Traffic Psychology in the Asia Pacific Region) at the International Conference of Applied Psychology, Paris (2014)
- Traffic Management Institute, Ministry of Transport in Beijing (2010)
- China Automobile Association in Beijing (2008)
- Zhejiang Police College Senior Staff (2007, 2008, 2010)
- Department of Transport and Main Roads (Queensland) (2005 and 2009).
Other presentations:
- International Traffic Medicine Association World Congress (The Hague, 2009 & Chongqing, 2011)
- Australasian Road Safety Research Policing, Education conference (2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010)
- 7th Australian Conference on Personality and Individual Differences (2008)
Research Supervision
Currently supervising international higher degree research students looking at risky road use in their home countries:
- Pakistan - Topic: Fatalistic, religious, superstitious and cultural beliefs relating to road use in Pakistan (Masters by Research)
- China - Topic: Drink driving in China (PhD); Role of Cultural Factors on Risky Driving (Masters)
Publications
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Judy, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Awards
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2004
- Details
- 2004 RACQ Road Safety Prize for Best Honours Thesis in Road Safety Research
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2005
- Details
- Australian Postgraduate Award
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2006
- Details
- John Kirby Memorial Award for Best Paper by a New Researcher, Australasian Road Safety Research, Policing and Education Conference
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2008
- Details
- Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Research Postgraduate Award
Selected research projects
- Title
- Enhancing Knowledge about the Role of Human Factors Enforcement Practices and Legislation in Australia and China to Inform Development of Culturally-specific Speed Managment Strategies Reduce Road Trauma
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- 1013576
- Start year
- 2011
- Keywords
- Road safety; Speeding; Enforcement; Driver Behaviour
Projects listed above are funded by Australian Competitive Grants. Projects funded from other sources are not listed due to confidentiality agreements.