Austroads: Transport Research and Trends

The Review of the Guide to Road Safety and Structure for Online Access project has updated the Guide to Road Safety (AGRS) with the latest research, primarily from Austroads published material, and restructured the guide for better online access and to allow content to be more easily added in the future.

The newly updated and restructured AGRS is the first step in delivering a guide to road safety that is easier for readers to navigate and one that aligns with the Towards Zero philosophy. It is a starting point for further improvements and the generation of potential future research projects, especially in the area of Safe Vehicles and Safe People.

This webinar, presented by Dr Tana Tan and Kenn Beer, is the first in a two-part series and it provides an overview of the updated guide. Focusing on Part 1, the session explains how to use the guide and outlines key points for each of the new parts. It also covers opportunities for future research.

This webinar provides an overview of Austroads’ projects 2021-22 and what is required to work with Austroads.

The session is beneficial to consultants who may be interested in tendering for Austroads projects.

The projects discussed focus on data collection and management, digital engineering, tunnel design and componentry, bridge assessment, pavement technology, road design, road safety audits, driver licensing, environment reporting, and vehicle and infrastructure connectivity.

The webinar is presented by Paul Davies, Austroads Acting General Manager Operations, and program managers:

• Ross Guppy, Program Manager Transport Infrastructure
• Michael Nieuwesteeg, Program Manager Road Safety and Design
• Richard Delplace, Program Manager Transport Network Operations
• Vibeke Matthews, Acting Program Manager Future Vehicles and Technology, and Environment and Sustainability Program.

Austroads has recently completed a project to consolidate the previous Guide to Road Design Part 1: Introduction to Road Design, Part 2: Design Considerations and Part 8: Process and Documentation into a new Part 1: Objectives of Road Design.

This update to Part 1 of the Guide to Road Design provides practitioners with a detailed description of the critical aspects of road design and essentially combines the former parts 1, 2 and 8 into one single part. This will enable Part 2 to be utilised for network design considerations in a future update and the removal of Part 8 of the Guide.

In addition, a new Part 7: New and Emerging Treatments has been created to provide information to practitioners using emerging treatments which are known to provide some benefit from a safety and/or operational perspective but have not yet produced evidence for predominant contexts.

Part 7 contains design-related knowledge, findings from research and practical experiences about new, emerging and innovative treatments. This is a holding place for information about these treatments where full guidance is not available, for all road environments or until learning from implementation/trials is captured. The intention is for this information to be migrated to the respective parts 1 to 6 of the Guide when comprehensive evidence and dimensional guidance is available.

This webinar, presented by Noel O’Callaghan and Malcolm Mak, provides an overview of the new parts 1 and 7 and explain the links to other Austroads guides as well as jurisdictional supplements.

Currently, most Austroads member agencies rely on their unique technical specifications for the delivery of roadworks and bridge projects. In many cases, these specifications have been developed over a number of years in consultation with local industry and suppliers.

While it is recognised that there will always be some requirements that will only apply to a single jurisdiction, standardising specifications (and the associated test methods) has the potential to improve work processes for road agencies, suppliers and contractors.

To increase efficiency for road agencies and industry and optimise compliance with contract requirements, 14 technical specifications have been published for all Austroads member agencies to use for the construction of roadworks and bridgeworks. These specifications are suitable for use with any general conditions of contract, including design and construct contracts. They are expected to be used in conjunction with supplementary local or contract specific requirements.

This webinar, presented by Richard Edwards, takes participants through the technical specifications development process and provides an overview of the structure and layout adopted for the specifications.

Raised Safety Platforms (RSPs) are a vertical deflection device increasingly used to reduce the maximum comfortable operating speed for vehicles to Safe System collision speeds, particularly at intersections. While the use of vertical deflection devices has typically been limited to lower speed environments, there is increasing interest in the use of RSPs in higher speed environments and for other locations where pedestrians and cyclists would typically be injured.

The purpose of Austroads’ research report ‘Effectiveness and Implementation of Raised Safety Platforms’ was to provide clarity around the design and operation of RSPs and deepen the understanding of leading international practice across a range of applications and performance dimensions. The research included a review of literature, sample investigations and edits to relevant Austroads guides. The literature has shown that, outside of the Netherlands, where RSPs have been used extensively, a ‘community of practice’ is developing in Australia and New Zealand, with the majority of applications at signalised intersections above 50 km/h to date being in Victoria. There is evidence that RSPs are a promising road safety countermeasure.

In this webinar Fabian Marsh, Hamish Mackie and Rebekah Thorne outline the research approach and the key findings from the information review and sample investigations that have implications for future practice.

This webinar, presented by Ann-Marie Head and Jeanette Ward, focuses on the planning and design considerations for walkable residential neighbourhoods, both new and existing, and where to find that guidance in Austroads’ guides.

The webinar covers the following key topics:

• what data to collect
• planning/network considerations
• design considerations
• examples of applying walkable characteristics
• best practice examples.

This is a final session in the series of webinars held by Austroads to step practitioners through the updated pedestrian planning and design information.

Austroads’ review of the pedestrian planning and design guidance in the Guide to Traffic Management (AGTM) and Guide to Road Design (AGRD) identified a total of 120 planning and design gaps. Recommended changes to the AGTM were published in April 2020 followed by a series of exceptionally popular webinars.

Recommended changes to the AGRD have been reviewed and approved by the Road Design Task Force and will find their way into the AGRD as part of its update and restructure planned by the Road Safety & Design program in FY20-21.

This webinar, presented by Richard Fanning, Noel O’Callaghan and Madeleine Bekavac, is about the guidance on road cross-section design for road stereotypes, which have been developed to assist road managers, planners and designers to achieve improved road safety outcomes through the application of consistent standards along a road corridor.

Practitioners will learn about the thirteen midblock road stereotypes that cover rural and urban roads ranging from freeways and motorways to local access roads. Through a number of case studies, presenters will demonstrate the application of the stereotypes for the development of network safety plans that illustrate how to achieve reductions in crash risk along the network.

Presenters also outline a range of cross-sections with different attributes that were considered appropriate for each road stereotype and assessed for crash risk using the International Road Assessment Program (iRAP) star ratings, the Australian National Risk Assessment Model (ANRAM) fatal and serious injury (FSI) crash prediction models.

A user guide developed to assists practitioners in selecting the most appropriate stereotypes suitable for the needs of their jurisdictions is also discussed.

This webinar, presented by Ann-Marie Head and Jeanette Ward,  focuses on the planning and design considerations that contribute to walkable activity centres - vibrant places where people shop, work, meet, relax and often live. The session also explains where this information can be found in Austroads’ guides.

The webinar covers the following key topics:

• what data to collect
• planning/network considerations
• examples of applying walkable characteristics
• design considerations
• types of shared space streets
• best practice examples.

This session is the fourth in the series of webinars held by Austroads to step practitioners through the updated pedestrian planning and design information.

Austroads’ review of the pedestrian planning and design guidance in the Guide to Traffic Management (AGTM) and Guide to Road Design (AGRD) identified a total of 120 planning and design gaps. Recommended changes to the AGTM were published in April 2020 followed by a series of exceptionally popular webinars.

Recommended changes to the AGRD have been reviewed and approved by the Road Design Task Force and will find their way into the AGRD as part of its update and restructure planned by the Road Safety & Design program in FY20-21.

A transition in a safety barrier system is a short section between a more flexible system and a less flexible system to decrease the flexibility gradually along its length. At present there are various transition designs being used by road agencies.

This webinar describes the development, testing and evaluation of a proposed Australasian transition from a strong post public domain W-beam to a concrete barrier.

Presented by Rod Troutbeck, Daniel A. Naish and Jade Hogan.

Austroads’ review of the pedestrian planning and design guidance in the Guide to Traffic Management (AGTM) and Guide to Road Design (AGRD) identified a total of 120 planning and design gaps. Recommended changes to the AGTM were published in April 2020 followed by a series of exceptionally popular webinars.

Recommended changes to the AGRD have been reviewed and approved by the Road Design Task Force and will find their way into the AGRD as part of its update and restructure planned by the Road Safety & Design program in FY20-21.

This is the first session in the series of webinars to step practitioners through the updated pedestrian planning and design information. It presents how to ensure pedestrians are catered for appropriately in road cross sections, and where to find that information in the Austroads guides.

The webinar is presented by Ann-Marie Head and Jeanette Ward on 9 February 2021.