Projects

This Austroads research and demonstration project evaluates infrastructure treatments designed to protect vulnerable road users — pedestrians, cyclists, micro-mobility users, and motorcyclists — under the Safe System principle that infrastructure should be forgiving of human error. The scope covers protected cycling facilities, pedestrian-priority crossings and refuges, raised intersections and pedestrian zones, motorcycle-aware roadside furniture (frangible posts, motorcycle-friendly barriers), and lower-speed treatment combinations on shared corridors.

Each treatment family is assessed against three criteria: documented crash-reduction evidence from Australian and comparable international jurisdictions, fitness for the Australian road environment (climate, traffic mix, regulatory context), and lifecycle cost. Demonstration installations are running on selected sites in three jurisdictions, with before-and-after crash, speed, and exposure data being collected over a minimum two-year monitoring window. Findings will feed into updates to the Austroads Guide to Road Design and a practitioner advisory note on vulnerable-user infrastructure selection.