Austroads: Transport Research and Trends

The project aimed to assess and demonstrate the viability of incorporating other-than-truck tyres crumb rubber into asphalt applications from an operational and constructability standpoint. Following the initial part of the project that assessed the readiness of the tyre recycling and asphalt industries to handle crumb rubber from any sources of end-of-life tyres, the demonstration project in Tasm...

Transport sector emissions are a significant and growing contributor to both Australia and New Zealand’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Enabled transport sector emissions – those occurring as a result of use of transport systems (e.g. road user emissions) account for the largest portion of transport sector emissions. Beyond road user emissions, there are also significant emissions associated with...

Transport infrastructure and systems are typically designed to withstand local weather events based on historical records of climate. However, historical climate data is no longer a reliable predictor of future impacts due to climate change. Extreme weather events are projected to become more frequent and intense, increasing the vulnerability of transport networks and the communities they serve. A...

Christchurch has developed over 75km of separated cycle facilities retrofitted across the road network. The Major Cycleway Programme has enabled Christchurch to become the leader for cycle infrastructure in New Zealand. The 2011 earthquakes experienced in Canterbury, New Zealand caused significant devastation and destruction across the city. This disaster was a catalyst for change and provided Chr...

Head-on crashes are a serious issue in Australia and New Zealand. Head-on crashes result in significantly higher trauma than most other crash types. The provision of an appropriate median or centreline treatment is important to mitigate the risk of head-on crashes.   In this webinar, Dr Rod Troutbeck, Jade Hogan and Jamie Robertson described the range of improvements from supportive treatments lik...

By applying road safety knowledge to road projects throughout their lifecycle, road safety audits provide greater confidence to road authorities that potential and actual road safety risks are identified and can be mitigated.   Road safety auditors are currently managed individually by state and territory road agencies, leading to variability in training, accreditation, registration, and continuin...

The implementation of the National Roadmap on Driver Distraction is a commitment under Australia’s National Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030. Austroads has released a guide for this work and is preparing two research and development projects for delivery over the next financial year. The webinar presents the guide, the first projects being prepared, and encourage further discussion and ongoing engag...

The webinar provides an overview of an Austroads project which provided expert technical input into the revision of three Australian Standard test methods (AS 2341.4, AS 2341.15 and AS 2341.27) and three national specification documents (AS 2008, AS 2157, AS 1160) during the period between September 2022 and August 2024. It also includes the results of a laboratory study which investigated whether...

As a longstanding authority in verifying drivers’ licences, Austroads is leading Australia’s development of world class solutions that safely and securely support driver licence verification. As part of the transformative initiative to harmonise Mobile Drivers Licences (mDL) across all jurisdictions, Austroads is establishing a National Digital Trust Service (DTS) enabling mDLs to be securely veri...

This is the final webinar in the three-part webinar series to present the outcomes of the Austroads project “Prioritising Active Transport”. Presenters Dr Elliot Fishman and Andrew Somers focus on various policies and other non-infrastructure interventions that can be used to increase levels of active travel. These interventions include measures such as speed reduction, policies to integrate publi...

This is the second session in a three-part webinar series to present the outcomes of the Austroads project “Prioritising Active Transport”. This webinar builds on the first webinar by focusing on the types of infrastructure interventions that can be used to increase active transport mode share. Participants will gain an understanding of the effectiveness of these interventions and their suitabilit...

This webinar was part one of a three-part webinar series to present the outcomes of the Austroads project 'Prioritising Active Transport'. A wide range of Australian government agencies have a goal to increase the mode share for walking and cycling. Yet much of the data shows that active transport levels have stagnated over the last 15 years. This webinar presented data on Australian and overseas...

Cities throughout the world are recognising many public spaces are not welcoming or inclusive, particularly for women, girls, gender diverse groups and vulnerable people. This webinar, presented by Anna Chauvel and Richmond Henty, focuses on Canberra's first Gender Sensitive Urban Design Guidelines. The guidelines will help planners, engineers, architects, landscape designers and developers create...

Safety is often the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about transport and city planning from a gender perspective, but feeling safe should be the baseline, not the benchmark when it comes to inclusive cities. From Barcelona’s Superblocks to women’s cycling rates in Copenhagen, through to building women’s autonomy into the business case, this webinar’s presenter Estelle Grech shares key...

The Austroads Guide to Road Safety Part 2: Safe Roads (AGRS Part 2) and Guide to Road Safety Part 7: Road Safety Strategy and Management (AGRS Part 7) have recently been updated. AGRS Part 2 is designed to provide all levels of government across Australia and New Zealand with information on the role infrastructure plays in the Safe System. AGRS Part 2 presents guidance on the selection and impleme...

A large proportion of the road networks in Australia and New Zealand consist of flexible granular pavements protected by sprayed sealing surfacings. An Austroads sprayed seal trial site was established in Coober Pedy in South Australia during 2011 to evaluate the relative performance of seals constructed with different grades of binders from their placement through to long‑term service. The site w...

This webinar is aimed at helping local governments (LGs) across Australia and New Zealand navigate the evolving landscape of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs). As managers of a large portion of the road network, LGs play a pivotal role in shaping the future of transport. This webinar provides an overview of an Austroads project that developed guidance to enhance LGs’ preparedness for CAV int...

For decades, Austroads Guide to Road Design (AGRD) has served as a critical resource for practitioners involved in road planning, design and engineering. Austroads recently completed a strategic review of road design guidance, identifying strategies to sustainably maintain the AGRD as the pre-eminent road design guide in Australia and New Zealand. Through an online survey and face-to-face intervie...

The Department of Transport Western Australia has been working with Western Australian local governments to develop, trial and evaluate ‘safe active streets’ to encourage more people to walk, wheel and ride in their communities. The pilot program trialled and adapted common local area traffic management treatments to create 30 km/h environments with unique designs created that reflect local commun...

Moisture damage in asphalt (also known as stripping) can significantly reduce the durability and strength of asphalt pavements, often resulting in expensive repairs. Hydrated lime is widely used in Australia to reduce the moisture susceptibility of asphalt mixes in service; however, potentially more sustainable additives (such as liquid anti-stripping agents) are also widely used internationally t...

The National Walking and Cycling Participation Survey is a survey of the Australian community to understand their participation in walking and cycling. The survey has been run every two years since 2011. Until 2019 the survey was managed by Austroads. In 2021, Cycling and Walking Australia and New Zealand (CWANZ) took over the coordination of the survey, adding walking to get a baseline on the lev...

Austroads has completed a project to replace the obsolete gyratory compactors used in design and quality control testing of asphalt mixes and update its Guide to Pavement Technology Part 4B: Asphalt. Austroads asphalt mix design procedure currently relies on Gyropac compaction for volumetric mix design. The discontinuation of the Gyropac compactor has resulted in a significant gap in the Austroads...

Austroads has completed its update of Section 3: Inspection, Testing, Monitoring and Reporting of the Guide to Bridge Technology Part 7: Maintenance and Management of Existing Bridges. The project involved taking a fresh look at the inspection process to provide a flexible framework from which users of the Guide can develop and improve their own inspection processes. The project team undertook an...

This webinar presents the work involved in developing a standardised comparative risk assessment method for assessing life safety risk of dangerous goods being routed through the tunnel or via an alternative surface route. The project was conceived to focus on new road tunnel projects, but the methodology developed could also be used for comparative assessment of alternative surface routes. Danger...

This webinar is hosted with the Digital Atlas of Australia Team and Geoscience Australia. In this session we explore how the Digital Atlas is transforming the way we access and use location data. The team discusses the National Roads dataset – a comprehensive dataset on Australia’s roads, now freely accessible to the public. The team also talks about the value and insights driven by integrating a...