Austroads: Transport Research and Trends

Transport networks across Australia and New Zealand are increasingly experiencing disruption and damage from extreme weather, natural hazards and long-term climate change. While the transport sector’s preparedness for and response to these impacts is improving, organisations continue to face challenges in demonstrating the value of proactive investment in resilience. This webinar presented finding...

Climate change is placing increasing pressure on transport infrastructure across Australia and New Zealand, creating growing challenges for asset owners and network managers. This webinar introduced the findings of an Austroads report, Identifying and Prioritising Climate Adaption Actions for Transport Assets , which addresses a key challenge for Austroads members: translating climate risk and res...

Bituminous binders that are used to construct roads are tested prior to use to ensure they will perform satisfactorily during a road’s lifecycle. Standards Australia Committee CH-025 ‘Bitumen and related products for roadmaking’ is responsible for the revision of 4 national specification documents and 26 test methods which are used to characterise bituminous materials used in road construction. Au...

Transport Management Centres operate at the heart of our transport networks, coordinating responses to incidents, managing disruptions and supporting the safe and efficient movement of people and goods. Alongside these responsibilities come unique challenges, including shift work, high workloads, exposure to traumatic events and the need to make critical decisions under pressure. This webinar prov...

The Austroads Guide to Temporary Traffic Management (AGTTM) provides nationally consistent guidance for the planning, design, and implementation of safe and efficient temporary traffic management across Australia and New Zealand. Road Infrastructure Managers (RIMs) play a critical role in setting standards, approving works, maintaining network performance and ensuring safe road user outcomes durin...

The Austroads Guide to Road Safety Part 7: Road Safety Strategy and Management has been updated to Edition 3.0, published April 2026. AGRS Part 7 supports Australian and New Zealand jurisdictions to reach their national targets of zero road deaths and serious injuries by 2050 (and interim targets by 2030). The Guide outlines international best practice and research on road safety management, provi...

Urban freight plays a critical role in supporting cities and regional centres across Australia and New Zealand; however, despite its importance, urban freight is not consistently defined, measured and planned for across jurisdictions. This webinar presents an overview of the Urban Freight Scoping Study. The purpose of the study is to provide a clear, evidence-based foundation to support future pol...

This webinar presents the outcomes of Austroads research into intersection sight distance, identifying key gaps, inconsistencies, and opportunities for harmonisation across Australian and New Zealand road design guidance. Drawing on an extensive literature review, international best practice, and stakeholder engagement with jurisdictional experts, the project examined the application of sight dist...

This webinar provides an overview of the updated Austroads Guide to Road Safety Part 3: Safe Speed Management, with a focus on how the guidance can support safer speed limit setting in practice. Designed for road authorities, transport practitioners and others involved in speed management, the webinar will provide an overview of the Guide’s key concepts, evidence base and practical tools for apply...

This project delivered a range of important updates to the AGRD aimed at improving the clarity, consistency and contemporary relevance of road design guidance across Australia and New Zealand. It incorporated findings from the All User Groups and All Stereotypes and Safe System Median Treatments projects, while also addressing identified errors, inconsistencies and opportunities for harmonisation....

This webinar presents the outcomes of  Austroads Project APT1975 , which conducted research to develop a new Austroads test method for evaluating the fatigue cracking performance of aged bitumen.  The test method was developed for road agencies to select durable binders for constructing sprayed seal surfacings. The development work included an extensive literature review of international fatigue c...

The Austroads  Guide to Temporary Traffic Management  (AGTTM) provides nationally consistent guidance for the planning, design and implementation of safe and efficient temporary traffic management across Australia and New Zealand. Traffic Management Designers (TMDs) play a critical role in the temporary traffic management process. The planning and design phase provides the greatest opportunity to...

The Austroads Technical Specifications provide a comprehensive framework for the construction of roads and bridges, defining key requirements for materials, treatments and infrastructure across the industry. They establish a consistent, best-practice approach to the design, specification and delivery of road and bridge works. By standardising requirements across jurisdictions, they support greater...

This webinar presents the development and application of the Minimum Data Requirements for Pedestrian Safety Guideline and its supporting research. Participants will gain an overview of the challenges associated with inconsistent and incomplete pedestrian safety data, and why a nationally consistent approach is critical for monitoring outcomes and targeting investment. The session will explain how...

This webinar presents the completed Austroads Charting a Path to Eliminating Road Death and Serious Injury project, including all three streams and newly released knowledge transfer resources. It introduces the Planning for Zero Framework (PfZF)—a practical, system-based approach to achieving Vision Zero by 2050—and demonstrates how it translates into actionable Zero Pathways tailored to jurisdict...

The Austroads  Guide to Temporary Traffic Management (AGTTM) provides nationally consistent guidance for the planning, design, and implementation of safe and efficient temporary traffic management across Australia and New Zealand. Recent revisions to AGTTM Parts 1–7, 9 and 10 (Edition 1.2) focus on continuing to align the Guide with contemporary temporary traffic management best practice, improvin...

This webinar presented the outcomes of  Austroads Project NEG6439 , which examined how fibre optic sensing technologies can be applied to support improved road agency services and functions. While fibre optic networks are widely deployed across Australian and New Zealand transport agencies for communications, their use as a sensing capability remains relatively underutilised. This project explored...

Unbound granular materials play a crucial role in providing cost-effective road transport infrastructure across Australia and New Zealand. Compared to the thick asphalt and concrete pavements common in urban centres, thin bituminous surfaced unbound granular pavements offer a more economical solution for sealed road networks, albeit with lower load-bearing capacity and in some cases lower performa...

This webinar highlights key themes from the  Enabling Accessible EV Charging  guidelines, which provide guidance on improving the usability of EV charging infrastructure for people with disability. The session touches on selected aspects of the EV charging experience, including site layout, charging equipment, wayfinding, and payment, focusing on issues that commonly arise in real-world deployment...

This webinar presents the outcomes from a series of workshops with industry and users aimed at identifying future research needs and required changes to the Austroads Guide to Pavement Technology Part 4K: Selection and Design of Sprayed Seals. The aim of this projects was to continue refining the Austroads sprayed seal design method and its related guidance to better suit evolving traffic loads, p...

As automated, connected and electric vehicle technologies continue to develop, road agencies across Australia and New Zealand need to prepare infrastructure for new operating conditions. Technologies such as Automated Vehicles (AVs), Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs), Electric Vehicles (EVs), Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) plac...

Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) is the discipline that focuses on understanding and optimising interactions between humans and system components to enhance performance, safety, health and wellbeing. Human Factors Integration (HFI) is the process by which HFE knowledge, principles and methods are utilised throughout the system lifecycle to support the design of safe, usable and effective compone...

This webinar provided an overview of the Austroads’ report,  Keeping People Safe When Walking – Stream 2: Economic Assessment of Safer Speeds , completed as part of the  Keeping People Safe When Walking  program. The assessment applies a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) approach, which estimates and compares the costs and benefits for society from 12 different hypothetical speed limit reductions in a v...

This webinar introduces the Travel to School Guideline, developed to support the planning and delivery  of safe, active travel for students.  The guideline promotes integrated, evidence-based approaches that prioritise children’s mobility, health,  and safety within transport and land-use planning. It provides a practical framework for planning both new and existing schools, drawing on best-practi...

Concrete is the most widely used material in transport infrastructure, and one of the largest sources of embodied carbon in road and rail projects. Because these emissions are locked in at the point of construction, reducing emissions from concrete represents one of the most immediate and significant opportunities for transport agencies working toward net zero across Australia and New Zealand. In...