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Welcome to the September 2015 issue of AustroadsNews

This edition has information about the NEVDIS team, BITRE's cycling safety analysis, NTC’s framework for fatigue research, Queensland’s Road Safety Strategy 2015-21, TAC Victoria's latest road safety campaign, and the Northern Territory's road and bridges strategy as well as a run-down on our latest publications, and links to upcoming seminars and conferences.

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Update of Austroads Glossary of Terms   

The Austroads Glossary of Terms provides an A-Z list of more than 3,000 road transport terms with definitions.

The Glossary of Terms was developed to bring consistency to the use of terms and definitions by Austroads members and other stakeholders in the road and transport industry. It also helps users of Austroads publications by providing supporting information for the terms used in the Austroads body of work.

This 2015 edition, released in August, not only includes new terms selected from Austroads work published in 2014, but also incorporates two related works: the Roads and Maritime Services ITS Glossary of Maintenance Terms and Definitions, and the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator Glossary of Common Terms.

Next month we will release the Glossary in an open data format. 

 

 
 

New Road Environment Safety Guidelines released

Austroads has released an updated Guide to Traffic Management Part 13: Road Environment Safety.

Part 13 provides practitioners with the underlying philosophy of a safe road environment as it relates to traffic management practice.

This Part is not intended as a comprehensive document but forms a useful link between the Guide to Traffic Management and other Guides, particularly the Guide to Road Safety and the Guide to Road Design.

The primary focus of this Part is on traffic management and traffic engineering, but the expected audience also includes road planners and designers who share responsibility for safety aspects of their practice with traffic engineers.

This 2015 edition includes updated Safe System content, additional information regarding road safety audit and road safety assessment programs, and the latest Austroads research findings regarding the roadside safety management framework for the evaluation of roadside hazards and their treatment options.

 
 

New data techniques improve accuracy of pavement evaluations 

Recent developments in computer technology combined with the advent of data condensation technologies have opened new ways to analyse and explore data.

In late August Austroads published details an exploratory use of a full set of time series rutting data from a long-term pavement performance (LTPP) site in condition calculations.

Using a full data set, as opposed to single aggregated measures, such as the mean, currently used in pavement deterioration assessments, allows practitioners to more accurately evaluate pavement condition and target maintenance.

Data condensation techniques were used, converting the data set into an HTML text string that can be stored in a single Excel cell. This allows the full data to be employed in calculations instead of a single number.

The work presented in the report challenges well-established practices and procedures. It is anticipated that these readily available new techniques will benefits the road construction and maintenance industries in many ways.

 
 

Austroads office news

NEVDIS team joins Austroads office

Peter Duncan, Austroads Chair and Roads and Maritime Services Chief Executive, visited the Austroads office in August to celebrate the opening of our new office space.

The office space has expanded to accommodate the National Exchange of Vehicle and Driver Information System (NEVDIS) team.

NEVDIS amalgamates national information about vehicles and driver licenses. Its primary purpose is to prevent fraud and theft by ensuring ‘one vehicle, one Vehicle Identification Number (VIN)’ and ‘one person, one driver licence’.

In addition to information supplied by road agencies, NEVDIS collects VIN data for compliance from vehicle wholesalers and stolen information from police. It also serves information to the public and private sector organisations to facilitate providence checking on vehicles, matching of biographic details on licenses, motor insurance underwriting and vehicle safety recalls. 

"As Chair of Austroads I am encouraged that the new working environment will result in a closer working relationship with Austroads and improved national outcomes," Peter said.

Staff movements

Today Austroads welcomes Cellie Polintan. Cellie will be working Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and her primary responsibility will be the NEVDIS accounts and financials. 

Two weeks ago Austroads bid farewell to Office Manager Sharon Murray. In her place, we welcomed back Judi Sorbie who has returned to the Office Manager position after a five year break.  

Austroads has also farewelled Phil Tout who managed the NEVDIS Administration Unit. We are currently recruiting for the NEVDIS Manager's position and a new position of Project Support Manager.

 
 
 

PANDORA recognises national importance of Austroads websites

PANDORA is a selective archive containing copies of significant Australian online publications and web sites. The National Library of Australia and its partners are building the archive to ensure long-term access to significant Australian documentary heritage that is published online.

In August Austroads gave the National Library permission to archive both the Austroads and Austroads publications websites.

The National Library and its partners do not attempt to collect all Australian online publications and web sites, but select those that they consider are of significance and to have long-term research value.

 
 

Australian cycling safety analysis

In July BITRE released an analysis of cycling safety in  Australia. 

The paper includes analysis of: 

  • casualties by demographics
  • types of crash that result in cyclist injuries 
  • recent trends in cycling participation.
 
 

Views sought on NTC framework for fatigue research

Australians have been asked for their views on how to collect better information to inform improvements to heavy vehicle driver fatigue laws.

A discussion paper released by the National Transport Commission (NTC) proposes an agreed terminology, systems and processes that will enable a new framework to support comparable and accessible data across industry, governments and enforcement agencies.

Chief Executive of the NTC, Paul Retter said only when all the evidence was on the table would it be possible to determine whether the current regulations were appropriate.

“This project won’t be proposing changes to Australia’s fatigue laws, but it will ensure that we have consistent and more accurate data about how fatigue affects drivers and the safety of our nation’s roads,” Mr Retter said.

“We know that drowsy drivers are more likely to crash. Finding the best option to prevent these crashes relies on us developing a framework that may be used to inform changes to policy settings and amendments to fatigue laws.”

 Submissions are due by Friday 16 October 2015.

 

 
 
 

Safer Roads, Safer Queensland: Queensland’s Road Safety Strategy 2015-21

The Queensland Government has released Safer Roads, Safer Queensland: Queensland’s Road Safety Strategy 2015-2021 which commits to a vision of zero road deaths and serious injuries. 

The accompanying action plan includes 57 initiatives totalling more than $500 million to be implemented over the next two financial years. Action will be taken in the key areas of education and engagement, enforcement, technology, roads and roadside infrastructure, research, data and innovation, and governance and strategy. This investment includes Safer Roads Sooner, Safety Mass Actions, treating emerging crash locations, federal Black Spot projects and targeted motorway treatments.

 

 
 

Towards Zero - There's no one someone won't miss: TAC Victoria's latest campaign

The Victorian Transport Accident Commission has launched a new road safety campaign, Towards Zero.  

Towards Zero represents a new approach to road trauma reduction.

The star of the commercial, Victorian local Francisco Cerros, is asked the question: ‘Last year 249 people died on Victorian roads. What do you think is a more acceptable number?’ His answer is 70.

Mr Cerros is not an actor and he was not prepared for the sight of 70 of his closest family and friends walking around the corner. In an unscripted response, he is moved to tears before changing his answer to zero.

Both the campaign and the strategy support Victoria’s efforts to make every journey on the state’s roads a safe one by ensuring Victorians are safer drivers, driving safer cars, at safer speeds, on safer roads.

 
 

 Northern Territory seeks feedback on roads and bridges strategy

The Northern Territory Department of Transport is seeking feedback on its Roads and Bridges Strategy.

The strategy is part of the Integrated Transport Planning and Investment Roadmap and articulates the Northern Territory Government’s plan for investing in roads and bridges.

Submissions close Monday 14 September 2015.

 
 
 

Automated vehicle test facility world first

The University of Michigan and the Michigan Department of Transportation, have collaborated to design Mcity, a unique test facility for evaluating the capabilities of connected and automated vehicles.

The facility, launched in July, simulates the broad range of complexities vehicles encounter in urban and suburban environments. It includes approximately five lane-miles of roads with intersections, traffic signs and signals, sidewalks, benches, simulated buildings, street lights, and obstacles such as construction barriers. 

Read more about the test facility on the U-M Mobility Transformation Center website.

Peter Sweatman lead the project to develop the facility. He spoke about its development in his 2015 Ogden Transport Lecture delivered at Monash University in August.

 
 
 

Upcoming Workshops + Conferences

Asia-Pacific Cycle Congress 2015 
13-16 September 2015, Brisbane, Queensland

AAPA International Flexible Pavements Conference
13-16 September 2015, Gold Coast, Queensland

Australasian Road Safety Conference 
14-16 October 2015, Gold Coast, Queensland

NEW NZ Transport Agency/NZIHT 16th Annual Conference
1-3 November 2015, Paihia, New Zealand

XXVth World Road Congress
2-6 November 2015, Seoul, Korea

4th International Conference on Driver Distraction and Inattention
9-11 November 2015, Sydney, NSW

NEW Corrosion & Prevention 2015 
15-18 November 2015, Adelaide, South Australia

NEW ALGA 2015 National Local Roads and Transport Congress
17-19 November 2015, Ballarat, Victoria

NEW World of Asphalt 2016 
22-25 March 2016, Nashville, Tennessee, United States

Sixth International Conference on Traffic and Transport Psychology
2-5 August 2016, Brisbane, Queensland

23rd ITS World Congress Melbourne 2016
10-14 October 2016, Melbourne Victoria