Infrastructure treatments for managing speeds on rural and urban arterial roads

Core to the Safe System approach is management of vehicle speeds to reduce the likelihood of crashes occurring, and to ensure that those crashes that do occur, happen at survivable impact speeds. Although there is substantial guidance on infrastructure measures that can assist in the management of speed on the local road network (often under the heading of local area traffic management or traffic calming), there is little information on how to manage speeds on rural and urban arterial roads, locations where the majority of fatal and serious injury crashes occur. Austroads has funded research that was aimed at identifying infrastructure solutions for managing speeds in these environments. Results are presented indicating the effectiveness of infrastructure–based solutions for managing speeds.