Methods for reducing speeds on urban arterial roads

Road crashes on urban arterial roads are a key contributor to deaths and serious injury. Core to the Safe System approach is management of vehicle speeds to ensure that those crashes that do occur happen at survivable impact speeds. There is little information on how to manage speeds on urban arterial roads, particularly in situations where there is a mix of road user types (particularly pedestrians). Austroads has commenced research to identify solutions for managing speeds in this environment. Initial results are presented indicating the effectiveness (speed reduction and crash reduction where this information is available) of mainly infrastructure–based solutions for managing speeds.