The Victorian Government is committed to making our roads safer for all road users including our most vulnerable – motorcyclists, pedestrians and bicycle riders. As part of Victoria’s Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030 and Roads Safety Action Plan 2021-2023, Road Safety Victoria is working hard to drive down road trauma by focusing on the groups that are over-represented in deaths and serious injuries on our roads each year.
In broad terms, vulnerable road users are over- represented in fatalities in Victoria. In 2022, they accounted for 47 per cent of all road fatalities – motorcyclists (24 per cent), pedestrians (18 per cent) and bicycle riders (5 per cent).
To address an increase in the number of construction trucks and large vehicles on Victoria’s road network, particularly near multiple Big Build project sites, Road Safety Victoria, with the Department of Transport and Planning, is leading the Construction Trucks and Community Safety Project to improve the safety of bicycle riders, motorcyclists and pedestrians around construction areas.
The Construction Trucks and Community Safety Project is a multi-stakeholder partnership between government, industry and non-government organisations.
One of its key aims is to improve walker and rider safety by addressing truck vehicle requirements, truck-driver training, route selection and temporary traffic management.
The project commenced in late 2016 with a stakeholder forum at Melbourne Town Hall, resulting in the development of an Action Plan highlighting areas which required further improvement.
These areas were ‘signed on to’ by forum participants and formed the basis of working groups that met over the following few years.
These working groups helped to develop model contract clauses and supporting materials that were then made publicly available in 2021 through the VicRoads website.
Embedded community safety
The project recognised a need to engender best practice using the lever of contract clauses to require a change in practice within industry.
Model contract clauses were developed to accommodate the safe movements of bicycle riders, pedestrians and motorcyclists near construction sites.
These clauses are applicable to a range of construction- related contracts and include:
- Ensuring temporary traffic management supports the safe travel of pedestrians, bicycle riders and motorcyclists
- Ensuring the best routes are chosen in order to avoid conflict with vulnerable road users
- Key truck safety requirements
- Truck driver training
Many of Victoria’s big build projects have adopted the model clauses in their contracts, and a number of councils and other organisations are considering adopting them into their contracts.
Here are the key components reflected in the model contract clauses.
Truck safety features
To help improve safety, a range of truck safety features are recommended for construction trucks used to service construction sites.
These include:
- Trucks should have side under-run protection
- The truck’s front, rear and side blind-spots should be eliminated or minimised through the use of visual aids, sensors and audible or visual alerts
- Trucks should be fitted with audible indicators to alert other road users when they’re turning left
- Trucks should display prominent signage warning people of the dangers of travelling too close to trucks
- Increased conspicuity with the use of fluorescent and retroflective tape outlining the body of the truck and trailer, and increasing the visibility of the drawbar
- Trucks should protect the air quality of vulnerable road users by achieving a minimum of Euro 4, but preferably Euro 5 or above
These features play a critical role in protecting vulnerable road users from getting involved in truck collisions, and go some way to protecting them if they are.
Truck driver training: Toolbox Talks
With the National Road Safety Partnership Project, a suite of Toolbox Talks has been developed for truck drivers with a focus on pedestrian safety, bike rider safety and blind spot awareness. These packs are available on the VicRoads and National Road Safety Partnership Program websites. Other topics include fatigue, distraction and load management.
These Toolbox Talks are designed to give team leaders, managers and facilitators the resources needed to give toolbox safety talks to truck drivers, increasing their awareness about on-road hazards and how to drive safely near vulnerable road users. Each package contains a generic overview, topic background information and fact sheet, as well as PowerPoint slides and a video.
Route selection: human impact route assessment (HIRA) tool
As part of the effort to ensure vulnerable road users are kept safe during construction periods, a route selection tool has been developed to help construction companies choose the route that provides the safest outcomes for bicycle riders, pedestrians and motorcyclists.
The online HIRA tool can be used by construction companies undertaking projects involving significant heavy vehicle movements to ensure that they have considered vulnerable road user safety when selecting their haulage routes.
This can be achieved by either limiting interactions with pedestrians, bicycle riders and motorcyclists, or introducing suitable countermeasures to make particular locations safer.
The HIRA tool supports collaborative decision making between the construction company, haulage subcontractor and other key stakeholders. Through discussing and rating the various routes available, these representatives are actively considering the impacts of routes on vulnerable road user safety.
The HIRA tool is helping construction companies to proactively consider the safety of vulnerable road users during their route selection process. It includes an instructional video and facilitators overview.
Temporary traffic management planning
The project has developed a suite of resources to assist traffic management companies to develop temporary traffic management plans that accommodate vulnerable road users.
A key resource is the Safety Essentials: Accommodating Pedestrians and Bicycle Riders at Temporary Road Works Best Practice Guide. This is designed to be used as a reference tool by companies that are in the process of developing and implementing Traffic Management Plans in Victoria.
The document summarises elements of temporary traffic management industry standards and guidelines that focus on the safety of pedestrians and cyclists, including those contained within the Austroads Guide to Temporary Traffic Management.
It was specifically designed to ensure that temporary traffic management planning adequately accommodates pedestrians and bicycle riders.
With so much construction taking place around Victoria, and often in areas with high active transport use, or in regional locations where there is high recreational cycling use, it’s becoming even more important to actively consider and provide for vulnerable road users who may be using the road network near a work site.
The Construction Trucks and Community Safety Project provides model clauses that once embedded in construction contracts uplift various elements of the work that needs to take place during construction periods, to better protect vulnerable road users.
