The prevalence of crashes on two-lane highways across Australia and New Zealand is not only significant, but it’s often deadly to those involved.
Head-on collisions frequently result in significant impact forces, making them more likely to cause serious injuries or fatalities than other types of vehicle crashes.
With large sections of Australia’s freight network – including a significant section of Queensland’s Bruce Highway – consisting of single carriageways, the importance of mitigating the risk of head-on collisions across the nation is crucial to improving freight efficiency and, more importantly, minimising serious injury and loss of life.
A new report from Austroads has recommended the implementation of a Safe System approach on two-lane roads across the country and advocates for the segregation of opposing traffic streams through the installation of a flexible safety barrier in a wide median strip.
This recommendation will see the providing of median barriers regardless of median width on high-speed roads across the country, whereas in the past policies have allowed medians of certain width to not have barriers.
The Austroads study focused on engineering treatments that reduce the risk of head-on crashes in high-speed rural environments by physically separating opposing traffic or reducing the likelihood of vehicles encroaching the opposing traffic lane.
The installation of flexible median barriers has occurred in some areas of Australia and New Zealand, and has been adopted more broadly by countries across the globe including Sweden, Japan and Ireland.
The report states the wider adoption of the method is integral to reducing the road toll in Australia and New Zealand.
Although the installation of a median barrier is the optimum solution to improve road safety in this scenario, the report has released a hierarchy of potential solutions depending on circumstances including road function, space or resource constraints and access requirements.
The use of wide centre lines and audio tactile line markings is also recommended as a potential solution.
To access the full Addressing Head-On Conflicts Towards Safe System Alignment: A Compendium of Treatments, click here.
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