Safety Essentials: Accommodating Pedestrians and Bicycle Riders at Temporary Road Works

Victoria is currently in a transport construction boom with in excess of 119 major road and rail projects being delivered. It is not just about current works, with significant planning also underway for a number of projects that are set to transform the way Victorians travel. The scale of transformation happening on our transport network now and into the future means extensive planning has been and is required to minimise disruption. This disruption is affecting all modes of transport and in dense urban surroundings can have adverse effect on pedestrians and cyclists.

In Victoria various strategies and policies are seeking to encourage and support both walking and cycling for transport. This includes ‘Plan Melbourne’ and the ‘Victorian Cycling Strategy 2018-2028’. The ‘Transport Integration Act 2010’ also supports an integrated multi-modal approach to transport planning. At Council level most Integrated Transport Strategies also reiterate this support and encouragement.

On the ground we are seeing increased numbers of both pedestrians and cyclists as the city grows and becomes more developed.

This document “Safety Essentials: Accommodating Pedestrians and Bicycle Riders at Temporary Road Works” (referred to within this document as ‘the Guidelines’) provides those with responsibility for traffic management arrangements with a source to determine whether pedestrians and cyclists have adequately been considered around construction sites, and provide practitioners with a summary reference document on the topic. The Guidelines present a document, where industry standards and guidelines concerning pedestrians and cyclists are summarised and given clarity.