#73 Network Safety Plan (pt 3.1)

We have previously summarised key aspects of Network Safety Plans (NSP) in briefs #7 and #58. As noted, the NSP represents a strategic network-wide plan to reduce crash risk by prioritising investment in safety infrastructure and related measures. The current short series of briefs expands upon the previous entries with a closer look at key NSP principles and components, including:

• The Safe System and network-wide approaches

• Movement and Place for road categorisation

• Self-explaining roads

• Risk assessment tools (e.g., iRAP, AusRAP, ANRAM)

  
  

As the first entry in the current series, this week we explore the Safe System and associated network-wide approaches. While there are many useful government, industry and academic sources reporting on NSP approaches and components, the key references for information presented here are the Austroads (2020) Network Design for Road Safety User Guide [1] and (2026) Guide to Road Safety Part 7: Road Safety Strategy and Management [2].

The Safe System and network-wide approaches

Road safety professionals will be familiar with the Safe System approach, which recognises as core principles that people make mistakes and are inherently vulnerable to injury. Additional core principles are that responsibility for safety is shared between road users and system managers, and desired outcomes are achieved through continuous strengthening of all parts of the system (i.e., road users, vehicles, the road environment, travel speeds, and post-crash care).

From planning and engineering perspectives, Safe System implementation at the network level is a proactive approach that aims to assess and treat both known and potential risks across an entire network. This contrasts with the more traditional approach of focusing on known crash sites or ‘blackspots’. While the latter approach can often be necessary and effective in the absence of a broader, holistic strategy, the network-wide approach, when properly implemented, should provide safer, more sustainable, and cost-effective outcomes in the medium to long term.

The network-wide approach recognises a 3-level hierarchy according to Austroads (2020), which includes the network itself at the highest level, followed by road corridors and road links. Corridors and links are described as follows:

• A corridor is defined as a major area of travel between two points. It may include more than one link and more than one form of transport.

• A link is a segment of road which forms part of a corridor and has homogenous characteristics, which for this project, were determined to be characteristics relating to urban or rural location, divided or undivided carriageways, geometry, speed limits and traffic volumes.

  
  

A simple conceptualisation of the contrast between a project-based plan (the traditional approach) versus a network-wide plan is reproduced from Austroads (2020) below in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Project-level treatment vs corridor-level treatment (Source: Austroads, 2020)

[1] Austroads (2020). Network Design for Road Safety (Stereotypes for Cross Sections and Intersections) User Guide. AP-R619-20. Sydney, Austroads. https://austroads.gov.au/publications/road-design/ap-r619-20

[2] Austroads (2026). Guide to Road Safety Part 7: Road Safety Strategy and Management. AGRS07-26. Sydney, Austroads. https://austroads.gov.au/publications/road-safety/agrs07