#82 Area-wide vulnerable road user (VRU) treatments (part 2)

Vulnerable road users (VRU) face significantly elevated risk of injury in the event of a crash when compared with other road users (i.e., occupants of cars, trucks, buses). The current series of briefs looks at VRU treatments as part of an area-wide approach, drawing substantially on the Austroads (2020) report titled Integrating Safe System with Movement and Place for Vulnerable Road Users[1]. Indeed, an area-wide approach to VRU safety must be intrinsic to Safe System implementation, Network Safety Plans, and the application of Movement and Place and related principles. The series is structured in four parts, with the current brief (part 2) focusing on cyclist safety measures:

• Part 1: Introduction to the series

• Part 2: Cyclist safety measures  (current brief)

• Part 3: Pedestrian safety measures

• Part 4: Motorcyclist safety measures

Cyclist safety measures

As noted, area-wide safety measures for VRUs should be consistent with Safe System principles and related frameworks such as Movement and Place. One of the critical keys to Safe System implementation is the application of low speeds, especially where mixed use of travel modes occurs. For vulnerable road users, 30 km/h is cited as the ‘aspirational’ operating speed where a collision with a motorised vehicle is possible. Cyclists face somewhat different risks to pedestrians, including the obvious factors of (generally) higher speeds and often travelling in or adjacent to the motorised vehicle traffic stream, among others. Acknowledging these differences, Austroads (2020) states that the 30km/h limit is appropriate as the ‘boundary condition’ for both VRU groups:

While the research on the risk of death or serious injury to cyclists is less extensive, for practical purposes, the same value of the boundary condition has been adopted (p.14).

In a 30 km/h setting, cyclists and vehicles sharing the same lane is considered to be aligned with Safe System risk levels (p.111).

Given the above, most Safe System-aligned speed reduction measures are theoretically seen to benefit both pedestrian and cyclist safety (these will be explored next week in Part 3). However, there are some specific measures applicable only to cyclists. Appropriate, well-designed cycling facilities are deemed likely to not only improve safety, but also encourage cycling as a form of active travel. From the VRU safety measures identified in last week’s brief, reproduced from Austroads (2020), the following specific measures (excluding speed reduction) for cyclists and their Safe System alignment are presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Cyclist safety measures and alignment with Safe System principles (Source: AP-R611-20)

The above Safe System treatments depend heavily on full separation from vehicles, or low-risk travel speeds of 30 km/h or less. Additional supporting treatments that may not be fully Safe System aligned are also identified in the Austroads (2020) report. For cyclists specifically, these include:

• Cyclist phases at traffic lights

• Optimal sight lines

• Traffic calming features (40 km/h settings)

• Surface skid resistance

• Street lighting

• Intelligent pavement markers

Key references for further reading

• Integrating Safe System with Movement and Place for Vulnerable Road Users (Austroads, 2020)

• Speed Zoning Policy and Technical Guidelines (Victoria, 2025)

[1] Austroads (2020). Integrating Safe System with Movement and Place for Vulnerable Road Users (AP-R611-20). Sydney, Austroads.