Project Description

Knowledge of travel undertaken on Victoria’s roads (a measure of "exposure to accident") provides a valuable tool for assessing accident risk for key road user groups in a variety of situations: young drivers at night, female probationary drivers, etc. By identifying high-risk groups on the road, targeted countermeasures can be developed and implemented.

This survey of vehicles and occupants, conducted for VicRoads by Steer Davies Gleave, TUTI and Australasian Traffic Surveys, estimated the on-road frequency of particular attributes per kilometres travelled for different types of vehicles, drivers and passengers, within defined location areas and defined time periods.

The project used an on-road intercept survey technique which obtained information from drivers about trips in progress. The survey was conducted at 64 sites across metropolitan Melbourne, across all hours of the day and all days of the week. The survey method allowed a "snapshot" of travel to be captured from which distance travelled on defined roads in a defined location over a "typical" seven-day week during the survey period could be derived.