Research and publications

Is cycling safety in NZ getting better or is there little change? At the 2023 Australasian Road Safety Conference, Glen Koorey gave a presentation reviewing trends in cycle casualties over the past 15 years or so and identified areas for further improvement, including regulatory changes, infrastructure improvements, and speed management.

Why is it so hard to get traction on introducing lower speeds in NZ, despite their obvious benefits? At the 2023 Australasian Road Safety Conference, Glen Koorey presented a think-piece introducing the current state of play around setting and changing speed limits in NZ, discussed some of the existing challenges to seeing more speed limit changes being enacted, and suggested ways to address these.

What’s the deal with countdown timers? What do the NZ rules say, and do pedestrians really understand and use them correctly? Are there any lessons to be learned from overseas? 

The presentation is available online on this website.

The Signals NZ User Group (SNUG) held its annual workshop in New Plymouth in 2023. Axel presented on separated cycleways and filter turning. The current legislative framework does not allow filter turning and the presentation focused on a design approach that overcomes the legal constraints. The purpose of the presentation was to stimulate discussion on the concept, and to see whether the wider industry would raise concerns or suggest improvements.

The presentation is available online on this website.

In 2023, the Signals NZ User Group (SNUG) held its annual workshop in New Plymouth. Axel presented on the publication Stops and Goes of Traffic Signals, first published in 2004. The purpose of the presentation was to stimulate discussion about a potential update of this booklet.

The presentation is available online on this website.

Understanding the perceptions of walkability in Central North Christchurch for older adults

By developing walkable streets, Christchurch can create neighbourhoods that are attractive to new residents and care for existing ones. We wanted to find out what is the perceived walkability for residents 55+ and what walkability factors attract or deter older people to Northern Central Christchurch. Walkable streets free us from dependence on cars by creating equitable access to amenities and safe, vibrant communities that foster wellbeing. 

We can quantify the economic impact of investing in roads for motor vehicle drivers, why not pedestrians?

This presentation describes a simple model to estimate the uptake in walking based on comparing the walkability of the subject urban area and a benchmark urban area.

There has been a surge of interest in the “10, 15 or-20-minute city” both worldwide and in Aotearoa New Zealand. This goal, which for generality, we refer to as the x-minute city is often part of a strategy to reduce emissions and achieve sustainable and healthy urban design by encouraging walking and cycling. However, currently missing from the rhetoric around these ‘cities of proximity’ is clear guidance on measuring progress towards the goal. We contrast measurement approaches and discuss important considerations for planners adopting the x-minute goal. To do this, we measure the proximity of the 500 largest cities in the USA and 43 urban areas of New Zealand. The University of Canterbury team's interactive tool to visualise and explore proximity within urban areas of Aotearoa can be found here.

Nick Reid (ViaStrada) and Becky Young (GHD) co-presented at the TG'23 Conference in Tauranga.

Traditional road safety measures of harm like the numbers of deaths and injuries suffered in crashes are often under-reported but also overlook other casualties within the transport environment. Recent safety investigations of people walking, biking, motorcycling and using other transport devices in Auckland and nationally found that considerably more people are suffering serious injuries on roads and paths from incidents not involving other vehicles. Glen Koorey presented on these findings at the 2023 NZ Transportation Conference.

ViaStrada investigated the costs of “transport-related accidents” on roads as part of the recent MoT Domestic Transport Costs & Charges study. Motor vehicle crash costs totalled $5.65 billion annually, while costs associated with accidents only involving non-motorised users, such as pedestrian falls, were estimated at a further $830 million annually. Glen Koorey presented on these findings at the 2022 Transport Knowledge Conference in Wellington, summarising the road safety analysis undertaken and exploring the implications for future investigation in this area.