Research and publications

We carry out transport research, think-pieces and policy guidance for national agencies, local councils, and other clients, and regularly publish and present to the industry (including many award-winning papers). Below are links to our latest published work:

The Signals NZ User Group (SNUG) meets annually for a workshop. The purpose of the presentation is to inform traffic signal practitioners of the content of the new booklet Stops and Goes of Traffic Signals, published by Transfund NZ.

The presentation is available online on this website.

The recommendations of this remit are:

  • Engage competent signal engineer for the peer review of new designs
    • Road safety audit process is not sufficient
    • Signal peer review is separate
  • Engage suitably experienced specialists for the auditing of SCATS set-ups
  • Suitably qualified engineers
    • ask SNUG committee members for a list
  • Commission audits of your existing traffic signals
  • Engage competent signal engineer for the peer review of new designs (repeated for its importance)

The presentation is available online on this website.

The purpose of this remit is to inform the profession about a procedure for estimating a cycling AADT (average annual daily traffic).

Funding applications to Transfund for cycling projects need to contain an estimate for a cycling AADT. Christchurch City Council in conjunction with Beca have now developed a procedure for scaling up count data. Individual counts are scaled up to daily estimates and are then adjusted for the weekday and the season. The seasonal adjustment factors are based on the secondary school timetable. Different daily adjustment factors are provided for sites used mainly by commuter cyclists, or by both commuters and school children.

Cycle route network planning is usually a fairly subjective process, with local or regional council staff and perhaps cycling advocates identifying popular routes or strong desire lines for cycling. ViaStrada has developed a more objective tool for identifying cycle routes and networks, working with the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) and VicRoads, Melbourne. The technique uses a geographic information system (GIS) to manage, analyse and display relevant transport and demographic data in a spatial environment. The tool allows the merits of different potential routes or entire networks to be compared. This approach ensures that expenditure on designing and building cycle networks will be better spent if planning aligns with data-based predictions of where people may want to use cycle facilities, if they were to be provided.

The relatively limited number of experienced cycle facility designers in New Zealand means there is great value to be gained through the careful use of a peer review process. Auckland City Council gained value and identified innovative design solutions through the use of a technical peer review, which in turn assisted inexperienced designers in future projects and raised the quality of cycle projects all round.

Designers ViaStrada and Maunsell have developed an innovative concept, which proposes a diagonal cycle phase to run concurrently with opposing right-turning traffic (i.e. during the ‘single diamond phase'). This is believed to be the first of its kind in NZ, and whilst the concept is described in the Dutch CROW manual, it appears that it has not been tried before in The Netherlands either. This paper will present the concept, and discuss its benefits and risks.

This remit was given to the 2007 Microscopic Traffic Simulation Conference held on 6 and 7 September 2007 in Rotorua. It described the development and use of the SIDRA User Guidelines and how they have benefited SIDRA users and those receiving and commissioning SIDRA analysis projects. Microscopic traffic simulation in New Zealand is where SIDRA was ten to fifteen years ago with respect to national acceptance and understanding of microscopic intersection modelling.

There is an identified need to develop a nationally recognised and accepted Microscopic Traffic Simulation Guideline that clients and practitioners can reference ensuring an agreed standard of modelling practise has been used. This should ensure the focus of any debate on models developed is on the outcomes and not the inputs.

Living Streets is about applying a philosophy that aims to involve people with interests in the street to jointly create a new balance between on street activities, pedestrians, bicycles, general traffic and adjacent land use. On a higher level, it is about balancing land use, transport, environment and health.

This paper summarises the findings of a comprehensive study of the effects of road network bendiness on traffic crashes that used GIS (geographical information system) analysis. The study was based on previous research that examined the effect of road network bendiness on crash occurrence at a TLA level of aggregation. It was assumed that the bendiness measures used by Haynes et al (2007b) would be more appropriate for predicting crash occurrence, and more useful from a traffic engineering viewpoint, when applied to localised regions. Thus a more appropriate method is presented and illustrated by a case study of New Zealand fatal traffic crashes.

There is an issue of premature entry to flush medians, when there is queuing on a major road, back past a minor road intersection. Some drivers pull out of the queue into the flush median without looking and accelerating to reach a right turn bay, which has been witnessed to cause crashes. These crashes include colliding with other vehicles and hitting pedestrians using the flush median to cross.