Business performance
Our safety performance
Using connected vehicle data to improve road safety during works With construction underway on the M7- M12 Integration Project (Sydney) we’re using connected vehicle data to enhance road- worker safety along the Westlink M7. A traffic speed monitoring dashboard lets us pinpoint locations where we see frequent braking, swerving and speeding hotspots. We can then implement measures to improve road-work speed limit compliance, better protecting personnel working alongside live traffic. Research informs safety campaign A road safety campaign has been trialled in the US, targeting the top-three driving behaviours that contribute to crashes on US roads, one of which is speeding. The trial was based on our team’s research that found 90% of Greater Washington Area drivers believe their own driving is extremely or somewhat safe, while believing only about 35% of others on the road are equally capable. Teams will apply these insights to on-road messaging on the I-95 Express and general- purpose lanes. During the trial, instead of signage asking drivers to ‘slow down’, drivers were shown messages such as ‘watch out for speeders.’ The trial monitored drivers’ speed-limit compliance after encountering this signage. We found the signage was effective in reducing speeds on both Express and general-purpose lanes. Net speed reductions of between 0.34 mph (0.55 km/h) and 1.44 mph (2.32 km/h) were recorded – small drops in speed that could significantly reduce crash risk. Free travel on the A25 supporting Operation Red Nose Transurban continues to offer free travel on the A25 for Operation Red Nose users and volunteers during the festive season. Operation Red Nose is a non-profit that helps prevent people driving while impaired. Clients who have celebrated to excess can request a pick-up (by phone or mobile app) – and a team of three volunteers will arrive and drive them home safely in the client’s own car. Created in 1984, the Operation Red Nose escort service operates over the festive season in more than 100 communities in Canada.
We track our road safety performance using a Road Injury Crash Index (RICI): the number of serious injury crashes per 100 million vehicle kilometres travelled (VKT) on our roads. In FY24, our RICI was 3.72, down 0.58 on FY23, and 0.43 below our FY24 threshold of 4.15. Despite this achievement, we continue to work with our partners to identify opportunities to improve road safety.
MUARC road performance analysis
After having their best-performing years in FY23, both our North American and Victorian roads were challenged in FY24. Victoria has seen an increase in rear-end crashes involving serious injury compared to last year. These types of crashes are typically associated with distracted or inattentive driving. North America has seen an increase in serious injury crashes involving loss of control, a crash type often associated with inappropriate speeds, distraction or impairment. Conversely, after a challenging FY23, Queensland significantly improved its overall performance in FY24, with a reduction in crashes involving serious injury. A new data analytics platform (detailed above) has allowed for deeper insights that are better informing our road safety action plans. This will be further enhanced by the predictive analytics, automation and machine learning capability now being used in our Transurban Queensland Network Operations Centre which is helping us predict congestion and respond to incidents faster. Our vision of zero serious injury crashes remains a key focus, and we will continue striving towards this goal. While most crashes (89%) don’t result in serious injury to vehicle occupants, we continue to identify and implement initiatives to reduce common crash types on our roads (see Figure 4). iRAP rating The International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) is a charity operating in over 100 countries, dedicated to improving road safety by providing star ratings indicating the relative level of risk of being involved in a fatal or serious injury crash on a road, considering attributes such as road design and geometry. All our roads (exclusive of NorthConnex (Sydney), the A25 (Montreal) and the FredEx section of the I95 (Virginia)) have been assessed under iRAP, and 100% of our rated roads by travel are 3 stars or higher. In Australia, 91% of travel is now rated 4 stars or higher – and 55% of our WestConnex network (Sydney) is 5 star rated. In the US, 63% of our roads are rated 4 stars or higher.
Transurban commissions Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) to analyse crashes on our Australian assets and compare our roads’ performance to like roads in each market. MUARC’s latest (2024) analysis found that, compared to like roads in each state, such as freeways or motorways with similar traffic volumes, our roads are on average at least twice as safe. 1 NeuRA partnership In FY24, we continued our partnership with Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA), to deliver critical occupant injury prevention research. Research conducted by NeuRA at the Transurban Road Safety Centre during FY24 included: • confirming the 5-Step Test is the gold standard for parents checking whether a child is ready to use an adult seat belt • testing the safety of child car seat modifications for children with disabilities • developing a prototype lumbar spine that more accurately mimics the spine of a small adult, to help gain clearer pictures of how vehicle collisions impact older children and smaller females. NeuRA joined Transurban to share these new research findings with stakeholders during National Road Safety Week in May, at road safety panel discussions in Melbourne and Brisbane. Kidsafe Car Seat Blitz Young children are some of the most vulnerable people on our roads and making sure they have a safe car seat is one of the best ways to protect them. We partnered with Kidsafe again in FY24 – our third year in a row – to run car seat safety blitzes in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. 660 seat checks were conducted during the blitz, with over 90% of seats requiring adjustments. Checkers also installed new seats and provided advice on their safe use.
1 Data for FY17-22 for Queensland, and FY17-1H23 for Victoria and NSW
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