Pedestrian Safety Blueprint calls for faster action to reduce deaths and serious injuries

Friday, 23 October 2026

Proven measures to make walking safer already exist, but faster and wider implementation is needed to reverse stalled progress on pedestrian safety across Australia and New Zealand. The Austroads Pedestrian Safety Blueprint brings evidence and contemporary practice together to help transport agencies turn what is known about pedestrian risk into practical action.

While pedestrian deaths fell substantially over the longer term, progress plateaued over the decade to 2024. Australian pedestrian deaths increased from 133 in 2021 to 197 in 2025, highlighting the need to accelerate effective interventions.

The Blueprint provides a structured approach for practitioners working across policy, strategy, planning, investment and design. It brings together guidance on pedestrian data, safe people, safe speeds, safe roads and paths, and safe vehicles, with advice on prioritising interventions and evaluating progress.

Austroads Road Safety Program Manager Michael Nieuwesteeg said substantial reductions in pedestrian trauma are possible using interventions already available to transport agencies.

“We know much more today about pedestrian risk and the measures that can reduce it. The challenge now is to apply that knowledge at greater pace and scale, using evidence to target investment where it can make the greatest difference,” Michael said.

Modelling undertaken through Austroads’ Keeping People Safe When Walking project found that proven interventions, implemented at scale and without constraint, could reduce pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries by up to 90 per cent by 2050.

The Blueprint recommends a proactive, Safe System approach that addresses risk across the transport network rather than relying only on locations with a history of crashes. It identifies safer speeds as the most effective, cost-efficient and fastest means of progressing towards zero harm for pedestrians in the near to medium term, alongside safer crossings and road environments that protect pedestrians when mistakes occur.

Particular attention is given to urban roads and streets, where most pedestrian trauma occurs, including 50 and 60 km/h roads and locations used by people who may face greater pedestrian safety risks.

Michael Nieuwesteeg emphasised: “Pedestrian safety needs to be considered as part of how we plan, design, invest in and operate the whole transport system. That means understanding where people need to walk and cross, designing for people of different ages and abilities, and creating road environments that remain safe when people make mistakes.”

The Blueprint also recommends strengthening information on pedestrian risk and exposure, linking crash and hospital data where possible, improving information about pedestrian infrastructure and using community insights to help identify locations where risk may not be evident from crash records alone.

The guidance is designed to support transport agencies at local, state, territory and national levels to strengthen efforts to reduce pedestrian deaths and serious injuries, while allowing approaches to reflect local circumstances, priorities and administrative arrangements.

Download Austroads Pedestrian Safety Blueprint

The accompanying infographic summarises the Blueprint’s key messages, priority actions and pathway to improving pedestrian safety.