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Cover of Keeping People Safe When Walking – Stream 2: Determining the Minimum Data Requirements to Progress Pedestrian Safety
Keeping People Safe When Walking – Stream 2: Determining the Minimum Data Requirements to Progress Pedestrian Safety
  • Publication no: AP-R762-26
  • ISBN: 978-1-923617-51-3
  • Published: 19 May 2026

This report outlines the research and process for determining the minimum data requirements to measure and improve pedestrian safety strategies and plans. This report is part of Stream 2 of Austroads project SAG6371 Keeping People Safe When Walking.

The methodology involved a comprehensive literature review to develop an inventory of data sets currently available in Australasia and beyond. An online industry survey about pedestrian data usage and video interviews were conducted with several Australasian transport jurisdictions to understand the pedestrian safety data sets they typically use. During this process, several manual and automated means of pedestrian data collection were identified, including the potential for some newer technologies.

This report identifies the top 11 pedestrian safety data sets considered worth using as minimum requirements to progress pedestrian safety. These data sets were selected considering data collection difficulty and cost versus their contribution to addressing pedestrian safety and data quality. This report is accompanied by a Guideline and the Data Framework Spreadsheet.

The report recommends that Austroads members consider adopting and implementing the minimum data requirements recommended to progress pedestrian safety across Australia and New Zealand.

Guideline and Spreadsheet

This report is accompanied by the Minimum Data Requirements for Pedestrian Safety Guideline and the Data Framework Spreadsheet.

About the project:

Austroads' Keeping People Safe When Walking project envisions a road and street network that places pedestrian safety at its core—regardless of age, race, gender, socioeconomic background, or physical ability. The project supports both national and local efforts to achieve Vision Zero targets: a 50% reduction in pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries by 2030, and their complete elimination by 2050.

To realise this vision, the project draws on data-driven insights to better understand pedestrian trauma and inform impactful interventions across the Safe System.

Other outputs from this project include:

  1. Keeping People Safe when Walking – Stream 1: Pedestrian Safety Problem and Project Methodology
  2. Keeping People Safe when Walking – Stream 1: Literature Review
  3. Keeping People Safe when Walking – Stream 1: Pedestrian Data Improvement Recommendations
  4. Keeping People Safe when Walking – Stream 1: Recommended Pedestrian Safety Interventions
  5. Keeping People Safe When Walking – Stream 2: Economic Assessment of Safer Speeds 
  6. Keeping People Safe When Walking – Stream 2: Understanding Inequity in Pedestrian Safety Outcomes
  7. Keeping People Safe When Walking – Stream 2: Strengthening Key Practitioner Guidance and Methodologies
  • 1. Introduction
    • 1.1 Background
    • 1.2 Purpose
    • 1.3 Challenges and opportunities
    • 1.4 Key terminology
    • 1.5 Scope
    • 1.6 Methodology
      • 1.6.1 Literature review approach
      • 1.6.2 Survey and interview methods
      • 1.6.3 Prioritisation to determine minimum requirements
  • 2. Literature Review
    • 2.1 Research literature
      • 2.1.1 Keeping People Safe When Walking: Stream 1 research findings
        Other Stream 2 research – understanding inequity
      • 2.1.2 Australasian research
      • 2.1.3 Other international research
    • 2.2 Location-specific literature
      • 2.2.1 National Australasian level
      • 2.2.2 New South Wales and Sydney
      • 2.2.3 Queensland and Brisbane
      • 2.2.4 Victoria and Melbourne
      • 2.2.5 South Australia and Adelaide
      • 2.2.6 Western Australia and Perth
      • 2.2.7 New Zealand examples
      • 2.2.8 Other international examples
    • 2.3 Summary of pedestrian data sources identified
  • 3. Survey and Interviews
    • 3.1 Methods
      • 3.1.1 Survey methods
      • 3.1.2 Interview methods
    • 3.2 Survey results
      • 3.2.1 Survey respondent characteristics
      • 3.2.2 Data use
      • 3.2.3 Data category responses
      • 3.2.4 Other questions and free-form comment fields
    • 3.3 Interview results
      • 3.3.1 Interviewee characteristics
      • 3.3.2 Local infrastructure data
      • 3.3.3 Crash data consistency
      • 3.3.4 Pedestrian crossing data and trip patterns
      • 3.3.5 Walking asset and environmental information
      • 3.3.6 Technology
      • 3.3.7 Proxy measures
    • 3.4 Comparison and discussion
  • 4. Discussion
    • 4.1 Determining minimum data sets
      • 4.1.1 Cost and effort to collect data
      • 4.1.2 Contribution to addressing pedestrian safety objectives
      • 4.1.3 Additional data attributes
      • 4.1.4 Recommended minimum data requirements
      • 4.1.5 Gaps between the minimum data requirements and what jurisdictions are collecting
    • 4.2 Alternatives to collecting a minimum data type (proxy measures)
    • 4.3 Development of a Data Framework Spreadsheet
  • 5. Conclusions and Recommendations
    • 5.1 Conclusions
      • 5.1.1 Data applications within various levels of transportation system management
      • 5.1.2 Revised Pedestrian Data Framework
      • 5.1.3 Use of data for monitoring versus implementation
    • 5.2 Recommendations
  • References
  • Appendix A Survey Questions
  • Appendix B Interview Questions
Related publications
Minimum Data Requirements for Pedestrian Safety Guideline
AP-G115-26
Keeping People Safe When Walking: Stream 2 – Understanding Inequity in Pedestrian Safety Outcomes
AP-R755-26
Keeping People Safe When Walking: Stream 2 – Strengthening Key Practitioner Guidance and Methodologies
AP-R756-26
View all related publications
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