Changes are being urged to how trucks are permitted to operate in urban environments

As major infrastructure projects are rolled out across major regional centres including the ACT's $1.6 billion light rail extension, Newcastle's $450 million Inner City Bypass and Wollongong's $41 million West Dapto development, missing from these businesses cases is how the introduction of heavy vehicles will impact on safety.

The Amy Gillett Foundation, established in 2005 following the death of Amy Gillett, killed by a driver while training in Germany with the Australian women's cycling team, is at the forefront of the push for change.

In its submissions to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Road Safety last year, the foundation said that heavy vehicles "constitute only 4 per cent of vehicles on the road, they are involved in up to 50 per cent of fatal cyclist and pedestrian crashes that occur in urban areas".

BLAKE'S LEGACY:

Such is the foundation's concern that it developed a Sharing Roads Safely program in consultation with over 40 stakeholders from across the construction and logistics sector, based on international best practice including the Transport for London's Construction Logistics and Community Safety program.

Around the world, the injection of heavy truck movements into dense urban environments for major infrastructure projects has led to agitation for change, with Transport for London leading the way.

Between 2008 and 2013, 55 per cent of cyclist fatalities in London involved a heavy goods vehicle.

Across the UK, large goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes were involved in approximately 15 per cent of cyclist and 10 per cent of pedestrian fatalities. According to data supplied by Transport for London, a disproportionate number of these involved construction vehicles.

In 2012,Transport for London commissioned an independent review to understand how these collisions occurred and how they might be prevented.

The resulting Construction Logistics and Cyclist Safety (CLOCS) report was published in February 2013.

It was a watershed moment for the UK transport industry, triggering a major examination and overhaul of heavy vehicle safety requirements in urban environments.

What followed - and is now flowing through to Australia - was much more stringent mechanisms applied to truck movements in and around major urban projects.

Since the adoption of the CLOCS standard, there has been a 47 per cent reduction in serious and and fatal collisions between heavy vehicles and vulnerable road users, a 25 per cent drop in total collisions, and 37 per cent fewer complaints against heavy vehicle operators in the UK.

Last year the Australian Road Research Board, in support of the new CLOCS-A approach, revealed how the post-COVID construction boom, estimated at over $100 billion in investment, would bring with it heavy transport movements of enormous scale.

"With so much building going on as part of this infrastructure boom, we can expect to see many more trucks on Australia's roads, transporting key materials needed to underpin our infrastructure development," the research body's research found.

"Often, these vehicles are travelling right through the heart of our cities and towns - providing a new set of challenges to communities, truck drivers and those involved in construction logistics."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:

.