Road Safety Engineering & Infrastructure Consulting
Road Safety Audits and Safe System Assessments
The Safe System Approach is designed to address crash risk across three dimensions: exposure, likelihood, and severity. In practice, the emphasis in both RSA and SSA work has tilted heavily toward severity reduction — designing roads and roadsides to be more forgiving when crashes occur. This is important work. But it comes at a cost: proportionally less effort on reducing crash likelihood by improving the conditions under which road users are expected to perform. A road that absorbs energy well but consistently places drivers in situations that exceed their reliable capabilities is a road the Safe System has only half addressed.
TVL’s audits and assessments hold to the full intent of the framework. This means applying genuine human factors analysis to the question of crash likelihood — not just severity — and asking whether the road environment is set up to support reliable road user performance, not just to limit consequences when it fails. In the experience of lesser-practised auditors, RSA and SSA reports can drift toward a compliance checklist: does the geometry meet the standard, does the signage meet the standard, does the linemarking meet the standard? These checks have their place. The more consequential question — does this environment ask more of its users than they can reliably deliver — requires a different level of inquiry, and that is the standard TVL applies.
Services
Road Safety Audits
Formal independent assessments of road infrastructure at all project stages — concept, preliminary design, detailed design, pre-opening, and existing conditions. Conducted to Austroads guidelines with Senior Road Safety Auditor accreditation.
Safe System Assessments
Structured evaluation of proposed and existing road infrastructure against Safe System objectives — assessing crash risk across exposure, likelihood and severity dimensions, and identifying where the system falls short of its potential to be forgiving of human error. Conducted in accordance with the Austroads Safe System Assessment Framework (AP-R509-16).
Infrastructure Funding Bids
Development of Blackspot and SSRIP funding submissions — site identification, crash analysis, countermeasure development, benefit-cost analysis, and submission preparation. Strong track record of successful bids for local government clients.
Human Factors Analysis
Assessment of how road users perceive, interpret, and respond to the road environment — identifying where design creates expectation violations, cognitive overload, or insufficient time for error correction. TVL is also developing a formalised Driver Perspective Audit methodology — enquire for details.
Local Government Consulting
Traffic and road safety engineering support for councils — including statutory planning referrals, traffic studies, capital works development, and liaison with VicRoads, Victoria Police, and the Department of Transport.
Billboard & Roadside Advertising Assessments
Safety assessment of proposed roadside advertising locations against distraction, sight distance, and Safe System criteria.
“The most consequential road safety insights come not from checking whether infrastructure met its standard, but from asking whether it served the people who used it — and examining the evidence when it did not.”
The Forensic Advantage
TVL’s road safety engineering practice is directly informed by forensic crash investigation. Most road safety auditors assess infrastructure prospectively — evaluating proposed or existing designs against guidelines. TVL additionally draws on retrospective analysis of actual crashes: what the infrastructure contributed to the crash sequence, how the road environment shaped driver behaviour in the moments before impact, and what the physical evidence reveals about the relationship between design and outcome.
This is an unusual capability in a road safety auditor. It means TVL’s audit findings are grounded not just in guideline knowledge but in observed crash causality — making the recommendations more targeted and the analysis more defensible.
Relevant Experience
- Road Safety Audits at all project stages for municipal and state road authorities
- Safe System Assessments for urban and rural road networks
- Blackspot and SSRIP funding submissions for Victorian local government clients
- Fatal crash investigation and infrastructure analysis commissioned by Councils and VicRoads
- Traffic impact assessments, intersection design, and SIDRA analysis
- Associate engagement with Safe System Solutions Pty Ltd — serving as lead examiner for RSA and SSA practitioner training, and providing specialist technical capability across the full scope of the firm’s road safety engineering practice
Accreditation & Affiliations
- Senior Road Safety Auditor — Victorian accreditation, held continuously since 2010
- Member, Australasian College of Road Safety (ACRS) — Victorian Chapter, Local Government Network, Rural Road Safety Network, Heavy Vehicle Safety Network
- Member, Engineers Australia
- Member, Transport Professionals Association (TPA, formerly AITPM), 2010–present
- Associate, Safe System Solutions Pty Ltd
Working on a road safety project that needs a more complete analysis?
TVL accepts commissions from local government, state agencies, and consulting firms. Johann Tay handles all initial enquiries directly and will tell you honestly whether TVL’s approach suits the project.