All road users in NSW should be able to arrive safely at their destinations. Roads and Maritime Services works closely with the NSW Centre for Road Safety to improve road safety for all users of the road network.

Understanding more about driver behaviour around work sites

The Pacific Highway upgrade project has been trialing two innovations to improve driver and worker safety.

Variable speed limit signs have been introduced that are updated with the speed limit without the need for workers to enter the road corridor as well as yellow line marking to give clearer indications to drivers that they have entered a work zone and more care is required.

Between February and June 2018, 22 drivers (aged between 25 and 65) were selected to drive a section of the Woolgoolga to Ballina Pacific Highway upgrade.

The participants were not told of the exact purpose of the study beforehand and were fitted with special equipment and were interviewed afterwards to achieve a better understanding of how drivers perceived and interacted with the variable speed limit signs and yellow line marking.

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Travelling through work zones

While building the Woolgoolga to Ballina upgrade we need to change road conditions to ensure safety for road users and workers.

We understand changes to the road environment during construction changes your experience of your journey.

Please complete our five minute surveys to provide your feedback about:

We want to understand your experience of driving through work zones on the Pacific Highway during the construction of the Woolgoolga to Ballina upgrade so we can provide you with sufficient information, far enough in advance, to drive safely and plan your trips.

Yellow line trial complete

To improve the safety of road users and workers we have been trialling a number of new ways to guide people through work zones and increase awareness of changed traffic conditions and speed limits.

In a statewide first, a yellow line safety trial was adopted on the Woolgoolga to Ballina upgrade in April 2017 to help motorists more easily navigate work zones. This saw us replace white lines at a number of temporary work zones on the Pacific Highway to provide better guidance through work zones and raise awareness of changed conditions such as reduced speed limits or workers and nearby machinery.

We have been monitoring the trial with photos, dashcam footage and a road user survey to understand if the yellow lines encourage motorists to slow down in work zones and therefore improve safety.

With the trial now complete, we have returned the yellow lines to the more familiar white road markings and issued all the collected data to an independent agency for assessment. The findings are expected to be delivered in late 2019 and will be used to inform decisions about the potential to extend the initiative to other projects.

Thank you to everyone who gave feedback about travelling through the yellow line trial.

Project contact

For more information about Road Safety on the Pacific Highway:
1800 653 092
pacific.highway@rms.nsw.gov.au