Free Downloads
Click on each red underlined heading below to get your free download. All downloads are safe pdfs.
A one page summary of Rob Morgan's experience in traffic and transport since 1973. It includes Rob's contact details.
Book Review
In June 2024 American Professor Wes Marshall
of the University of Colorado Denver
published his book with the rather controversial title
'Killed by a Traffic Engineer'.
Click Here for a copy of Rob Morgan's review of this book
Opinion piece by Rob Morgan about road safety in Victoria, in The Age, Tuesday, 5th January 2021 >>> Click Here
Journal of Road Safety:
'Blaming the Driver is Still a Favourite'
In this paper Rob reviews a fatal crash. The review highlights that people are quick to blame the driver in serious crashes, whereas traffic signing errors and a misleading road layout can be major contributing factors that lead to driver error, with fatal consequences.
ACRS2021 Australasian Road Safety Conference, Sep. 2021:
Rob Morgan's Full Paper - not published in the conference papers
'Paradigm Lost - Getting Beyond the Safe System'
This paper describes the dogma and lack of science in the Safe System
Rob Morgan's presentation slides (pdf)
ACRS2024 Australasian Road Safety Conference, Oct. 2024:
For copies of Rob's papers for the 2024 conference . . .
Go to 'Recent Papers' on the Home Page
A 2007 commentary on road safety by Rob Morgan.
Here is a simple 12-page download on what Rob Morgan sees as the ten most popular mis-uses of traffic signs and lines in Australia. It also provides advice on how to avoid these common mistakes and use the signs and lines correctly.
This includes references to the particular clauses in AS 1742 - our Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Updated October 2023.
Test your knowledge about Australia's standard road signs. Includes answers to all the questions, with lots of illustrations.
Learn how to find your way around AS 1742, Australia's MUTCD, the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.
The 2020 Inquiry into the Increase in Victoria's Road Fatalities in 2019
Get a copy of Rob's June 2020 submission to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Increase in Victoria's Road Toll.
Download it here: Robert Morgan Submission
Rob's submission highlights that serious injuries have actually increased by 33% since the launch of Victoria's Towards Zero road safety strategy in August 2015. The strategy's aim was to reduce these crashes by 15%. Other topics covered are blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limits, speed limits (including the Melbourne studies that have shown reductions in speed limits have not reduced crashes - and the secrecy around these study results), problems with road crash data, and the consequences of the hollowing out of technical expertise within VicRoads over the past 30 years. The submission finishes by looking at Victoria's worst accident blackspot, showing that the adopted 'Safe System' and the Towards Zero strategy are incapable of fixing this worst crash site in the state. But fortunately there is a solution, which my submission explains.
Also available are:
- two more documents Rob provided to the Inquiry,
- the transcript of Rob's evidence,
- the Parliamentary Committee's report (March 2021), and
- Rob's response (June 2021) to the committee's report
Rob's presentation and notes, August 2020 are here: Robert Morgan Presentation & Notes
This submission includes a simple diagram showing how road safety gains were mostly achieved from 1970 to 1990 and how things have gone downhill since 1990
The transcript of Rob's presentation is available here: Robert Morgan Transcript of Presentation
And here's Rob's detailed responses to follow-up questions submitted by Committee Members (late August 2020): Robert Morgan Responses to Questions
The responses include (at Question 8) a detailed proposal for how to restructure road safety in Victoria
The Parliamentary Economy and Infrastructure Committee's report (March 2021) is here: Committee's Report
This report was such a disappointment. Instead of recognising the failings of the 'Safe System'
and recommending a new and more effective direction for road safety, the Committee
recommended 'business as usual' with the failed 'Safe System'.
Rob has prepared a detailed response to the committee's report,
in which he calls for
a high-level Commission of Inquiry into Road Safety in Victoria.
Get a copy of Rob's response (June 2021, pictured on the right) here:
Robert Morgan Response to Inquiry Report
Need more information? Email Rob Morgan: rob@robmorgan.com.au
This is where it all began: Rob Morgan's original 1974 report, which contained the first proposal for a busway between the Doncaster area and central Melbourne.
Even today, the busway-based scheme can provide a better public transport service than the 'Doncaster Railway' and at a far lower construction cost and operating cost.
This 2002 book by Rob Morgan contains fifty ideas on how to relocate parking out of the left lane on Melbourne's arterial roads. It's referenced in Section 9.1 of Austroads' Guide to Traffic Management, Part 11 Parking Management Techniques (Reference: Morgan, R 2002)
It's not just about Clearways - and it's definitely not just about signs.
This book contains Funding Ideas, Legislative and Enforcement Ideas, Town Planning Ideas, Simple Ideas, Signs and Lines Ideas, Engineering Ideas, Complementary Ideas and Route Management Ideas.
Given that in Melbourne we are still living with many Clearways that operate over the same times of day as in the 1960s, this book is as relevant today as it was when first published.
In this 2002 paper for an ITE (Institute of Transportation Engineers) conference in Melbourne, Rob Morgan summarises the issues and ideas in his book on this topic. He also expands on some of the more important issues, like charging for all parking in traffic lanes on arterial roads, establishing municipal parking funds, spending parking revenue on parking infrastructure, and changing local government powers and responsibilities.
These are the guidelines that first got rid of the routine use of the 'Give Way to the Right' Rule and required road authorities to put a stop to the over-use of Stop signs.
Want to see what sensible intersection control guidelines look like?
Sadly, because numerous road authorities still refuse to apply this guide's requirements (which were later adopted in the national MUTCD), we still have too many Stop signs and too few Give Way signs. And that is bad for road safety.
This is Rob Morgan's assessment of road safety's current fad, the 'Safe System' (the basis of 'Towards Zero' and other road safety strategies)
If you want to get a copy of Rob Morgan's book, click on the red box on the Home Page for ordering details. It costs around $25.
If you want a copy of the 2018 AITPM conference paper that summarises the issues, click the red title above. It's free.
This is a one-page, A4-size colour copy of the road safety framework Rob Morgan has developed as an alternative to the 'Safe System'.
It's an update of the black-and-white version in both the 2018 book and the 2018 conference paper. Also check out the 'Traffic Engineering' web page (click here).
Rob's Safety Star System covers the whole range of elements we need to consider for effective for road safety improvements. Over half of them are missing from the Safe System.
Now that an Austroads guide (the new Guide to Road Safety, AGRS Part 6, 2019) requires the integration of Safe System principles into road safety auditing, what does this mean?
This 2020 pdf of a Powerpoint presentation (click above) by Rob Morgan shows that, were this 'integration' actually to happen, it would result in worse levels of safety. The Safe System's focus on only fatal and serious injury crashes is likely to result in fewer fatal and serious injury crash problems being addressed, than if all possible crashes are considered. And road safety auditing is already looking at all potential crashes and crash types ( - or it should be, if carried out by sufficiently experienced road safety engineers, like Rob).
In July 2021 - after two years of experience trying to apply AGRS 2019 - Rob had first-hand experience at attempting this 'integration of Safe System principles' into road safety auditing. The implications are worse than he initially thought. Armed with this information, Rob provided a report to Austroads, setting out in detail how this move will worsen road safety. He called for this 'integration' to be put on hold and an independent technical review to be held. Get a copy of Rob's report (click below), which includes Austroads' response.
This is a pdf of a 2017 Powerpoint presentation by Rob Morgan to an AITPM Victorian Branch meeting. It is titled 'Myth-Placed Traffic Engineering' and goes through a wide range of topics where knowledge and understanding that's been gained over several decades is ignored or has simply been forgotten.
Check out which ideas that you hold to be true are actually supported by the facts.
In large part, this 2014 AITPM Conference paper by Rob Morgan discusses the consequences of undervaluing experience.
In this 2005 paper for an ITE conference in Melbourne, Rob Morgan discusses the history of efforts to achieve international uniformity with traffic control devices (signs, lines, delineation and signals) and describes some of the distinct differences of approach in Australia and elsewhere.
Since 1984, Rob Morgan has been an active member of the Standards Australia committee responsible for the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices, AS 1742, as well as AS 1743 (Sign Specifications) and AS 1744 (the Alphabet for Traffic Signs). Need help with signs or line marking? Feel free to get in touch or get my Curriculum Vitae (CV) - top of this page.
Establishing functional road hierarchies for urban road networks is one of the most basic principles of traffic management. Sadly it is extremely poorly understood. Fads like 'Smart Roads', 'Link and Place' and 'Movement and Place' proceed without there being any widespread professional appreciation of the topic of functional road hierarchies. The result is needless road safety problems and congestion.
In this 2005 paper for an ITE conference in Melbourne, Rob Morgan sets out the fundamentals and illustrates current problems through local examples.
Click here to go back to Traffic Engineering Click here to contact me
Click here to go to my photo gallery Click here to get back to my Home Page