Investigation of current product assessment practices, and consultations with road agency representatives identified that jurisdictions typically assessed product in accordance with their resource allocations, and only three jurisdictions had formally documented product type approval processes. The type approval processes from these three jurisdictions followed a similar general flow although the terminology may differ. After several project workshops and teleconferences, the Austroads NS1803 project team members successfully developed a harmonised Austroads product acceptance process for ITS products in the road network. The process covers six steps including determination of performance requirements based on agreed key performance indicators (KPIs), preliminary product assessment, desktop audit, laboratory test, field evaluation and reporting and entering assessed product into an Austroads register. It was agreed that the Austroads process developed is part of a typical type approval process, and is applicable to both current and emerging technologies. The process should be transparent, rigorous, collaborative and defensible. Key players and activities included in each step of the process have been discussed and agreed to by the Austroads project team. In due course any product that successfully passes the Austroads process conducted by a road agency would be entered into an Austroads assessed product register. Austroads would maintain the register on its website for the benefit of all road agencies. From the register, a list of assessed products with high-level information of each product would be published. Details of the testing regimes and results would only be shared amongst Austroads members. (Author/publisher)
Abstract