In late September 2018, iRAP’s Senior Road Safety Engineer, Morgan Fletcher (BrazilRAP) and Camila Belleza Maciel Barreto from the Brazilian Centre of Excellence, Labtrans, presented some fantastic results for the BIGRS Fortaleza project. In particular, post implementation Star Rating results show significant improvements, and the number of reported fatalities and serious injuries for the corridor reduced significantly.

As part of the BIGRS Fortaleza project;

• in 2016, 58km across 3 corridors and a number of high-risk intersections were assessed;
• a further 55km across 5 corridors were assessed in 2017;
• and in 2018, assessments of 50km across 3 corridors, including Star Rating of design and simulations for Avenida Presidente Castelo Branco, were completed.

The two corridors that we assessed in 2016 and again in 2018 post implementation were:

• Av. Osório de Paiva
• Av. Leste-Oeste

The following images demonstrated the before and after Star Rating assessments for the two corridors Av. Osório de Paiva and Av. Leste-Oeste. There is a significant drop on 1-star ratings and an increase in 3-star ratings after the interventions

BIGRS partner World Research Institute were responsible for the road safety interventions and speed limits were also reduced.

City-wide in Fortaleza, there were 12,907 injury crashes and 251 fatality crashes in 2017 compared to 14,873 and 274 in 2016 (see Portuguese article here).

Further recommendations in the draft technical report include:

• Continue to reduce 1-2 star rating roads
• Reassess roads periodically to assess the level of road safety
• Create continuity of access to sidewalks across the road network in Fortaleza
• Maintain good quality pedestrian crossings.

It is also recommended to join efforts with NACTO and WRI partners involved in the BIGRS project to develop examples of ‘best practice’ for infrastructure treatments.

As part of the project, and to build capacity and share knowledge, a total of 69 people have attended a total of 8 training and capacity building events.

This project is a great example of collaboration and knowledge sharing with other experts to save lives and prevent serious injuries on the world’s roads.