Text credit: Minina Irina and images https://rosavtodor.gov.ru/

Today, the Russian Federal Road Agency announced the commencing implementation of iRAP as the road safety approach for the country.

The announcement was made at a meeting under the leadership of the head of Rosavtodor Roman Novikov, with the Board of the Federal Road Agency and participation of the Main Directorate for Road Safety of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

The first Deputy Head of the Agency spoke about the plans for the use of iRAP in Russia.

A translation of the article states:

“Andrey Samaryanov spoke about the International Road Safety Assessment Program (iRAP). The same organization released the first version of the Star Rating programme for road safety assessment, the principle of which is similar to the Russian standard ODM 218.4.005-2010. The methodology determines how safe the road is for all road users – driver, motorcyclist, cyclist, and pedestrian. Based on the calculation, it is possible to identify the risk of the type of accident most likely for each road user, and – most importantly – the way to eliminate it. This methodology is used in more than 100 countries around the world.”

The main topics of the event were road safety and the achievement of national goals stipulated by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 05/07/2018 No. 204.

“Improving road safety is aimed at preserving the life, health and property of citizens of the Russian Federation. Naturally, it is one of the key directions of state policy – an important factor in ensuring sustainable socio-economic and demographic development of the country. Thus, this is one of the priorities and activities of Rosavtodor on the entrusted road network,” Roman Novikov emphasized.

In turn, Oleg Ponaryin, Deputy Head of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia noted the importance of joint work: “It is gratifying that road safety issues are key not only for the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, but also for the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation and, which is very important, Rosavtodor. I hope we will come to new approaches to road safety issues, and this meeting of the Board will become a key one on the way to achieving the main goal – to reduce deaths in road accidents.”

Some of the infrastructure elements of the discussed national plans included:

• This year, within the framework of the federal project “Development of the federal backbone network” of the national project “Safe high-quality roads”, it is planned to put into operation 146.4 km of roads. In the course of the implementation of the departmental target programme “Overhaul, repair and maintenance of public highways of federal significance” in 2021, it is planned to commission about 6.1 thousand km of highways, including almost 1.5 thousand km – after repair.
• As part of the implementation of the Safe High-Quality Roads national project, in 2021, more than 16 thousand km of regional highways will be brought into the normative state.
• One of the most effective measures to reduce accidents and the severity of consequences on highways associated with the departure of vehicles into the opposite lane is the separation of traffic flows. Further to work carried out by Rosavtodor in 2020-2021, it is planned in 2022 to implement systems for separating opposite directions of traffic on 565 km of roads. In addition, in the course of the overhaul work already implemented and planned for the period 2019-2024, 1,472 km of routes will be equipped with separation systems.
• Considerable attention is paid to bringing highways to four lanes as part of the overhaul. This year, such works will be carried out on 256 km of roads. For the period 2022-2024, a more ambitious programme of converting highways into four-lane roads is envisaged: it is planned to expand 1,700 km of highways – by 680 km above the plan.
• The construction of pedestrian crossings at different levels, the installation of stationary electric lighting and other measures contribute to an increase in road safety.

In terms of financing the activities of Rosavtodor, it should be noted that the total budget allocation for 2021 as of October 1 is 808.1 billion rubles, which is 9.4% more than the amount of financing for the entire 2020.

In addition, participants discussed the possibilities of using artificial intelligence in terms of collecting and analyzing the entire volume of incoming data, as well as modelling situations that can significantly affect road safety in real time.

“At the moment, the agency has all the necessary information to conduct a qualitative assessment of the safety of highways. Video footage of a detour of the entire Rosavtodor network is collected annually. This archive has huge potential for growth. Using computer vision technologies, it is possible to digitize all the elements of the arrangement of highways that fall into the frame. Moreover, each recognized element can have its own coordinate, similar technologies already exist. Thus, at the output, we get a database of all elements of road infrastructure, and this is already a part of a digital road, one might say, a digital frame,” concluded the Deputy Head of Rosavtodor.

See the article here.