Last week marked an exciting milestone for the iRAP family with the official launch of the RAPs Community of Best Practice (CoBP). Designed to strengthen connection and collaboration among the 18 formally established Road Assessment Programmes worldwide, and the many countries with a strong foundation of activity, the CoBP will serve as a dynamic platform for sharing best practice, solving common challenges, exploring collaborative opportunities, and streamlining the communication of iRAP global updates.

Focused squarely on programmatic delivery and the application of iRAP’s methodologies and tools, the Community will meet online three to four times per year. Each session will feature a mix of “Round-the-Table” activity updates, RAP-in-focus presentations, technical and global updates, and thematic discussions on topics of interest to the RAPs.

Ultimately, led by the RAPs, the CoBP aims to:

• Strengthen existing and emerging RAP programmes;
• Facilitate introductions and build rapport between RAP representatives;
• Guide the development and application of iRAP tools, methodologies and training;
• Support the creation of new resources for RAPs;
• Foster collaboration and mentoring opportunities; and
• Inform iRAP governance through networks such as the Safer Journeys Leads Network, Global Technical Committee, Global Policy Advisory Committee and the iRAP Board.

Last Wednesday’s inaugural meeting set a strong precedent, featuring a presentation of AusRAP’s new National Dashboard. Led by Austroads, AusRAP released the dashboard in September sharing road safety Star Ratings for over 71,000km of major roads across five states and territories. It provides road safety information to decision-makers and enables drivers to check the safety scores for roads before they use them.

Presented by AusRAP Lead Keith Simmons and Technical Lead Alan Rushworth, the presentation provided an in-depth look at the dashboard and its evolution, discussed the experiences of AusRAP’s own Community of Best Practice, and shared the next planned steps for the Australian programme. Many thanks for the great presentation Keith and Alan!

The online session also included lively Round-the-Table updates from IndiaRAP, KazRAP, MyRAP, SnRAP and United Kingdom RAP.

We were delighted to be joined by more than 20 participants representing 12 countries.

The enthusiasm and engagement demonstrated last week signal a bright future for this collaborative community.

For information on the RAPs CoBP, contact iRAP’s Global Programme and Communications Manager Judy Williams on email judy.williams@irap.org.