Where do you want to go for your 3-star or better targets?

Who do you think is most at risk on your roads and where?

The World Health Organisation Global Status Report for Road Safety provides a country by country overview of road safety performance, the scale of death and injury and the road users typically killed or injured. More than half of all road deaths typically happen on less than 10% of roads in a country. Targeting these high-risk road sections with focussed targets for each road user is a great place to start.

Some countries produce regularly updated risk maps which give a valuable overview of the most dangerous roads.  Risk maps provide a visual presentation of the fatality and serious injury risk per kilometre and per kilometre travelled based on historical crash data.

Improving the star rating on these roads where large numbers are killed and injured provides an immediate focus for star rating policy targets and investment to save lives.  In many cases raising high-volume, high-risk roads from 3-star to 4 or 5-star may provide the greatest return on investment. iRAP encourages partners to set targets that ultimately maximise the lives saved within appropriately large budgets – and set minimum 3-star targets for all new projects and road upgrades.

Creating a base-line

A Star Rating analysis assesses the physical condition of road infrastructure and based on evidence-based research a star rating for all road users is produced. The star rating takes into account the specific road attributes that impact safety for the individual road user groups (pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and vehicle occupants).  Identifying the network to be targeted and undertaking a base-line survey is a great place to start. With knowledge of the existing performance of the road network, appropriate targets and investment levels can be explored to ensure an informed and achievable target.

iRAP recommends the highest volume 10% of roads is assessed in each country – noting volumes of each relevant road user group as required (e.g. high-volume pedestrian precincts; cycling or motorcycling routes).