Safer journeys to school coming soon
Road safety NGO’s from 15 countries around the world are meeting this month at FedEx’s headquarters in Memphis, USA, as part of their great partnership with the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety and the Alliance Empowerment Program. During their two week...
Online US training scheme is off the starting blocks!
It’s been all stations go for online training in the USA after the Roadway Safety Foundation received its ‘Road to Zero’ grant from the National Safety Council at the start of June. The year-long grant will support the development of web-based usRAP and ViDA training....
iRAP backs UN road safety fund proposal
The UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, Jean Todt, has called for for countries to back a new UN Road Safety Fund. Speaking at a side event to the annual UN High Level Political Forum in New York, Jean Todt (pictured right) said 64,000 lives could be...
Malaysia on track for 3-star or better target
Malaysia is on track for 75% of all its high volume roads to have a 3-star or better rating by 2020. The good news was announced at the launch of the 2017 Malaysia iRAP report which revealed that more than 95% of 2,370km of assessed stretches of four Malaysian...
EVENT WRAP UP: Innovation workshop 2016
Summary The UN Sustainable Development Goals have set the challenge to halve road deaths and injuries by 2020 (Goal 3.6). They have also set the challenge for safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all (Goal 11.2) and they have recognised...
EVENT WRAP UP: Innovation workshop 2015
Summary The United Nations has included a road safety target in the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals. Our challenge will be to provide the catalyst and capacity to make the target of reducing road deaths to less than 600,000 per year achievable. We want to...
Pioneering ‘Safe Schools’ project progresses in South Africa
In 2014, the granddaughter of Nelson Mandela and global road safety campaigner, Zoleka Mandela led the launch of the first Safe Schools project in South Africa. The project introduced safe road infrastructure to project school children, along with road safety...
The 3-star coalition
A growing coalition of organisations in the USA is calling for safe roads to be built in developing countries, where 9 out 10 of the world’s road deaths occur.
The 3-star coalition, led by the Fund for Global Health and including the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), seeks to build a healthier world by advocating for the design and construction of safer roads in developing countries.
Specifically, the coalition is calling for roads in developing countries to be built to a minimum 3-star safety standard for all road users.
To find our more and join the 3-star coalition, visit: http://www.fundforglobalhealth.org/join-the-3-star-coalition/.
Take part in upcoming iRAP training events
There are now many opportunities to take part in training on iRAP assessments:
30 April 2015, ADB headquarters, Philippines: learn how to Star Rate roads and see how iRAP tools are supporting local and national road safety initiatives at the Asia Pacific Workshop. Register now.
22 May, 2015, Malaysia: learn how road safety can be incorporated in performance based contracts at the IRF Executive Certified Training Program. Register now.
21 – 25 September 2015, UK: this 5-day course at the University of Birmingham introduces to participants the iRAP technology for evaluating the safety impact of road infrastructure. Register now.
RAPcapacity online courses let you learn how to undertake iRAP-specification road assessments, at your own pace. Register now.
National highway safety program enters a new phase in China
China’s State Council has endorsed an implementation guide for the next phase of the Highway Safety Enhancement Project (HSEP), titled highway safety to cherish life.
The guide is an update of an earlier edition and includes new recommendations for safety facilities and instructions on the use of ChinaRAP risk assessments.
Tiejun Zhang from the Ministry of Transport Research Institute of Highway (RIOH) and member of the iRAP Global Technical Committee was a lead author of the new guide, which will be trialled in numerous provinces during the next two years.
The HSEP was established in 2004 and in its first ten years more than CNY 30 billion (USD 4.8 billion) was invested in improving approximately 366,000km of roads.
The Building ChinaRAP initiative is a partnership of RIOH and iRAP and is supported by the FIA Foundation, World Bank GRSF and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Planning safer roads in Papua New Guinea
Risk assessments are now being undertaken on 4,500km of priority national highways in Papua New Guinea.
The assessments, which are being led by the Department of Works, are part of the fulfilment of the national transport strategy aim to introduce safety management systems that can be used to identify and mitigate safety risks from road layout and use.
The project, which has been able to leverage road asset data collected in a previous project, includes producing road safety Star Ratings and Safer Roads Investment Plans and training.
The project is part of the Papua New Guinea – Australia Transport Sector Support Program (TSSP).
Minister flags Star Ratings for roads in Britain
The UK Roads Minister, Robert Goodwill, has announced that roads in Britain could soon be officially given ‘star ratings’ for safety by road authorities.
Speaking at a launch of EuroRAP results in Britain, Mr Goodwill said the Highways Agency and councils had been asked to “consider the merits” of officially adopting a five-star rating system.
The announcement was at the launch of the Road Safety Foundation report commissioned by major insurer Ageas, Making Road Safety Pay, which recommended that minimum in-built safety levels of 4-stars are needed for the busiest national roads in Britain and minimum 3-stars for all other national roads by 2025.
The report also recommended that major local authority roads needed to achieve the minimum 3-star level by 2030 with much safety upgrading undertaken during routine maintenance – a strategy also recently endorsed by the Catalan regional government in Spain following work in partnership with EuroRAP Member RACC.
Road assessments in Uruguay begin
Road safety experts met in Montevideo, the site of the first football World Cup, to kick-off iRAP assessments in Uruguay.
The assessments, led by the Ministry of Transport and Public Works (MTOP) and supported by the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), will span some 4,000km of roads, including 1,700km of concession highways. Mexican firm SEMIC is expected to begin the road surveys in January 2015.
According to the National Road Safety Unit (UNASEV) in the first 10 months of 2014, 444 people died in traffic crashes, 40% of which occurred on national roads.
Save the date: iRAP Asia Pacific Workshop
The next iRAP Asia Pacific Workshop will be held on 30 April 2015 in Manila, Philippines.
The workshop forms part of the Asia Pacific Road Safety 2015 conference (28-30 April 2015), an initiative of the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and iRAP.
This year, the iRAP workshop will focus on training participants in techniques to produce and interpret road safety Star Ratings, including interactive sessions using the Star Rating Demonstrator (available at http://vida.irap.org).
More information will be available shortly at irap.org.
AIRSO 50th Anniversary Road Safety Award
iRAP’s Dr Steve Lawson recently received an AIRSO 50th Anniversary Road Safety Award in recognition of his significant and lasting contribution to road safety.
Steve Lawson’s work over 35 years includes research to reduce single-vehicle crashes and those involving young pedestrians, work on traffic cameras and red-light running, and supporting the development and application of protocols used by EuroRAP and iRAP.
AIRSO is a charity and independent membership organisation based in the United Kingdom and was established in 1965. The 50th anniversary awards were presented by Tim Stevenson OBE, Lord Lieutenant for Oxfordshire.
Interactive Star Rating results for Indian roads now online
With iRAP’s online software, ViDA, you can now explore road safety Star Rating results for more than 6,000km of roads in India.
Additional assessments in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh are also nearing completion, which will lift the total length to more than 10,000km.
Importantly, many of the roads assessed are linked with Government and World Bank financed upgrade projects that have a road safety focus. In fact, designs for some 20% of roads assessed are complete and construction is already underway on many roads.
Registering to use ViDA as a ‘Reader’ account holder is free and enables you to view high-level road data, Star Ratings and Investment Plan reports. Find out more by visiting: http://vida.irap.org.
Safer Roads by Design Certified Training Program
The next IRF Safer Roads By Design Across Six Continents training program will be held in Malaysia from 15 to 25 March 2015.
One of the world’s most comprehensive road safety training programs, Safer Roads by Design helps road authorities meet their Decade of Action commitment to reduce fatalities by 50 percent by 2020.
The ten day program will include a session on using the iRAP methodology to systemically apply safety countermeasures. The session will involve interactive use of the Star Rating Demonstrator (available at http://vida.irap.org).
Find out more and register by visiting: https://www.irfnews.org/event/safer-roads-by-design-1503/.
Do you want to develop life-saving software?
iRAP is seeking a Senior Frontend Web Developer/UI Engineer to join our award-winning road safety team.
Based in iRAP headquarters in Basingstoke, UK, you will be part of the team that develops and supports iRAP software and systems, especially ViDA (http://vida.irap.org).
We have an extensive list of products in the development pipeline, including tools to help star rate road designs, integrated star rating, crash data and GIS systems, speed management tools and new ViDA modules that help explore how to create a fatality free road in combination with vehicle and other technologies.
Full details of the position, including a list of essential skills and desirable skills, are available here.
MOU signed with State of Qatar
iRAP has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with The Public Works Authority ‘Ashghal’ during the annual general conference organised by the Automobile International Federation (FIA) in Doha. The conference was hosted by the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle...
Star Ratings and Investment Plans: Data analysis and reporting specification
Download This document contains the minimum specifications required in the creation of Star Ratings and Investment Plans. Click the file icon above to download the file. Star Ratings and Investment Plans: Data analysis and reporting...
New Star Rating Demonstrator
With the new interactive Star Rating Demonstrator you can see how changes in a road’s design affect its Star Rating.
Participants in the Star Rating Designs session at the recent IRF Asia Road Congress were among the first to try out the new tool by rating examples of roads from around the world.
You can access the Demonstrator from the dashboard in the iRAP online software, ViDA. Registration to access ViDA and use the Demonstrator is free.
The Demonstrator was developed with assistance from the ChinaRAP team at RIOH and is just one of a number of recent updates to ViDA. These updates help ensure that everyone, whether it’s a transport minister, engineer, treasury official or road safety advocate, who has the potential to improve road infrastructure safety and save lives is able to access the results they need. This technical note explains more about the updates.
New iRAP assessments in Brazil
Brazil’s National Road Authority (DNIT) has begun an iRAP assessment of 3,000km of federal highways, spread across eight of Brazil’s 27 states and territories.
The project will be delivered by Mexican road survey firm, SEMIC, and the iRAP team, and provides an opportunity for DNIT to develop its capacity to use the iRAP methodology to assess and improve safety on its 60,000km road network.
As part of the project initiation, the Federal Highway Police organised a workshop that included Justice Minister José Eduardo Cardozo, Director General of Highway Police Maria Alice Nascimento Souza, Director General of the FIA Foundation Saul Billingsley and numerous international experts.
This project and assessments in Sao Paulo benefit from the support of the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility.
Large-scale cooperation in Europe finds ways to save lives
As the Make Roads Safe Hellas-led SENSOR project draws to completion, more and more of the 14 southeast European partner countries are publishing results and setting out plans for the next steps.
The project has produced Risk Maps based on historical crash data for more than 27,000km of roads, showing that 30% to 60% of networks have unacceptably high risk.
Almost 20,000km of infrastructure Star Ratings have also been produced. These show that typically 50% to 70% of roads in individual countries are 1 or 2-stars (out of 5-stars) for vehicle occupants.
Commonly, pedestrian activity is expected on more than 40% of networks, though sidewalks (footpaths) are generally only available on less than 10% of the networks. More than 4,800 pedestrian crossings were surveyed, 44% of which are of poor quality.
This presentation summarises the project.
Lowering the percentage of 1 and 2 star rated highways in Australia
Through the ANRAM program, state-based road authorities in Australia are increasingly using a nationally-consistent approach to identify and improve road sections with the highest risk of severe crashes.
In the State of Tasmania for example, the Third Action Plan for road safety will see improvement of Star Ratings for Tasmanian highways, and in particular, a lowering of the percentage of 1 and 2 star rated highways.
This action is part of efforts to promote the use of ‘best practice infrastructure’ and reduce serious injuries and fatalities by 20% between 2010 and 2015.
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