The UK’s Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) has offered guidance for the environmental impact assessment of traffic and movement for over 30 years, and a 2023 Guideline update recommends using iRAP Star Ratings or similar for Safe System...
Participants from 54 countries tuned in last week for the 11th #RAPKnowledgeLive session – A key to safer roads. In this session, participants learned how to use the Star Rating for Designs (SR4D) tool to assess and improve road safety by evaluating road designs and...
Innovative enhancements to iRAP’s Star Rating for Designs (SR4D) web app, allowing the safety of road designs to measured before the commencement of civil works, will be unveiled today at the IRF World Congress in Istanbul. The safety of nearly 58,000 kilometres of...
Join us for our #RAPKnowledge Live Session 11: Star Rating for Designs - A key to safer roads. In this session, you can learn how to use the Star Rating for Designs (SR4D) tool to assess and improve road safety by evaluating road designs and identifying high-risk...
Safe designs, the Ten Step Plan for Safer Road Infrastructure, securing commitments to transform the safety of roads by 2030, and celebrating partner success will be critical iRAP focusses at the IRF World Congress next week from 14-18 October in Istanbul. With the...
Vice-President Hon. Dr. Philip Mpango launched Tanzania’s new 3-year Road Safety Plan on Monday including the iRAP Methodology and integration of improved road design and inspection systems with iRAP Certification to improve the safety of the country’s roads. The...
The International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) and Aurecon Australasia have today announced Aurecon as the first company in the world to make a #SaferRoadsPledge, part of a global leadership campaign to eliminate high-risk roads worldwide. iRAP, International Road...
The International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), the International Road Federation (IRF) and the FIA Foundation have launched a #SaferRoadsPledge campaign calling on organisations involved in designing and financing roads to pledge their commitment to safer roads...
The journey continues this week for our "Safe and Inclusive Road Designs for Central Asia" project, with meetings in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, following last week’s project launch in Kyrgyzstan. The meetings are part of a new and transformative United Nations...
Dr Suzy Charman, Executive Director of United Kingdom RAP Lead RSF presents the awards on 7 March Last week, the 2023 National Highways Industry Awards recognised two projects that have used the iRAP approach to model and improve the safety case. The two projects...
An Asian Development Bank (ADB) Report has shared the Bank’s partnership with ORIS using Artificial Intelligence and Digital Twins to optimise the safety and climate resilience of upgrade designs for the A380 Highway in Uzbekistan, projecting the saving of 1,845...
First meetings are underway in Kyrgystan this week as part of a transformative project to improve road design standards across the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) countries - a new United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the...
Civil Engineer Dominic Waterhouse has shared Arup's experience obtaining iRAP Certification for the proposed design of the Tonkin Highway Extension project in Western Australia, and the value it brought to project partners. Arup, on behalf of Main Roads Western...
Tanzania’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridors in Dar es Salaam are slashing travel times and improving safety for commuters, thanks to construction by the Tanzanian Government with the World Bank, development partners and investors. Phase 1 opened in 2016 with 29 buses...
Improved road design standards for Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) countries, and in particular the pilot countries of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, is an urgent goal of a new United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the...
On Wednesday 28 June 2023, over 50 delegates across 25 countries attended our third monthly #RAPKnowledgeLive session highlighting the exciting updates to the Star Rating for Designs web app. In this session, our guest presenter Marko Sevrovic, Senior Road Safety...
GeoVista Technologies, along with Lea Associates South Asia in JV with Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), have been awarded the contract to provide iRAP consultancy services for the Road Safety Audit and Design of North and North East Zone Roads as part of the...
To help ensure road designers can achieve Global Road Safety Performance Targets and ensure that roads are safe for everyone, a new Star Ratings for Road Safety Audits (SR4RSA) manual will help policy makers and practitioners involved in designing, upgrading, and...
The International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) and digital start-up ORIS have today signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will see safety performance data produced using the iRAP Methodology integrated into ORIS’ pavement design platforms, helping to optimise...
REGISTRATION OPENDATE: 04 OCTOBER 2022TIME: 1.00PM - 2.00PM (CET)Free of charge Introduction:Star Rating for Designs (SR4D) is a process and evidence-based programme of applications informed by the iRAP Methodology which enables the objective measure, and improvement,...
The International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) is a Registered Charity with UN ECOSOC Consultative Status.
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Registered office: 60 Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 5DS
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Using specially equipped vehicles, software and trained personnel, iRAP Inspections involve detailed road surveys and data collection. These focus on more than 50 different road attributes that are known to influence the likelihood of a crash and its severity.
These attributes include intersection design, the number of lanes and markings, roadside hazards, footpaths and bicycle facilities. The road inspection data underpins iRAP Star Ratings and Safer Road Investment Plans.
The risk reduction design improvements proposed in a Safer Road Investment Plan can be adjusted by local experts to improve the Star Ratings for different user groups. iRAP recommends that all new roads should be built to a 3-star or better rating and all existing roads upgraded to that level.
The 3-star or better minimum can be achieved through a combination of infrastructure improvements and speed management initiatives to ensure a minimum level of safety for all road users at the location. On high volume roads, 4 and 5-star targets are often justified for specific road user groups (e.g. 5-star for pedestrians in CBD areas; 4-star or better motorways for vehicle occupants).
Do you manage, design, build or maintain roads?
iRAP is an international leader in providing policy, investment and performance tracking tools for road executives, managers, engineers, designers and construction teams to build and maintain safer roads. We work worldwide with road management professionals to deliver safer roads for today and for the future.
Roads that build-in safety. Roads that deliver safer journeys for all users. Safer roads that save money! A win-win-win for all.
Safer roads are becoming the new policy norm for investors and development agencies worldwide. This creates exciting opportunities for roads professionals and the road safety community to work together to save lives.
Building all new roads to a 3-star or better standard for all road users saves lives and makes great business sense. Upgrading existing roads to maximise travel on 3-star or better roads is also practical, cost-effective and starts saving lives right away. iRAP provides the business case for investment and the tools to maximise lives saved.
Let’s work together to create a safer, better world!
We need a strong policy framework and ambitious global targets if we are to deliver safer roads that save people’s lives.
iRAP and its partners are working with international bodies, national governments and highways agencies to build a global policy consensus for safer roads.
In 2015, the United Nations included halving road deaths and serious injuries as a Sustainable Development Goal (3.6). This game-changing move put road deaths centre stage – where they belong – as a global development issue, alongside poverty reduction targets and the right to clean water.
Now, the challenge is to build on this momentum. The UN Secretary General has recommended all new roads should be built to a 3-star or better standard and existing roads upgraded. The establishment of a Safer Roads Fund to maximise travel on 3-star or better roads can provide international finance institutions, health organisations, treasury officials, road executives and road builders with the social and economic basis for safer, sustainable roads.
Let’s work together to create a world free of high-risk roads and save lives!
Road deaths and serious injuries are an international public health crisis. Every year, around 1.2 million people are killed on the world’s roads and around 30-50,000,000 people are injured.
Road crashes are the leading cause of death for young people aged between 15-29 years. Road crashes cost an estimated 2-5% of GDP in each and every country worldwide. Like other global health problems the Vaccines for Roads exist and it is just a question of the scale of our response.
iRAP is working to support the scaling up of action worldwide and reduce this tragic toll by enabling low-cost infrastructure solutions that make our roads safer.
Safer roads also make sound business sense. Dollar for dollar, safer roads provide one of the highest possible, job-creating public investments a country can make in health and infrastructure policy.
We want safer roads for all road users: pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists and vehicle occupants.
Safe roads are a social justice, health and economic issue. In poorer communities, in particular, road traffic crashes can have catastrophic effects that tip families into poverty and destitution.
The road improvement programmes we enable make your roads safer. Because every road environment – and the community it serves – is unique, each life-saving plan we develop is unique too!
iRAP is at the cutting edge of bespoke solutions for safer mobility worldwide, regardless of how you move from A to B. Our work is making roads safer for you and your families, your community and your company.
The Star Rating of a Road Design can be completed as a stand-alone activity. The process is being used by road agencies, development banks and design consultants to objecitvely specify and measure the safety of a road design for all road users.
The process offers an opportunity for road owners to set a performance based star rating target for all road users (e.g. the new road must be minimum 4-star standard for pedestrians and cyclists and minimum 3-star standard for motorcyclists and vehicle occupants). It has been successfully used in conjunction with existing mechanisms such as Road Safety Audits and compliance with road design standards.
The impact on risk of various design iterations can also be explored to help harness the potential of designers to find creative solutions to challenging safety problems.
Here is a visual representation of some of the key road infrastructure features that are assessed during a typical roads inspection. The inspection identifies levels of risk for all road users. By adding key infrastructure elements such as footpaths and street lighting or improving existing elements to reduce risk we can make roads safer for all road users.
The raw data is processed in ViDA to create data reports about a road’s design and the level of risk for each road user group. ViDA is capable of performing risk and economic calculations for millions of kilometres of road.
All data is securely stored and project teams can determine who has access to results.
Processed road inspection data is used to develop Star Rating maps. The five-colour maps provide a simple and objective measure of the level of safety which is built-in to the road. Five-star roads are the safest while one-star roads are the least safe.
The internationally recognised colour coding system ensures a better understanding and awareness of why some roads are safer than others.
A Safer Road Investment Plan is produced that makes the business case for investing in road infrastructure safety. The plans list a range of life-saving measures that could be used to improve a road’s Star Rating and reduce fatalities and serious injuries.
The International Road Federation has developed a series of Road Safety Seminars (Safer Roads by Design™) to provide road authorities with best practices and latest technologies that can be implemented to meet a country’s commitment to the Decade of Action.
Safer Roads by Design™ is an all-inclusive approach to road safety and includes seminars on the fundamentals of Road Safety, Roadside Safety, Work Zone Safety, Intersection/Roundabout Safety and Vulnerable User Safer.
The University of Birmingham (UK) iRAP course in Road Safety introduces people to the iRAP technology for evaluating the safety impact of road infrastructure.
By the end of the course, the participants are expected to have acquired an understanding of the following key items:
The course includes practical exercises, discussions and exposure to the iRAP software. The course is delivered in the state-of-the-art teaching and learning facilities of the University of Birmingham.
RAPcapacity online courses help people learn how to undertake iRAP-specification road assessments.
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