The EU-funded ‘Predictive Approaches for Safer Urban Environment’ (PHOEBE) Project aims to increase the road safety of vulnerable road users (VRUs), especially those who use active mobility and e-scooters. It is building on the strengths of iRAP’s road safety...
We're now at the mid-point of the ambitious 3-year ELABORATOR project and are thrilled to share progress on the research and efforts of 38 partners working together in 12 European cities to design urban mobility solutions that are safe, sustainable, and inclusive for...
Celebrating the women making a difference in road safety As we approach International Women's Day on March 8th, the theme of "For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment" resonates deeply with the work being done in the field of road safety. We take this...
Image credit: Irish Government website iRAP congratulates the Irish Government on the launch of the Slower Speeds, Safer Roads campaign, which will see a reduction in default speed limits on many roads, including a shift from 80km/h to 60km/h on rural roads. This bold...
Image credit: RACC The 23rd annual edition of Risk Mapping of the Catalan road network in Spain shows a 5.7% increase in the risk index compared to last year. The results will inform ongoing targeted investment in road safety, including safety countermeasures for...
Image credit: Automobile Club of Moldova (ACM) Automobile Club of Moldova (ACM) has secured a remarkable double victory, earning both the Vision Zero for Youth International Leadership Award and the prestigious Prince Michael International Road Safety Award 2024....
Original article and image credits: ELABORATOR Project website The ELABORATOR Project has launched a Co-creation playbook, designed to guide their Living Labs and fellow European cities in implementing inclusive, sustainable, and affordable mobility solutions. ...
Original article and image credits: Project PHOEBE website Transport for the West Midlands (TfWM) and The Floow recently hosted the PHOEBE Road Risk Workshop, which brought together key road safety stakeholders and served as a showcase of several tools and datasets...
United Kingdom RAP Lead Road Safety Foundation has released Britain's Crash Risk Mapping Results for 2024, tracking the safety performance of Great Britain's motorways and ‘A’ roads. The assessed roads make up less than 14 per cent of the whole network, but almost...
2024 has been a another pivotal year for iRAP's training and accreditation program. We've continued our commitment to building capacity and empowering professionals worldwide to make roads safer. Key Highlights: Expanded Language Offerings: We've expanded our training...
Do you have a passion for saving lives and a talent for keeping projects on track? The International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) is searching for a highly motivated and organized Project Manager to join our team (to be based in the UK). This is a unique...
Image credit: Road Safety GB Awards Last week, Road Safety GB announced the winners of its 2024 awards, with the Road Safety Foundation’s Dr Suzy Charman receiving the Achievement Award Road Safety GB is a national road safety organisation made up of representatives...
Original article and image credits: Project PHOEBE website PHOEBE was present at Walk21 Portugal on 14 October for a workshop on “Pedestrian Safety: Assessment, planning and design” and to question how this could support the uptake of safe and accessible walking in...
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...
Automóvel Club de Portugal (ACP), supported by Lane Patrol and the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), has commenced a project to assess the road safety of 40 km of Lisbon's cycling network applying the CycleRAP methodology. Over the past few years,...
A final deliverable and a related summary often does not portray the continuous research in PHOEBE that led to the respective result. Thus, PHOEBE aims to provide you with regular updates about our research and development processes, such as data analysis, iterative...
Forty iRAP Partners from across Europe came together last week, from 4-5 September in Brussels, with a focus on “Half way to 2030: Gearing up for Safer Mobility in Urban and Rural Environments”. The event brought together iRAP partners, road authorities, the European...
Mark your diaries and join us at the upcoming IRF Europe and Central Asia Regional Congress and XVIIth Bulgarian National Transport Infrastructure Conference in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, from 24-27 September. Samar Abouraad, iRAP Safer Journeys Specialist and Marko Sevrovic,...
The PHOEBE Project has reached a significant milestone with the completion of its deliverable report ‘New and Enhanced Models/Simulation Environments and User Support Materials (Beta ed.)‘. Development has highlighted vulnerable road users as the cornerstone of safe...
The PHOEBE Consortium met in Brussels last week to advance project plans and update the European Commission during a two-day exchange of 11 sector-leading partners. The EU-funded ‘Predictive Approaches for Safer Urban Environment’ (PHOEBE) Project aims to increase the...
The International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) is a Registered Charity with UN ECOSOC Consultative Status.
iRAP is registered in England and Wales under company number 05476000
Charity number 1140357
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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