The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) and ITF have published new Guidelines for Conducting Road Safety Data Reviews promoting the iRAP Methodology as a useful guide for assessing and monitoring road section risk. In many countries around the world,...
The third seminar of our Lunchtime seminar series spotlighted the EuroRAP programme in Slovenia. Jure Kostanjšek, Secretary-General of the Automobile and Motorcycle Association of Slovenia (AMZS) and Klemen Filipič, accredited iRAP engineer at AMZS, presented the...
Following engagement with 40 Korean road safety experts and organisations, and a review of best practice in 10 countries, the International Transport Forum (ITF) has released a new report to guide improved motorway safety in Korea. The report, Motorway Safety in...
Issue 129 of Brazil’s main infrastructure publication Rodovias & Vias has showcased iRAP as the definitive guide and method saving lives and transforming road infrastructure safety in Brazil and worldwide with a featured interview with iRAP Global Projects...
On 1 January, iRAP CEO Rob McInerney received the inaugural “Alex Award” established in recognition of one of Australia’s great road safety advocates, the late Senator Alex Gallacher and awarded to Rob for his exemplary leadership for safer roads in Australia and...
Two Danube Transnational Programme projects, the SABRINA and Danube Cycle Plans project, both dealing with cycling have joined forces and prepared a series of interviews with people working in the mobility and transport field, with a focus on cycling. They have asked...
Reproduced from World Bank press release, Washington, 20 December The World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, IBRD, Aaa/AAA) today issued a Georgian lari 31 million 2-year Sustainable Development Bond while engaging with investors on the...
REGISTRATION IS OPENDATES: 08, 10, 15, 17, 24 February 2022TIME: 2.00PM - 4.00PM (UTC+8) Manila, PhilippinesDraft agenda now available - access hereFree of chargeDelivered under the Road Safety Capacity Building Programme for Asia and the Pacific and Bloomberg...
Welcome to iRAP’s December 2021 Newsletter - Moving together towards the Global Plan The iRAP Team would like to wish you a happy and safe holiday season.In this edition: Input provided to UN High-Level Meeting on Road Safety Preparatory Event Calls for G7 to urgently...
LONDON – The Impact Taskforce (ITF), an independent, industry-led taskforce supported by the G7 Presidency, has called on the G7 to take urgent action to mobilise more institutional capital for a just and inclusive transition to net zero. The recommendations were...
The Star Rating for Schools team have released a short video, celebrating the success of all SR4S donors, sponsors, supporters and partners. Working towards the Global Plan, SR4S partners have been prioritising safer school journeys – Creating safer journeys for...
As iRAP and our partners work to halve global road deaths and injuries in the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030, we are always looking for ways to improve and would love your input to help us do that. The vision of our charity is a world free of high-risk...
9 December 2021: For a second year in a row, BrazilRAP held an online event to discuss what has been achieved over the past year in road research, and the next strategies for implementation in 2022. The event was attended by 183 representatives from government...
Join us on 11th January 2022 from 1 to 2 pm CET for the third of our EuroRAP lunchtime seminars where we will spotlight one of our National schemes. Jure Kostanjšek, Secretary-General of the Automobile and Motorcycle Association of Slovenia (AMZS), and Klemen Filipič,...
After 3.5 years of joint efforts in road safety methodologies, policy, and practice integration, project RADAR – Risk Assessment on Danube Area Roads came to an end at the end of November. The RADAR project celebrated its stories of success at the final...
The second EuroRAP’s Lunchtime seminar took place on 7 December 2021 and highlighted the research and innovation hot topic AiRAP. The seminar attracted 107 registrations from 41 different countries from all over the world. The topic of AiRAP was presented by Monica...
This is the last edition of the Training and Accreditation newsletter for 2021. We want to thank all the iRAP course participants and accredited suppliers for staying with us in what was a great year. We had over 12,000 attendees in 126 courses and presentations, and...
Are you passionate about training and helping road safety professionals build their capacity, skills and knowledge? We are seeking a Training and Accreditation Co-ordinator to join our small, dynamic team that has global reach and impact. They will primarily be...
The 6th stakeholder conference Danube Region Transport Day 2021, a joint event of the European Union Strategy for Danube Region PA1b coordinators and United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), will happen in a virtual format on Friday, 17 December 2021,...
On 3 December, UN Member States and parliamentarians gathered in New York to discuss the critical domestic and international financing needs of the 2nd Decade of Action for Road Safety and how government and NGOs can ensure it is a decade of delivery and results. ...
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).
Designers managed to boost significantly the length of road rated 3-stars or better during the building of the US$323 million World Bank-financed Second Gujarat State Highway. They used a range of safety countermeasures including traffic calming, pedestrian footpaths and crossings and street lighting to ensure that the characteristic ‘green tunnels’ of old roadside trees could be retained while mitigating their safety risk.
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.
Trained staff code the road attributes in 100 metre intervals and upload data into ViDA in an Excel.csv format under supervision from a suitably qualified iRAP partner or supplier. To ensure high standards of accuracy, the team undertaking the coding is required to give a weekly report which shows the level of accuracy for each road attribute.
Where a road agency already has data available (e.g. asset management register) this information can simplify the coding exercise and ensure good integration with existing systems.
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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