Every four minutes, a child dies in a traffic crash around the world. Many others are permanently injured. Children walking to school are particularly vulnerable. In many countries, most crashes involving children happen within 500m from the school, many of them at...
On Wednesday 16 August 2023, over 70 delegates across 38 countries attended our fourth monthly #RAPKnowledgeLive session highlighting iRAP’s Safety Insights Explorer. In this session iRAP's Programme Director Greg Smith covered: All the new features that have been...
The Forum of European Road Safety Research Institutes (FERSI) will organize an online symposium: Implementing evidence-based road safety measures, removing barriers and enhancing public support. The symposium will take place on October 14, 2021, from 13:30 to 15:30...
Won't you join us to attend the 2023 Asia Pacific Road Safety Seminar and Asia Pacific Regional Road Safety Observatory (APRSO) Meeting to be held 5-7 December in Manila? The Asia Pacific region has a critical need for safer road infrastructure. 82% of roads in the...
iRAP is looking for a collaborative and enthusiastic person with a passion for safe mobility and experience in road safety to coordinate the global Star Rating for Schools (SR4S) program. Road crashes are the major cause of death of young people aged 5-24 years old....
The results of our latest global programme metrics draw are in and as always it’s an exciting and inspirational process to be part of. Appreciating that ‘what you can’t measure, you can’t manage’, twice a year (in June and December), we analyse our global systems and...
iRAP and AusRAP were delighted to welcome Korean partners to Australia this week to showcase learnings to aid the development of KoRAP. Nine delegates from Seoul National University (SNU), Naeil Engineering and Consultants, Road Korea, Mim Lab and Korea Research...
IndiaRAP Technical Manager Jigesh Bhavsar shared the life-saving potential of AiRAP at the iRASTE NXT Conference last week. The event is India’s premier technology-for-road-safety conference demonstrating the proven effectiveness of AI-based systems. Launched in 2021,...
iRAP has published a new Interactive Reports webpage to illustrate examples of cool data analytics that have been produced using iRAP and related data to communicate project results, the critical need to eliminate high-risk roads, and progress to safer infrastructure...
iRAP and Towards Zero Foundation have been successful in the submission of a now-published T20 policy brief to support G20 leaders to achieve the SDGs for road safety in their countries. Think20 (T20) is an official engagement group of the G20 for research and policy...
Reproduced from PHOEBE website, 10 July 2023 The EU-funded ‘Predictive Approaches for Safer Urban Environment’ (PHOEBE) aims to develop an integrated, dynamic human-centred predictive safety assessment framework in urban areas. This will be achieved by bringing...
#RAPKnowledgeLive sessions are held monthly worldwide to discuss the latest knowledge on road safety tools, programmes and partnerships helping make global roads safer. Our fourth #RAPKnowledgeLive session will be held at in August, highlighting iRAP's Safety...
Dear Road Authority partners, iRAP and the global transport community lost a friend, a mentor and a leader earlier this year. Gary Liddle AO was a remarkable person, with a truly authentic style of leadership that was admired by all in the road industry. His passing...
The 2023 iRAP Innovation Workshop, to be held 5-6 October in-person in Prague, promises a jam-packed programme and the latest insights into the future innovating “Safer Roads for People and Planet”. Don't miss your chance to register! This year's Innovation Workshop...
Press release from The Road Safety Trust Local authorities can now access a specialist resource to help understand the risks to, and improve the safety of, vulnerable road users in towns and cities. The free-to-access ViDA tool hosts data gathered through the...
It was fantastic to be a part of the ITF Summit in May this year, seeing and reconnecting with old and new friends from all over the world. Our key focusses during the event were to support member countries to eliminate high-risk roads, empower transport safety...
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...
A long-term support programme partnership is underway between iRAP and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) from 2022-2026 to stimulate safer roads progress in low- and middle-income countries. The partnership will include Star Rating and Investment Plan...
A third PHOEBE consortium meeting held last week in Athens included a walking tour and inspection of the project's pilot plans to assess the effectiveness of protective measures for vulnerable road users (VRUs) in the city's urban areas. The 3.5 year EU-funded project...
You may have seen the news that we are updating the SR4S model. The model review was performed under the guidance of iRAP Global Technical Committee to ensure SR4S reflects the latest research, evidence and experience of partners around the world using the tool. SR4S...
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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