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/.

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.  

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.

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).

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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/.