As part of efforts to curb tremendously high numbers of road deaths and serious injuries, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Bangladesh Roads and Highways Department (RHD) and iRAP have assessed roads that form the backbone of nation’s transport system.

The assessments occurred as part of the ADB’s first ‘road safety pipeline project’, which will ensure that the most urgent and cost-effective road safety programs are adopted as an integral part of the road safety policy of the Government.

During the project, it was estimated that deaths and serious injuries on the 1,300km of roads assessed cost more than US$300 million each year. 

The majority of roads assessed are rated in the highest risk bands: 1- or 2-stars. The reasons for this are clear and include the fact that 80% of the roads where pedestrians are likely to use the road have no formal footpaths.  

However, Safer Roads Investment Plans prepared in the project make the solutions equally clear. Construction of some 75km of footpaths on N4, for instance, could prevent more than 3,000 deaths and serious injuries over 20 years and save US$40 million in crash costs.

The project technical report is available for download.

The two-year SENSOR project brings together 14 countries and builds on outstanding cooperation between automobile clubs, universities and road authorities.

Most countries in South East Europe are constructing new roads or rehabilitating existing roads to achieve mobility benefits. SENSOR enables these countries to use iRAP techniques to target investment so that they can raise the overall level of safety performance of routes in a measurable way. 

SENSOR is co-financed by the South East Europe (SEE) Transnational Cooperation Programme and the European Union.

For any road authority that has completed an iRAP assessment, the IRF’s “Road Safety Across Six Continents Seminar” can help put life-saving plans into practice.

The IRF’s Safer Roads by Design training program is among the most comprehensive in the world, and helps road authorities understand what can be done to meet their commitment to reduce deaths during the Decade of Action for Road Safety. 

The training program focuses on four main topics: Roadside Safety, Work Zone Safety, Vulnerable User Safety, and Road Safety Audits.

For more information on the next program, to be held on April 21-26, 2013 in Orlando, USA, visit:  http://www.irfnews.org/home/ or email: Mike Dreznes (mdreznes@irfnews.org).  

Each day, more than six children die on their way to school in Mexico. iRAP is partnering with Safe Kids Mexico to help create safe environments for children to walk to and from school.

A pilot project is now being undertaken at a school in Mexico City, where a series of serious crashes in neighbouring streets have prompted calls for action.

Working with the University of North Carolina, iRAP is developing a tool that will eventually enable communities around the world to Star Rate roads around their schools and generate safety countermeasure plans.

The project is being supported by the Road Safety Fund.

FIA President Jean Todt and FIAA President Nitin Dossa recently saw first-hand efforts being made to improve safety in one of the world’s most populous countries.

Through the Action for Road Safety Campaign and its member clubs, FIA is working to help to reduce the road deaths in India, estimated to exceed 200,000 each year.

Government officials in Mumbai had the opportunity to view the survey vehicle used in iRAP assessments across seven States, review detailed road death investigation results and consider safety assessments for high-priority roads such as the Mumbai-Goa Highway which was the scene of a horrific crash that recently claimed 37 lives.

Leading news agencies in Mexico, including Reforma and terratv, have put a spotlight on the enormous cost of road crash deaths and serious injuries in the country, estimated to exceed US$50 billion each year.

The reports coincide with National Secretariat of Transport (SCT)-led iRAP assessments of more than 45,000km of roads. The assessments cover the federal highway network, including both toll-free and toll roads. 

In addition to producing road safety Star Ratings for vehicle occupants, motorcyclists, pedestrians and bicyclists, it is anticipated that the assessments will identify countermeasures that could cut numbers of deaths and serious injuries by more than 25%.

New road safety inspections are being undertaken by ChinaRAP, a partnership between the Research Institute of Highway (RIOH), Ministry of Transport, and iRAP. 

The assessments involve inspections of urban roads in Mengzi and Jianshui (Yunnan) and highways in Shaanxi, and build on similar work already undertaken in Anhui.

The ChinaRAP road safety assessments will help guide multi-million dollar upgrades to the roads, which are financed by local governments and the World Bank and Asian Development Bank respectively.

In parallel to the assessments, ChinaRAP has also begun collaborating with other partners in the Bloomberg Philanthropies-funded Road Safety in 10 Countries Project (RS10). The collaboration is exploring ways that infrastructure improvements can complement efforts to reduce drink-driving rates and speeding in the cities of Dalian and Suzhuo. 

A report released by the International Transport Forum (ITF) at the OECD proposes 12 sets of measures to create safer walking environments. 

The report laments that the number of pedestrians killed on roads is estimated at above 400 000 each year – about a third of annual road fatalities around the globe.

Earlier this, iRAP reported that 84% of the approximately 50,000km of roads assessed in low- and middle-income countries where pedestrians are present carry traffic at 40km/h or more and have no footpaths.

The ITF report is timely as pedestrian safety will be the focus of the United Nations Road Safety Week from 6-13 May 2013.

In addition to the new report, ITF is calling for nominations for the Young Researcher of the Year Award. This year’s winner, Ms Wing Yee (Winnie) Lam, a Chinese national, was honoured for a developing a walkability audit as an assessment tool to evaluate the walking environment in urban areas.

The new KiwiRAP highway risk-ratings show safety has improved significantly on several Auckland and Northland State Highways over the past five years.

The length of road rated as high or medium-high risk reduced by 18% (from 475km to 388km) as a result of road improvements, including signage upgrades, an extension of roadside barriers, improved lighting and sealed shoulder widening, and targeted Police campaigns against speeding and drinking drivers.

NZTA’s Auckland and Northland Regional Director, Stephen Town said KiwiRAP is a powerful tool for increasing public awareness that not all highways are the same. “Drivers and riders who are aware of the higher risk highways can then adjust their driving to take extra care. Similarly, we can identify safety shortcomings that can then be addressed with practical road safety measures.

The new KiwiRAP report is available at: http://kiwirap.org.nz/downloads.html. 

EuroRAP began as an idea in 1999 to address the unnecessary and preventable toll of death and serious injury on Europe’s roads. 

The commitment of its Members has won the programme overwhelming support. In the past decade EuroRAP has grown from a 4-country pilot to a programme now active in over 30 countries.

EuroRAP believes that in the next decade Europe can save at least 0.5% of GDP with an affordable, high return programme – saving at least 300 deaths and serious injuries every day.

To visit the new website, go to http://eurorap.org.