Engineers from Cape Town City Council recently undertook training in the use of iRAP results and developed a series of concept plans to improve safety at key points around Sivile, Imbasa and A.C.J Phakade primary schools.

The work is part of a pioneering approach, introducing safe road infrastructure to protect school children, combined with road safety education and awareness for children and teachers from Takalani Sesame and Childsafe.

The initial iRAP assessment conducted with the City of Cape Town found that significant percentages of the roads around the schools are in the highest-risk 1- and 2-star categories for pedestrians.

The project is primarily funded with a donation from Decade of Action global corporate supporter Janssen, a Johnson & Johnson company. Additional financing and technical support for the project was provided by WorleyParsons, IVECO, and the FIA Foundation. The Medical Research Council is coordinating the monitoring and evaluation of the project.

With the current Managing Director, John Dawson, retiring, EuroRAP is seeking to appoint a new CEO.

This is an outstanding opportunity to work with a talented team and road authorities, motoring clubs, political leaders and researchers to save lives during the Decade of Action for Road Safety.

EuroRAP was established as a sister program to EuroNCAP, and has members across 29 partner countries. EuroRAP’s members have assessed hundreds of thousands of kilometres of roads across Europe, and the program is growing in influence globally.

If you are interested in leading this award-winning international organisation in the challenge of making roads safe, I encourage you to submit your application.

Rob McInerney
CEO, iRAP

Preliminary Star Ratings and safety investment options for 200km of roads in the Cayman Islands have been presented to key stakeholders.

At a meeting with the Minister for Infrastructure and Planning, the National Road Authority, the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service and the Caribbean Development Bank, options to lift road safety Star Ratings and prevent deaths and serious injuries were canvassed.

iRAP and the National Road Authority are finalise the assessment and ensure that recommendations are implemented.

World Bank-financed upgrades that will significantly improve road safety Star Ratings are now underway in the Indian States of Gujarat and Kerala.

Alongside more traditional measures, such as wider lanes and paved shoulders, the designs include sidewalks with safety fences, ‘raised’ pedestrian crossings, bus stops, solar powered street lights and traffic calming.

The designs also introduce “green tunnels” that preserve roadside trees – which are a safety hazard – by using safety barriers. Presentations about the upgrades are available for download.

At the same time, new road safety inspections of approximately 4,000km of roads are also now underway in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

More than 300 people from across the region gathered at ADB headquarters in the Philippines for Asia Pacific Road Safety 2014.

With a theme of “Improving Safety for Our Children”, the event comprised four parts: the GRSP Asia Seminar, iRAP Asia Pacific Workshop, ADB/ASEAN Train the Trainer Programme and GNCAP Workshop.

Participants in the iRAP Workshop had the opportunity to hear about road safety improvements that will lift Star Ratings in China, India and the Philippines. Presentations from the workshop are available for download.

Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Edmond Haxhinasto called for safe road infrastructure to be the new priority as he joined 30 professional and technical guests for consultation on the first EuroRAP results for Albania.

The Minister said Albania’s recent massive investment in new road infrastructure had led to safety problems which must be addressed before more new roads could be built. The SENSoR project has now Star Rated the first 500 km of Albania’s roads showing countermeasures which can target the safety problems and the huge economic benefits from investing in safety. 

Presentations from Olivera Djordjevic (Make Roads Safe Hellas – SENSoR lead partner) and Dr Steve Lawson (Road Safety Foundation) were welcomed by the government and by Niko Leka, President of the Automobile Club of Albania, the project partner in Albania.

Numerous training courses are now available for those who want to learn to Star Rate roads for safety and design safer roads.

With RAPcapacity online courses, you learn how to undertake iRAP-specification road assessments, at your own pace. Simply log-onto http://capacity.irap.org/training/rap-courses and select a course that suits you.

The week-long University of Birmingham (UK) iRAP course in Road Safety introduces the iRAP technology for evaluating the safety impact of road infrastructure first hand. Enrolments are now open for the September 2014 course.

iRAP partner, the IRF, 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. IRF regional conferences also offer opportunities for professional development.

In cooperation with the Catalan Roads Agency, RACC has assessed 5,000 km of roads and produced a EUR 42.8 million investment plan that would save 1,400 fatalities and serious injuries over the next 20 years.

The main types of crashes that would be addressed are head-on crashes (which account for 30% of crashes) and junction crashes (20%).

The proposed countermeasures would complement work already being undertaken (see picture right) and include: median barriers on single-lane undivided roads, central hatching, intersection delineation and street lighting.

RACC and the Catalan Roads Agency (Direcció General d’infrastructures de transport terrestre) have agreed to continue working together to extend iRAP assessments to other networks, and to take the present recommendations into action through road maintenance contracts.

An AusRAP assessment by RACQ shows that the improvements made to a 12km section of the Bruce Highway in Queensland, Australia have lifted it from just 2-stars to 4- and 5-stars for safety.

Previously, the section of road had a speed limit of 90km/h, was undivided and had hazardous roadsides and ‘at-grade’ intersections. The new section has two lanes in each direction which are separated by median safety barriers that reduce the risk of head-on crashes. Roadside safety barriers, which are specially designed to protect motorcyclists, help to reduce the risk of injury in run-off road crashes. A ‘grade-separated’ interchange significantly reduces the risk of intersection crashes.

As a result of the engineering improvements, the speed limit was able to be lifted to 110km/h yet the risk of death and serious injury has more than halved.

The improvements were an initiative of the Australian and Queensland Governments.