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.

To celebrate 10 years of EuroRAP in Spain, RACC have released EuroRAP 10 anos en Espana: Analisis de los resultados de los 10 anos de EuroRAP en Espana, looking back over the programme’s development and results.

The study details the evolution of different variables (such as length of the network, AADT and the number of fatal and serious crashes) used to generate EuroRAP risk ratings over the last 10 years, starting with the first EuroRAP study in 2002 through to the most recent in 2011.

The network analysed in the report covers the Spanish Road Network (RCE) spanning 23,528km. Although the total distance travelled on the RCE increased by 6% in the last 10 years, the number of deaths and serious injuries decreased by 58%.

Simple attention to safety engineering detail has resulted in extraordinary cuts in road deaths and serious injuries, according to the latest tracking survey by the Road Safety Foundation.

Engineering a Safer Future found that fatal and serious injury crashes on 10 stretches of treated road fell by nearly two thirds from 541 to 209 (2001-2005 and 2006-2010) – boosting the economy by £35m every year.

This year’s most improved road is a rural 20km (13 mile) single carriageway section of the A605. Over the two survey periods, fatal and serious crashes fell by 74% from 34 to 9, and its risk rating improved from medium in 2001-2005 to low-medium in 2006-2010. 

Engineering a Safer Future was produced with support from Ageas UK. The report measures safety levels across 27,000 miles of motorway and A roads where the majority of UK road deaths occur.

With the support of the Global Road Safety Facility and Bloomberg Philanthropies, Brazil and Egypt will soon Star Rate strategic road networks and prepare Safer Roads Investment Plans.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that a combined 66,000 people are killed in road crashes in Brazil and Egypt each year.

The assessments, which are now in the preliminary planning stages, will help to identify the locations of high-risk sections of road and propose affordable engineering treatments, particularly for pedestrians, who feature prominently in road deaths statistics.

The efforts in Brazil and Egypt complement road assessments already underway in Russia, India and China that are also supported by GRSF and Bloomberg Philanthropies.

German auto-club, ADAC, has found that on extra-urban networks, almost 50% of traffic victims lose their lives on motorways and federal roads, which account for only 10% of the network length.

The findings are contained in the report, Road Test 2008-2010, which reviews crash statistics, presents EuroRAP Star Ratings and sets out actions required to save lives. 

The report also finds that the presence of roadside hazards (trees), high overtaking rates and high speeds on German federal highways mean they get poorer Star Ratings than both German motorways and extra-urban roads carrying similar volumes of traffic elsewhere in Europe.

The Road Test report complements other road infrastructure safety assessments conducted by ADAC, such as Pedestrian Crossings in Europe, which assessed safety at 285 crossings in 19 cities.

Safety on an 80km section of the Western Highway in Belize is set to become much safer, thanks to efforts of the Government and Caribbean Development Bank.

A recent iRAP assessment found that nearly the entire highway is rated 1- or 2-stars for vehicle occupants, who account for the majority of road deaths in Belize.

As part of the project, road infrastructure improvements will be complemented by efforts to raise awareness among road users; increased enforcement of road rules; better post-crash response; and training.

After infrastructure improvements are completed, further iRAP assessments will be used to measure reductions in risk. 

The first iRAP Innovation Workshop was held at TRL headquarters in the United Kingdom and brought together experts in road safety engineering from around the world.

Participants at the workshop discussed the fact that during the next 12 months iRAP assessments will be conducted on some 150,000km of roads in low- and middle-income countries – three times as many as in the past five years. 

Participants also considered ways in which innovation in methodology, technology, policy and processes will help support the massive growth in assessments and ensure the results translate into life-saving road improvements.

Notes from the workshop that summarise presentations made by participants are available for download.

The Road Safety Toolkit is designed to provide free information on the causes and prevention of road crashes that cause death and injury.

References recently added to the Toolkit include links to:

• NSW Transport’s Enhanced Delineation Devices guide
• Task Force 13’s guide on safer barrier end treatments
• The Department for Transport’s Local Transport Note on Cycle Infrastructure Design
• New Zealand Transport Agency’s High Risk Rural Roads Guide

If you have any suggestions or would like to submit a case study, please contact Greg Smith ([email protected]).