It’s been all stations go for online training in the USA after the Roadway Safety Foundation received its ‘Road to Zero’ grant from the National Safety Council at the start of June. The year-long grant will support the development of web-based usRAP and ViDA training....
The UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, Jean Todt, has called for for countries to back a new UN Road Safety Fund. Speaking at a side event to the annual UN High Level Political Forum in New York, Jean Todt (pictured right) said 64,000 lives could be...
Malaysia is on track for 75% of all its high volume roads to have a 3-star or better rating by 2020. The good news was announced at the launch of the 2017 Malaysia iRAP report which revealed that more than 95% of 2,370km of assessed stretches of four Malaysian...
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.
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
GET IN TOUCH │ Europe │ Africa │ Asia Pacific │ Latin America and Caribbean │ North America
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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