iRAP and its partners have developed a suite of tools that use the iRAP methodology to support infrastructure safety management globally and locally.
Tools developed with partners that use the iRAP methodology are known as RAP apps or Made Safer by iRAP apps. The iRAP methodology and related tools are overseen by the Global Technical Committee (GTC) and managed within the Innovation Framework.
The tools support achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the Global Plan for Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 and Global Road Safety Performance Targets 3 and 4.
The tools can be used at all stages of a road’s lifecycle: – Planning: includes strategy, policy and project concepts.
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Safety Focus | Search Protocol | Tool/Protocol | Description | UN target/road lifecycle | Access | Type | |
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Crash data | Crash data | ||||||
Crash data | Crash Risk Mapping | Uses detailed crash data to produce maps showing the risk arising from the interaction of road users, vehicles and the road environment. | |||||
Crash data | DRIVER | An open-source crash data system developed by the World Bank that can link with Risk Mapping and Star Ratings. | |||||
Infrastructure ratings | Infrastructure ratings | ||||||
Infrastructure ratings | Star Ratings | An objective measure of the level of safety ‘built-in’ to the road for vehicle occupants, motorcyclists, bicyclists, and pedestrians. | |||||
Infrastructure ratings | Star Rating for Schools | An evidence-based tool for measuring, managing and communicating the risk children are exposed to as pedestrians. | |||||
Bicyclist | Infrastructure ratings | CycleRAP | An evidence-based risk assessment model specifically for bicycling and light mobility. | ||||
Trauma estimation | Trauma estimation | ||||||
Trauma estimation | Provides estimates of FSIs along each segment of an existing road or design and supports the prioritisation of investment. | ||||||
Trauma estimation | Uses iRAP Star Ratings and crash data to provide enhanced fatality and serious injury estimates for Australian roads. | ||||||
Investment planning | Investment planning | ||||||
Investment planning | Safer Roads Investment Plans | Draws on data underpinning Star Ratings and FSI Estimates to determine the most cost-effective road safety upgrades. | |||||
Urban | Investment planning | Urban Countermeasures | Knowledge from across the globe has been brought together in a three-year project managed by the Road Safety Foundation and supported by a grant from the Road Safety Trust. Findings have been incorporated into the iRAP tools as an extra set of countermeasures – Urban Investment Plans. | ||||
Investment planning | Route Review Tool | The Route Review Tool (RRT) is a web tool for road safety engineers. The RRT makes it easy to work with iRAP results and turn ideas into real road safety changes. | |||||
Design | Design | ||||||
Design | Star Rating for Designs (SR4D) | A package of tools, knowledge products, support and other initiatives so that roads are built safe, right from the start. | |||||
Design | Star Rating for Road Safety Audits (SR4RSA) manual | This new manual will help policy makers and practitioners involved in designing, upgrading, and rehabilitating roads to meet safety targets and reduce injuries from traffic crashes. | |||||
Network scanning | Network scanning | ||||||
Network scanning | EuroRAP RPS 1.0 | Based on homogeneous sections and a limited set of road attributes that provide protection to car occupants. | |||||
Network scanning | ThaiRAP Lite Star Ratings | Developed and used in Thailand with a subset of the Star Rating methodology and linked to a road asset database. | |||||
Network scanning | Austroads Stereotypes | Illustrate Star Ratings for a range of typical cross-section and operating speed scenarios on the Australian road network. | |||||
Network scanning | LG Stars Tool | The tool, which reflects common local road types in Western Australia, is an easy-to-use, and cost-effective method to assess the safety of the roads under Local Government management. | |||||
Network scanning | ViaSegura | In partnership with iRAP, the IDB has developed a digital initiative to assess road infrastructure safety | |||||
Performance tracking | Performance tracking | ||||||
Performance tracking | Performance Tracking | Uses Star Rating and Crash Risk Mapping to measure changes in road safety performance over time. | |||||
Performance tracking | Star Rating Certification | Provides a certificate verifying the achievement of a 3-star or better safety rating on a road, network or design for all road users to support the celebration of success. | |||||
Performance tracking | Safe Schools Tracker | A Star Ratings for Schools (SR4S) interactive tool that shares insights about how safety is being improved around schools worldwide. | |||||
Policy and management | Policy and management | ||||||
Policy and management | iRAP Safety Insights Explorer (previously Vaccines for roads) | Includes business cases for investment, examples of how crashes affect real people and statistics on the world’s roads. | |||||
Policy and management | The Road Safety Toolkit provides free information on the causes and prevention of serious road crashes. | ||||||
Policy and management | An innovative tool that allows young people to easily identify and report road safety conditions around their schools. YEA helps young people actively participate in improving road safety, giving them a voice in shaping their communities. | ||||||
Policy and management | Global Infrastructure KPIs provide the policy road map and recommended metrics for measuring road safety success. | ||||||
Policy and management | This GRSF guide gives an assessment on the magnitude and complexity of road safety challenges faced by low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). | ||||||
Enabling software | Enabling software | ||||||
Enabling software | ViDA | iRAP’s free-to-air online platform is the data processing engine for Star Ratings, FSI Estimates and Investment Plans, hosting data and analysing results, and the portal for iRAP’s enhanced tools including SR4D and the Star Rating Demonstrator. | |||||
Enabling software | Star Rating Demonstrator | The Star Rating Demonstrator is a tool which can be used for small assessments of existing roads or road designs and provides a simple way to understand the iRAP models. | |||||
Bicyclist | Enabling software | CycleRAP Demonstrator Tool | The CycleRAP demonstrator tool is available to help understand how the CycleRAP model works. | ||||
Enabling software | SR4D Web App | The SR4D Web App is a tool, supported by the World Bank, to assist with Star Rating designs and can be used for small to medium assessments of existing roads or road designs. | |||||
Enabling software | NetRisk2 | iRAP Centre of Excellence ARRB has launched this tool that brings together iRAP Star Ratings and the Australian National Risk Assessment Model (ANRAM) using AusRAP data as an additional infrastructure risk assessment option. |
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
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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).
Designers managed to boost significantly the length of road rated 3-stars or better during the building of the US$323 million World Bank-financed Second Gujarat State Highway. They used a range of safety countermeasures including traffic calming, pedestrian footpaths and crossings and street lighting to ensure that the characteristic ‘green tunnels’ of old roadside trees could be retained while mitigating their safety risk.
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.
Trained staff code the road attributes in 100 metre intervals and upload data into ViDA in an Excel.csv format under supervision from a suitably qualified iRAP partner or supplier. To ensure high standards of accuracy, the team undertaking the coding is required to give a weekly report which shows the level of accuracy for each road attribute.
Where a road agency already has data available (e.g. asset management register) this information can simplify the coding exercise and ensure good integration with existing systems.
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.