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.

Movement in towns and cities around the world is changing, and road design needs to reflect this. While traditionally, urban road design has been car-centric, many cities have fundamentally shifted to a model that prioritises safety and mobility for pedestrians and cyclists. In addition, a growth in micromobility – including low-speed vehicles such as e-scooters and rental bikes – is prompting cities to look for new ways to provide safer urban road environments for all road users.

The project’s primary goal was to improve the Safer Roads Investment Plans (SRIPs) to ensure that the recommendations provided by the iRAP model reflect the latest solutions for Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) in urban environments aligned with the Safe System and Vision Zero approaches.

The latest thinking and innovation for the safety of VRUs can now be accessed in the iRAP tools by road authorities across the world, helping them make a better investment case to prevent fatal and serious injuries in urban areas.

The new countermeasures

A review undertaken of relevant literature and standards has guided the implementation of the enhanced SRIP to:
■ Introduce speed reduction as a countermeasure that accounts for the traffic calming measures appropriate to the target speed (and other characteristics of the road)
■ Recommend appropriate traffic calming measures for all urban roads where pedestrians and cyclists are present
■ Broaden the types of pedestrian/cycle crossing types
■ Enhance ‘upgrade crossing quality’ with a specific list of recommended measures
■ Update the minimum length, minimum spacing and hierarchy rules in line with current best-practice
■ Introduce measures to reduce legs on junctions or close junctions to vehicular traffic
■ Update trigger sets and hierarchy rules so that recommendations align with current best practices for traffic calming in urban areas.

The updated tools are freely available in the iRAP ViDA system and will help authorities to better analyse their urban road networks and identify cost effective improvements targeted at reducing fatal and serious injuries.

The countermeasures can be found in ViDA in Stage 6, Investment Plan. There are now two options available V3.02 Countermeasures and V3.02 Countermeasures (Urban Enhancements). The first is the standard countermeasures package traditionally used in Star Rating assessments and the second includes the additions.

Visit vida.irap.org here