Road Safety - Part 3

Question 1

What is the purpose of a road safety auid?

Answer 1

Outline road safety audit - benefits of preventative road safety and current practices

Question 2

What is the safe system framework?

Answer 2

• designing, constructing and maintaining a road system so that forces on the human body generated in crashes are generally less than those resulting in fatal or debilitating injury

Question 3

What is a road safety audit?

Answer 3

A formal examination of existing or future road or traffic project by an independent team of trained specialists, assesses that crash potential and safety performance of a roadway on potential safety problems

Question 4

What are road safety audits not?

Answer 4

• Rating or ranking a project
• Checking for compliance to standards
• Crash investigation
• Redesign
• Informal Process

Question 5

How is risk calculated?

Answer 5

Risk = Probability x Exposure x Outcome

where Probability x Exposure = Expected crash frequency

Question 6

What are the two complementary approaches to road safety audits?

Answer 6

• Crash prevention - design for safer roads

- Crash Reduction - corrective measure for sties where crashes occur

Question 7

What is RS Audit Important?

Answer 7

• High court decision - overturn misfeasance ( highway authority not liable)
• Focus on road authority to act reasonably

Question 8

What are the four main purposes of road safety audits?

Answer 8

• Minimised the risk and severity of crashes
• Ensure considration of measure to eliminate or reduce problems
• Need for cost remedial work is reduced
• Promote safe design practices by planners, designers and traffic engineers

Question 9

When should an audit be done?

Answer 9

1. Feasibility stage (route options, layout or treatment options)
2. Preliminary design stage (intersection or interchange - before land acquired)
3. detailed design stage (geometric design, line marking etc)
4. pre opening/ construction stage (site inspection, detect hazards conditions not apparent at previous stage, examine safety of temporary traffic management works)
5. existing road (raod and traffic changes over time, idenfity hazards before they results, site inspections

Question 10

What should be audited?

Answer 10

Road Projects

• new freeways, major divided roads
• reconstruction
• intersection projets
• ped and bike routes
• signal upgrades

Off road projects which affect nearby roads

• increased ped crossing
• parking on busy road
• change bus circulation
• changed access/load/ unload delivery trucks

Question 11

Who should perform a road safety audit?

Answer 11

Team with sufficient experiences
independent of designer
objetive in assessment
ability to think and perceive like each road user

Question 12

What are the benefits of audits?

Answer 12

4-10% design cost

• provided 1-3% saving in casualty crashes
• reduce whole of life costs
• reduce need to modify new schemes
• more explicit consideration of vulnerable road users

Question 13

What are the issues?

Answer 13

Limited skill auditors
one person audit teams
materiality
D&C contracts
Existing vs. new roads
Challenge for local government
implementation funding
complicance vs. improvement
limited training and experiecne