Big boost for 3-Star or better in Beijing

The worldwide campaign to achieve 3-Star or better roads received a major boost at this year’s Road Safety in Asia event held in Beijing from 24-26 May.

Hundreds of road safety practitioners from around the globe attended the event which challenged communities, cities, companies and countries to halve road deaths and injuries by maximising travel on 3-Star roads or better.

The highlight of the event was a World Health Organisation Dialogue which was moderated by Dr Bernhard Schwartzlander, the WHO representative in China. The panel included UN Goodwill Ambassador Michelle Yeoh; the Australian orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Peter Choong; the Vice President of RIOH MoT China, He Yong and the Swedish Ambassador to China, Lars Freden.

High returns

In a wide-ranging discussion about the health impacts of traffic crashes, the panel explored action across all 5 pillars of road safety and how embedding minimum 3-Star standards in all new road projects was a low cost process which delivered high financial and humanitarian returns.

Presentations by the Asian Development Bank looked at how the iRAP methodology could be used to lift star ratings and help ensure loan projects are sustainable. The great work by the Shaanxi Province to elevate a new road to 3-star or better and include the economic benefits in the project evaluation was shared. Connections were made between ADB, the ChinaRAP team and the PNG Government that will help raise the star ratings of roads as part of road projects in PNG. Event delegates also heard an overview of World Bank projects in India where 3-star or better targets are being applied successfully at the project level and were updated on project and policy outcomes from Bloomberg and GRSF supported projects in Vietnam, Thailand, China, Philippines, India and Indonesia.

Malaysia’s exciting target

Malaysia’s policy target for 75% of travel on 3-star or better roads was shared by MIROS, in addition to their partnership with Shell to deliver iRAP Malaysia and the important support of the Deputy Prime Minister to drive the multi-stakeholder cooperation needed to ensure results was announced. In Australia over 81,000km of roads have now been assessed as part of the national risk assessment partnership with Austroads, ARRB and AAA. Arif Uddin from CIPRB (http://www.ciprb.org/) also shared a great example of how lives can be saved with their great work in Bangladesh to improve safety on the notorious N2 Highway from Dhaka to Sylhet.

4 and 5-Star workshop

An iRAP workshop on Star Rating for Designs showed delegates how they could achieve 4 and 5-Star outcomes in new road projects. UNESCAP work on developing standards for the Asian Highway network was shared highlighting the potential for basic inclusions on roadside hazard management and vulnerable user facilities to quickly raise the safety of existing road design standards.

An interactive workshop was also held with policy makers to explore what population targets are needed for their country to meet the UN SDG targets, and what the associated percent of travel on 3-star or better roads would need to be for the country to achieve the target through infrastructure and speed management initiatives alone.

Fantastic event

Rob McInerney said: “This was a fantastic event that reinforced that we already have many of the partnerships in place to meet the challenge to halve road deaths by 2020. Our partnerships with ADB, World Bank, AIIB, GRSF, WHO, UN, Government, Municipalities, Research Organisations like RIOH, MIROS and ARRB, Corporates like FedEx and Shell, GRSP and the Red Cross Foundation are all central to maximising travel on 3-star or better roads and saving lives. Together we can and will achieve the UN SDG target.”

Hats off to ChinaRAP!

ChinaRAP has been named as the winner of this year’s prestigious 5-Star Performer Award at the 9th Asia Pacific Road Safety Conference in Beijing.

The award honours ChinaRAP’s enormous achievements in improving road infrastructure as part of the State Council supported ‘Highway Safety to Cherish Life’ programme.

The ChinaRAP team measured the safety of more than 100,000km of roads in China and influenced the upgrade of more than 30,000km of roads in 2015 alone using RAP methodology. Over the next five years, the ‘Highway Safety to Cherish Life’ programme will focus investment on upgrading the safety of road infrastructure. This will result in more than 100,000km of roads being upgraded and many lives saved by 2020. (Members of the ChinaRAP team are pictured right with Rob McInerney in the middle).

The ChinaRAP team, who are based at the Research Institute of Highways (RIOH) at the Ministry of Transport, are the world’s leaders in using RAP programmes. In addition to their work in China, the RIOH team have also been great contributors to the global programme with their innovative development of the iRAP Star Rating Demonstrator and project support in Cambodia, Australia, New Zealand and Yemen in recent years.

iRAP Chief Executive Rob McInerney said: ‘This is a fantastic tribute to the work that the ChinaRAP team have been doing – congratulations to everyone involved!.’

Working with Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

In meetings with the Vice-President of the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank at the Road Safety in Asia event, the iRAP team, led by Chief Executive Rob McInerney and Strategic Projects MD Greg Smith, discussed a proactive partnership to work with the Bank on road safety issues.

The proposed partnership will ensuring the Bank’s progressive social safeguards include leadership on meeting the UN SDG target to halve road deaths and injuries by 2020. The parties agreed to explore a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between iRAP and the AIIB. The MOU will focus on infrastructure safety and the potential for 3-Star or better minimum specifications in the region.

FedEx announces support for Star Rating for Schools app

The great partnership between FedEx and iRAP to save lives globally will now be extended to develop a “Star Rating for Schools” smart-phone / tablet application that can be used freely worldwide.

The project which will be led by iRAP’s Global Product Director, James Bradford, was shared with delegates at the Road Safety in Asia event in Beijing. “The Star Rating for Schools app will make it simple and easy for community groups, schools, NGOs, government and road safety experts to assess the safety of journeys to and from school,” said James.

“Thanks to FedEx, the application will be developed over the next 12 months and we welcome involvement of key stakeholders in helping spec and test this exciting new tool for the world to use.”

The Star Rating for Schools app will help ensure 3-star or better journeys to school around the world and support other key initiatives like #savekidslives and the newly launched “Global Initiative for Child Health and Mobility”

Just around the corner

A number of exciting developments are underway with results to be published in the next 3-4 months.

The OECD Safe System Working Group is finalising a report that will provide the benchmark for safe system performance and practice worldwide. The report will include guidance on safe system policy development, case studies on leading countries globally and key action areas across road safety management, infrastructure, vehicles, road users and post-crash care. Publication of the report is expected in October 2016. Details of the group’s work can be viewed here.

The ongoing work on developing a Social Impact Calculator to measure the direct financial benefits and business case associated with raising the star rating of a road is nearing completion. The project builds on the world leading investment by the Traffic Accident Commission in safer road infrastructure in Victoria, Australia and extends the case study to other high risk roads where long lengths of one and two-star roads still exist.

The analysis focuses on using the actual claim costs associated with road crashes and the horrific injuries that result from high-speed rural crashes including brain injury, quadriplegia and paraplegia, limb injuries and de-gloving amongst others. The true financial costs with each and every claim place a spotlight on the burden of road trauma on our health systems. Quantifying these costs highlights the cost-effectiveness of preventative programmes that raise the star rating of roads.

Blazing the trail with Bloomberg

iRAP joined forces with auditing staff from EMBARQ in Ho Chi Minh City recently as work moved forward on the city’s bus rapid transit system.

Ho Chi Minh City is one of 10 cities worldwide in which iRAP has been engaged to improve road safety as part of the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS). iRAP is working with a Vietnamese-based NGO, the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation, on the first stage of a 23km bus rapid transit system (BTR).

Project manager Monica Olyslagers said: ‘This was one of the first opportunities we have had to directly feed the outcomes of an iRAP road assessment into an EMBARQ road safety audit. We hope there will be many more!’

Around the world, strong progress is being made across iRAP’s portfolio of Bloomberg projects.

In Sao Paulo, Brazil, an iRAP star rating for a BRT for the Radial Leste Corridor has been undertaken and the results have been presented to local embedded staff. Work on the Bandeirantes Corridor had previously been completed and the designs on both projects – totalling 80kms - are now sufficiently advanced to be reviewed by iRAP.

In China, iRAP has completed surveys of World Bank project roads in Anlu, Hubei and has provided introductory training for local engineers. Star ratings are now being produced for existing roads and early designs for projected roads in Anlu. Designs will also be produced for projected roads in Xiaogan.

In India, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has approved an iRAP survey and assessment work on the ‘Golden Quadrilateral’ corridors with a scheduled start date in the second half of the year. In Karnataka, the SH20 Safe Corridor Demonstration project is now complete and iRAP is due to conduct post-construction star rating as soon as possible.

China honours Chengcheng!

A senior figure in the ChinaRAP programme has been honoured with one of China’s most prestigious accolades.

Tang Chengcheng, the Deputy Director of the Safety Center, Research Institute of Highway (RIOH), was named as a March 8th Red Banner Holder. The honorary title recognises women who have made a significant contribution to Chinese society.

Chengcheng has worked for RIOH for 20 years and has played a key role in formulating standards in, among other disciplines, road transport signage standards and China’s Technical Guide for Highway Safety Enhancement Program. In recent years, she has led the ChinaRAP team which was named as the winner of this year’s prestigious 5-Star Performer Award at the 9th Asia Pacific Road Safety Conference in Beijing in May.

In the award’s official citation, Chengcheng was described as: ‘a well acclaimed researcher and dedicated , focused and diligent member of staff’ who was a ‘living dictionary for the exact code and provisions of any standards and specifications,’

The citation also applauded Chengcheng’s work for ChinaRAP and described ChinaRAP as the proud result of years of research. In 2015, the citation added, the Ministry of Transport had recommended ChinaRAP’s methodology to be used for the State Council’s ‘Cherish the Life’ Program.

Friendship project aims to save lives

Lives could be saved on Cambodia’s roads thanks to partnership work between iRAP and ChinaRAP/RIOH and the Cambodian Government.

The Cambodia-China Friendship Road Safety Project, which launched in March, will see 500km of Cambodia’s roads being assessed by December 2016. The assessments will be undertaken by the ChinaRAP team and financed by RIOH with key financial support from the Ministry of Transport, Cambodia.

Road crashes are now the leading cause of death in Cambodia with an average of 15 people being killed, and a further 17 severely injured, on the country’s roads every day. Road deaths rose by 5% in 2015 compared with the previous year.

At the project launch, Cambodia’s then Minister of Public Works and Transport, HE Tram IvTek said that iRAP and ChinaRAP/RIOH’s support in capacity building would support the Government’s commitment to reduce road traffic deaths by 50% by 2020.

Managing Director iRAP Strategic Projects Greg Smith said: ‘This is a critically important time for Cambodia with major construction planned for highways. The design of these roads will have an impact on the lives of those communities using them.’

Inspirational session at Rio conference

More than 50 delegates from around the world took part in an iRAP workshop at the Road Safety on Five Continents Conference (RS5C) in Rio de Janeiro in May.

The 45 minute workshop session – which included an opportunity to use the ViDA demonstrator to star rate a section of road – was part of a special conference session organised by iRAP.

Earlier in the session, Prof Walter Trani, of LabTrans, the Federal University of Santa Catarina, explored how LabTrans was working with iRAP to promote Star-rating methodology across Brazil.

LabTrans (the university’s transportation and logistics laboratory) recently signed a memorandum of understanding with iRAP to become a RAP centre of technology in the country.

Hilda Maria Gomez, the Executive Principal of Sectoral Analysis and Programmes for the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) told delegates attending the session how CAF was supporting road safety across the continent through the funding of road infrastructure projects.

Greg Smith, the Managing Director of iRAP’s strategic projects division, gave delegates an inspirational overview of the transformative projects undertaken in China by iRAP and the Chinese Ministry of Transport (RIOH).

‘RS5C is one of the most important events in the calendar for road safety practitioners, ‘ said Julio Urzua, iRAP’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean. ‘It was a great forum for us to showcase the way we work with our partners to deliver safer road infrastructure across the continent.’

Moving ahead in Africa

Safer road infrastructure has come a step closer in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Accra, Ghana with the latest phase of the Bloomberg Initiative on Global Road Safety (BIGRS).

iRAP’s Stephen Stacey and consultant Marko Ševrović from the department of transport planning in the University of Zagreb’s faculty of transport, visited both cities to present the draft final report of iRAP assessments undertaken by Dr Ševrović and his team earlier this year.

Addis Ababa and Accra are among 10 cities worldwide set to benefit from a US$125 million investment by BIGRS over five years to recommend road safety improvements. Currently road crashes are the main cause of death among 20-24 year olds in Ethiopia.

Well attended

Technical and policy specialist workshops were held in both cities. The workshops were attended by a wide range of road safety practitioners including, in Ghana, representatives from the Accra Metropolitan Authority and the National Roads Administration of Ghana. In Ethiopia the workshops attracted representatives from the city and the federal governments as well as the Transport Project Management Office, whose staff act as the local sponsors of the project.

Stephen said: ‘It was great to be at the sharp end and to work alongside Ghanaians and Ethiopians trying to make a difference to their countries’ roads. Marko made a reality of this by sitting alongside TPMO colleagues and helping them with their on-screen designs for pedestrian crossings. This was a great visual display of iRAP in action!’

Local empowermentStephen added: ‘We listened very carefully to the delegates’ comments and will take them into account as we finalise our report. In the next stage of our work we will recommend that BIGRS emphasises local capacity building - it’s vital that local people are empowered to deliver assessments themselves.’

He pointed out that the workshops and accompanying discussions had highlighted the importance of ensuring that RAP methodology was hard-wired into all designs for new and refurbished roads.

Stephen and Marco’s final report is due to be completed in mid-June and a joint EMBARQ and iRAP workshop has been proposed for July to allow the report outcomes to be discussed at a higher level.

Dramatic increase in 3-star ratings in Slovakia

An estimated 355 deaths and serious injuries will be prevented over the next 20 years on a 327km sample of Slovakia’s motorways and expressways following a multi-million Euro investment scheme.

A just-completed report by EuroRAP Slovakia has revealed that 77% of the improved sections of the D1 and D2 motorways and the R1 expressway are now rated as 3-star with 1-star sections having disappeared completely. In December 2013, before improvement works began, almost 75% of the road sections were rated 1-2-star.

The wide ranging package of improvements – including shoulder rumble strips and barriers with energy absorbing ends – was undertaken by NDS, the Slovak Motorway Company between 2014-15. The improvement package was prompted in part by the findings of the SENSoR (South East Neighbourhood Safe Routes) project in 2014. The improved roads were reassessed by EuroRAP Slovakia in February this year.

EuroRAP Slovakia’s Managing Director, Martin Juck, said: ‘I am happy and proud that NDS has become one of the ‘first swallows’ who implemented, at least partly, the SENSoR project’s infrastructure recommendations.

‘The results speak for themselves: the minimum 3-star standard should be reached very soon on the Slovak superior road network. This should send a powerful message to other responsible road owners and authorities in the Danube region countries and also act as a best practice example.’

Green light for safer roads in Barbados

Safer roads are on the agenda in Barbados after iRAP completed a survey of 500km of the island’s roads.

The survey was carried out by SEMIC, an accredited Mexican company, and the georeferenced images are now being used by Ministry of Transport personnel who are undertaking the coding. iRAP project staff recently delivered a week-long coding training course at the offices of the Ministry of Transport and Works.

iRAP’s assessment will provide the benchmark of the current engineering safety of the road network. At present approximately 20 people are killed on average each year on the island’s roads.

Senior engineer Morgan Fletcher said: ‘We have made great progress. Training local engineers and decision makers in the use of iRAP methodology will give the ministry the local capacity to refine and implement a Safer Roads Investment Plan that will benefit all road users in Barbados.’

iRAP course in road safety, September 2016

There will be an excellent opportunity to learn about iRAP methodology at the iRAP course in Road Safety at the University of Birmingham in England in September.

The five day postgraduate/continuing development course is organised by iRAP in collaboration with the University.. It is aimed at road safety engineers, managers and other road safety professionals working in road safety management. This popular event attracted many delegates from countries around the world last year.

The course will be run by iRAP trainers and delegates will learn about:.

• Star Rating of existing roads• Prioritising road improvements using Safer Road Investment Plans• Star Rating the design of new and rehabilitated roads

Click here for booking details.