Topic 1: Introduction:

Definitions; mobility and road safety issues; road user groups.

Road safety is the concept that deals with the state of security and certainty of roads by
its users. The aim of road safety is to reduce the harm caused by motor vehicle
collisions. Unsafe roads can cause deaths, injuries and property damage. Road traffic
crashes are one of the world's largest public health and injury problems that are
preventable.

In addition, road crashes lead to the global economic losses. An estimate in road traffic
injury costs an economic burden for developing countries. It is reflected that the road
crash costs up to USS 100 billion in developing countries which is twice the annual
amount of developing aid to such countries. The collection and use of accurate and
comprehensive data related to road accidents is very important to road safety
management. The road safety data are necessary not only for statistical analysis in
setting priority targets but also for in-depth study in identifying the contributory factors
for better understanding of the chain of events.

A traditional approach to road safety tends to focus on vehicles and victims. Solutions
purposed for changing the safety of vehicles and those who become the victims of
road accidents include designing roads to be safer by reducing speeds, requiring
wearing of helmets and seatbelts and implementing licensing or driver training.
However, road safety remains an enormous problem, which grows as the number of
vehicles on the road increases. Although road safety has become increasingly
recognized as a public health issue, yet it is less acknowledged as a social issue with
cultural and political causes as well as effects. In fact, lack of road safety guidelines has
enormous social implications as well as social effects.

The range of social impacts caused by a lack of road safety guidelines includes:

• Pressure on caregivers and families of accident victims

• An increased number of people with long-term disabilities caused by road accidents

• increased isolation of those who fear for their safety and security

• Local footpaths, animals trails and other non – motorized routes are often endangered
by the encroachment of a road or road traffic

• Sidewalks and pedestrian spaces, where they are available, are often encroached upon
by motor vehicles forcing pedestrians in their own space to walk in the street.
• Road safety may be used as an excuse for banning the movement of heavy duty
trucks in the morning in certain parts of the towns.

Mobility and road safety issues.

Road Crash Problem

Statistics on road crashes have variously estimated that every year more than 1.2
million people die in road crashes around the world. The majority of these deaths, in
which about 70% occur in developing countries are the most important cause of death.
About 65% percent of deaths involve pedestrians while 35% are children. Over 10
million are crippled or injured each year.

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Causes of Road Accidents

Several causes related to mechanical, road design, failures and human error have been
identified as the major causes of accidents.

1. Mechanical Error

Vehicles are manufactured artifacts which therefore are not expected to be perfect. The
following may cause a vehicle to be involved in an accident.

 brake design error

 brake failures due to over speeding, over loading, poor maintenance or ageing
brake system that needs replacement

 Tyre blowouts

 Locked steering wheel while vehicle is in motion.

2. Road Design Error

Several road safety audits have shown that a poorly designed road could cause
accidents. Some of these include:

• Very sharp bends

• Slope leading to a sharp bends

• Uneven surfacing of roads.

3. Road Network

Further causes of road accidents include:

• Presence of deep pot holes on the road

• Road shoulder failure

• Surface bulking (gaining in depth) due to excessive weight.

4. Human Error

These factors also contribute to road accidents:

• Excessive speed

• Drunkenness

• Poor vision

• Poor calculation

• Psychological problem

• Unskilled driving

• Fatigue.

5. Traffic congestion

Causes of road accidents

The various causes of road accidents are:

1. Road Users - Excessive speed and rash driving, violation of traffic rules, failure
to perceive traffic situation or sign or signal in adequate time, carelessness,
fatigue, alcohol,sleep etc.
 2. Vehicle - Defects such as failure of brakes, steering system, tyre burst,lighting
system .

3. Road Condition - Skidding road surface, pot holes, ruts.

4. Road design - Defective geometric design like inadequate sight distance,

inadequate width of shoulders, improper curve design, improper traffic control
devices and improper lighting,.

5. Environmental factors -unfavorable weather conditions like mist, snow, smoke

and heavy rainfall which restrict normal visibility and and makes driving unsafe.

6. Other causes -improper location of advertisement boards, gate of level crossing

not closed when required etc..

Economic Perspective on Traffic Safety

Road crashes consume approximately one to three percent of a country's annual Gross
National Product (GNP). These are resources that no country can afford to lose
especially those with developing economies. These losses undoubtedly inhibit the
economic and social development of developing countries.

A true estimate of the total national cost of road accidents will help government realise
the heavy economic losses being incurred annually. Government must try to reduce
these losses by providing road safety improvements and should see expenditure on
road safety as an investment and not expenditure. For instance, the NTSA could be
strengthened to be more proactive rather than occupying themselves with evacuating
corpses.

Developing a Road Safety Plan

A national medium or long-term road safety plan is a prerequisite for achieving

sustainable improvements in road safety. The plan should set measurable and
achievable long and medium term road safety targets, build capacity of local
institutions like NTSA and providing alternative sources of financing for road safety
measures. This could come from setting aside a budget to finance projects that promote
safety. Safety intervention programmes on a pilot or demonstration basis should be
promoted.

Institutional Responsibility of Road Safety

Improving road safety requires the participation of different organizations and sectors.
No one sector working alone can effectively reduce the number of road casualties.
Either a lead ministry or a national road safety council or commission should head the
concerted effort. In Kenya, NTSA is the body in charge of road safety issues.

(what is the role of organizations in ensuring safety on the roads?)

Monitoring and Evaluation of Road Safety Activities

A simple but effective monitoring and evaluation system is required to track the
progress of road safety activities and to estimate the safety impact. For action plans in
developing countries, initial focus is often on institutional strengthening and capacity
building rather than just on reducing of casualties in numeric terms.

This can be attested to in the various lectures often organized by NTSA to improve the
skills and efficiency of its personnel. Monitoring and evaluation systems established as
part of implementing action plans and safety initiatives must therefore, where
appropriate, be able to indicate progress towards achievement of institutional impact
and developmental objectives.

One way of measuring institutional impacts is the analysis of past data on accidents and
fatalities to ascertain if there is any change towards reduction.

Road user groups

The term “road user” means a motorist, passenger, public transportation operator or
user, truck driver, bicyclist, motorcyclist, or pedestrian, including a person with
disabilities. Vulnerable road user (or VRU) is a collective term used to describe groups
such as pedestrians, cyclists, motor cyclists, horse riders and, more recently, e-scooter
riders.

Such road users are defined as vulnerable because they lack the physical impact protection and
safety features those within a vehicle benefit from. They’re also less visible to drivers, which
increases their likelihood of being injured or killed if involved in a road traffic collision.
There should also be additional consideration for those who could be most severely
injured in an incident, for example children, disabled people and the elderly.

Road Safety Management Process.

The RSMP is ultimately an iterative/ frequentive process to managing road safety with
no clear start or end step. It is an iterative process, because managing roads and
ensuring safety is an ongoing task, where road conditions, traffic compositions, and
road user behaviour change constantly, from season to season, year to year, and decade
to decade. Global events like COVID-19 also shape road usage and consequently safety.
Step 1 – Network Screening

Network screening is the process of triaging sites within a transportation network. This
is a critical step because resources are finite and transportation networks are large; it is
virtually impossible to effect change everywhere simultaneously. Network screening
can help ensure that resources are allocated in such a manner that their impact is
maximized.

The selection criteria and performance measures used may vary from one jurisdiction
to another, but in general, in this step sites are ranked, and those sites that are deemed
to be the most dangerous (and consequently where the largest safety gains may be
found) are prioritized. Once we have narrowed the list of sites down to a manageable
number, we can move onto the next step: diagnosis.

Step 2 – Diagnosis

Diagnosis is the process of carefully investigating a site to determine what contributing

crash factors may be present. Crash factors can exist within modes of transportation, road
user behaviors, movements or interactions/scenarios, road design elements and features, traffic
control schemes, the built environment, or operating conditions.

Investigation may be undertaken qualitatively, through field assessment and public

consultations, or through quantitative methods, including crash and conflict data
review. Statistical and/or analytical tests are usually performed at a site level to
rigorously identify contributing crash factors.

Step 3 – Countermeasure Selection

Safety practitioners use the results of the diagnosis tests and their judgment to
recommend countermeasures that are expected to address the identified contributing
crash factors, chosen within the constraints of the project, and that are known to be
effective e.g. using crash-modification factors (CMF).

Countermeasures can effect road design changes, public awareness and education campaigns,
enforcement activities, or even Emergency Medical Services (EMS) policies. Some
organizations compile their own list of known countermeasures and
CMFs.Countermeasure effectiveness can vary from region to region, so CMFs
estimation accuracy will be limited in the absence of prior representative trials.
Proactive monitoring and evaluation combined with choices that emphasize flexible
countermeasures can mitigate that risk.

Step 4 – Economic Appraisal

With a shortlist of potential safety countermeasures, a thorough economic appraisal of
each option can be undertaken. This will usually take the form of a cost-benefit analysis
for each proposed countermeasure. This maximizes the potential safety benefit per
dollar spent (and therefore total safety benefit).

Implementation cost is usually measured using monetary value, e.g. construction cost.
Preliminary design might take place in order to facilitate cost estimation. Meanwhile
benefits are estimated. Sometimes safety performance measures are used directly
(estimated with a safety performance function, SPF) but other times these are converted
to an equivalent monetary value as well.

Step 5 – Prioritize Projects

This is the process of creating a plan that implements the safety countermeasures that
create the maximum road safety benefit within the total budget allocated to safety
remediation. The Highway safety Manual covers three methods: ranking by economic
effectiveness, incremental cost-benefit analysis, and optimization.

In practice however, safety often isn’t the only design objective of a transportation
project, especially for new construction. In those cases, design choices are made in
concert with all other project requirements.

Step 6 – Safety Effectiveness Evaluation

Safety effectiveness evaluation is the assessment of how well a countermeasure

performs once it is implemented. The objectives of this step are to:

1. Validate that a countermeasure is performing as expected.

2. Produce CMFs – Crash modification factors for future projects (especially if they
are pilot projects).

3. Apply proactive corrective action as a project risk mitigation strategy.

Safety effectiveness evaluation thus leads back into step 1 with updated site triaging
information for the next round of road safety countermeasure projects.

Why do we need road safety management?

1. The high cost of motorized mobility to society and public health

Globally: Each year at least 1.25 million people are killed and 50 million are injured on
roads around the world. (Global Status Report WHO, 2015). Global road injuries have
increased by 46% in the twenty years to 2010. The quality of daily road travel affects the
lives of almost all citizens either as road accident victims or their family, friends and
work colleagues. Despite the increasingly ambitious goals and targets sought and
demonstrated by benefit to cost ratios of publicly acceptable measures, investment in
preventing serious health loss in road crashes is not commensurate with their high
socio- economic cost.

2. Citizens’ right to road safety

i. Everyone has the right to use roads and streets without threats to life or health

ii. Everyone has the right to safe and sustainable mobility: safety and sustainability
in road transport should complement each other

iii. Everyone has the right to use the road transport system without unintentionally
imposing any threats to life or health on others

iv. Everyone has the right to information about safety problems and the level of
safety of any component, product, action or service within the road transport
system

v. Everyone has the right to expect systematic and continuous improvement in

safety: any stakeholder within the road transport system has the obligation to
undertake corrective actions following the detection of any safety hazard that can
be reduced or removed.

3. Road traffic injury is largely preventable

Based on current knowledge, fatal and long-term crash injury is a largely predictable
and avoidable problem amenable, open to rational analysis and remedy. International
organizations such as the World Health Organisation, the World Bank and ISO) all
acknowledge that the key to achieving better performance in road safety is by more
effective road safety management. More recently, the importance of evidence-based,
data-driven road safety management has again been emphasized (Wegman et al, 2015).

4. Policymakers call for more road safety management

In response to the global crisis of road traffic injury as emerging economies motorize,
the UN General Assembly resolution proclaimed 2011–2020 the Decade of Action for
Road Safety, with a ‘global goal of stabilizing and then reducing the forecasted level of
global road fatalities by 2020’ by increasing activities conducted at national, regional
and global levels with the focus primarily on local and national action.

The Global Plan states that the Decade of Action goal will be attained through:

 Setting an ambitious yet feasible target for reduction of road fatalities by

building on the existing frameworks of regional casualty targets.

 Strengthening the management infrastructure and capacity for technical

implementation of road safety activities at the national, regional and global
levels.

 improving the quality of data collection at the national, regional and global levels

 Monitoring progress and performance on a number of predefined indicators at

the national, regional and global levels.

 Encouraging increased funding to road safety and better use of existing

resources, including through ensuring a road safety component within road
infrastructure projects;

 Building capacities at national, regional and international level to address road

safety.

5. Achieving ambitious road safety results.

Establishing long-term and interim safety performance goals and targets supported by
action plans that set out the specific interventions needed to achieve them is well
established as international good practice.

Road safety performance is shaped by the road safety management system operating in
a country or an organisation. This system determines the results being sought and
produces the interventions to achieve them. The limits to a country or organization’s
road safety performance are constrained by its institutional capacity to implement
efficient and effective interventions, and the subsequent results may fall short of what is
technically feasible with any particular set of road safety interventions.

The road safety management system.

The jurisdictional road safety management system

It is used widely by the World Bank and has been adopted by the OECD (The
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) . Both organisations
recommended its use. In this model, road safety is produced just like other goods and
services and the production process is viewed as a management system with three
levels: institutional management functions which produce interventions, which in turn
produce results. Consideration of all elements of the road safety management system
and the linkages between them becomes critical for any country or jurisdiction seeking
to identify and improve its current performance levels.
 Results focus in its ultimate expression concerns a strategic orientation that links
all actual and potential interventions with results, analyses what can be achieved
over time, and sets out a performance management framework for the delivery
of interventions and their intermediate and final outcomes. It defines the level of
safety which a country wishes to achieve expressed in terms of vision, goals,
objectives and related targets.

 Coordination concerns the orchestration and alignment of the interventions and

other related institutional management functions delivered by government
partners and related community and business partnerships to achieve the
desired focus on results.

 Legislation (where necessary) concerns the appropriate legal instruments which

specify the legitimate bounds of institutions, their responsibilities and
accountabilities, their interventions and their related institutional management
functions to achieve the desired focus on results.

 Funding and resource allocation concerns the financing of interventions and

related institutional management functions on a sustainable basis using a
rational evaluation and programming framework to allocate resources to achieve
the desired focus on results.

 Promotion concerns the countrywide and sustained communication of road

safety as a core business for Government and society, emphasising the shared
societal responsibility to support the delivery of the interventions required to
achieve the desired results.

 Monitoring and evaluation concerns the systematic and ongoing measurement

and evaluation of interventions in terms of achieving the desired road safety
outputs and outcomes (results).

 Research and development and knowledge transfer concerns the systematic and
ongoing creation, codification, transfer and application of knowledge that
contributes to the improved efficiency and effectiveness of the road safety
management system to achieve the desired focus on results