Shaping the Road Network for Road Injury Protection

1
Implementing the Recomendations of the World
Bank/WHO World Report in Ibero-America and the
Caribbean

• Shaping the Road Network for Road Injury
  Protection

2
Three critical elements to consider

• Speeds on our roadways
• Safer routes for Pedestrians, Cyclists, and
  Handicapped
• Crash protective roadsides

3
Cause of Accidents
3
2
4
All roads are safe atlow speeds
Speed by itself does not kill, it is the
difference of speed between vehicles or roadside
objects that KILLS or INJURES
Most motorists will drive at a speed that is at
or slightly above what they think is a safe
speed, regardless of the posted speed limit
5
Arbitrarily low speed limits do not work
Arbitrarily Low Speed Limits
6
differential speed limits do not work either
Differential Speed Limits
7
We should classify our roads, set speed limits by
road function, and enforce vigorously

• Preferably there would be no exceptions for
• Geometric design problems
• Narrow bridges
• Land use

8
We should classify our roads and set speed limits
by function (1-2)

• We should consider
• Super highways up to 110 km/h
• Flow roads, interurban 80 to 100 km/h
• Distributor roads through cities 50 to 80 km/h
• Residential access road 40 to 60 km/h

Not included in World Report
9
We should classify our roads and set speed limits
by function (2-2)

• Super highways are access-controlled and
  pedestrians or cyclists should never be present
• Flow roads should have separate bike and
  pedestrian lanes
• Distributor roads through cities have wide
  pedestrian and cycle facilities
• Residential access roads should have ample
  sidewalks

Not included in World Report
10
Speed Humps effective speed control?

• A properly designed and constructed speed hump
  will tend to reduce the speed of cars and trucks
• Improperly designed and constructed speed bumps
  damage cars, buses, etc. They limit response
  time of firefighters.
• Proper speed bumps become a play toy for
  motorcycles creating speed variations that are
  dangerous
• Speed Pillows are being used in Chile with some
  success

11
Road Networks, some reflections on Future Roadways

• Future roadways
• Require a modernization of standards
• Require a modernization of safety knowledge
• Even if we add 3 to 5 of new roads each year
• After 10 years we still have 10,000 km of
  dangerous road infrastructure
• If we continue to design with old standards we
  will have almost 17,000 km of dangerous roads
  which will be used by our great grandchildren

12
How long does it take to modernize our standards?

• Most of our countries allow large and very large
  roadside sign supports adjacent to the pavements
• Most of our countries use 1960 roadside barrier
  standards
• These barriers may look good to the untrained eye
• But, these barriers are death traps

13
One easy solution for roadside barriers

• Simply require that all barriers, barrier
  terminals, and crash cushions be Crash Tested
  according to international standards
• That way we can stop making new drawings each
  time a new product comes on the market

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Transverse Kinetic Energy (kj)
Containment Level
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An Example Cable Barriers

• Tested to both EN and NCHRP standards
• 3.5 Km of median with cable barrier on each side,
  that is 7 km of barrier
• Over 300 impacts in 5 years
• No fatalities and no serious injuries
• No median crossover accidents
• Various motorcycle impacts, one fatal but not
  caused by cables
• Only posts are replaced, original cables are
  still in use

16
How long does it take to modernize our standards?

• Many of our drainage structures are deadly
• We keep with the same design standards and no one
  knows why

17
Road Networks, some reflections on Present
Roadways

• Existing roadways
• Pavement enhancements
• Speeds will increase
• Must be accompanied by other safety elements
• Some roads may have to wait

18
maintaining our investments

• Barriers that are not repaired can not be
  expected to save lives
• Crash cushion repairs may be as little as 5 of
  the initial investment
• Crash cushions that are not repaired can be very
  dangerous and will be destroyed with a second
  impact

19
Things that we can do right now

• Make greater use of International Road Assessment
  Program (i-RAP) and Road Safety Audits to
  identify our needs.
• Dedicate at least 10 to 20 of our road budgets
  to
• Train ministry and other professionals
• Upgrade the safety of existing roadways
• Maintain existing road safety infrastructure
• To conduct Research
• To modernize our standards
• Each highway agency must have an ongoing program
  for timely striping and signing of roads
• Promote modern road safety education at our
  universities
• Consider road safety throughout the design
  process and not as an afterthought
• Ensure that road safety items will always be
  funded and not deleted from projects because we
  ran out of money