iRAP ia an interntional effort to develop tools to help low and middle income countries find the high social and economic returns possible through the provision of safer roads. The major Road Assessment Programmes in developed countries (AusRAP, EuroRAP and USRAP) worked in partnership with global road safety research organisations and local experts to develop and test these tools.
Safe roads are designed to be self-explaining and forgiving. Self-explaining roads show all road users where they should be and how to use the road safely. Clear road layouts not only explain where road users are expected to be, but they also take into account the road user’s ability to process information and make decisions.
An inexpensive, simple pedestrian refuge island not only shows where to cross but makes safe crossing much easier – the pedestrian has to check only one stream of oncoming traffic at a time. The refuge also calms drivers’ speed and restricts overtaking at the crossing point.
Forgiving roads are designed to protect road users in the event of a crash. The design of the road must recognise that crashes can occur and ensure that fatalities and injuries are minimised by protecting road users from hazards. Engineering features, such as safety barriers can be used to separate fast moving traffic from people and cushion crashes when they happen. Crashes are less likely to occur on self explaining roads and injuries are less severe on forgiving roads.
This report describes the principles behind creating safer roads. For more details visit www.irap.net