VACCINES FOR ROADS Second edition NEW WE CAN CREATE A WORLD FREE OF HIGH-RISK ROADS A WORLD FREE OF HIGH RISK ROADS | irap.org NEW * LOCAL SAFETY CHAMPIONS LEADING ROAD ASSESSMENT PROGRAMME ACTIVITIES IN 70 COUNTRIES * RISK ON HALF A MILLION KILOMETRES OF ROADS ASSESSED * STRATEGIES TO PREVENT 50,000 DEATHS AND SERIOUS INJURIES A YEAR IN LOW-INCOME AND MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIES * STAR RATINGS BEING USED TO DESIGN SAFE NEW ROADS irap.org | A WORLD FREE OF HIGH RISK ROADS 3,500 people will die on the world’s roads associations and road authorities leading The good news is that Safer Roads to have lasting partnerships with many today and 100,000 more will be seriously in road safety. The programme created Investment Plans are making the solutions road authorities, automobile associations, injured or disabled. But road death is not simple and objective measures of road equally clear. Construction of just 65km of multilateral development banks, research inevitable—it is preventable. safety risk and highlighted the vital footpaths on high-risk roads in Costa Rica, institutes, donors and non-government role that road infrastructure can play for instance, would prevent almost 3,000 organisations. A network of accredited There has never been a more opportune in preventing crashes and reducing deaths and serious injuries over 20 years road safety professionals and companies moment to tackle this serious and the severity of injuries. The approach and save $215 million in crash costs. Much capable of competitively bidding to rapidly worsening public health crisis by spread rapidly throughout Europe, then of this cost would otherwise be borne provide high-quality iRAP assessments is fundamentally changing the inherent to Australia, the United States and New by an already stretched health sector. also growing. safety of road systems around the world. Zealand, with local experts introducing The plans are helping to demonstrate Causes of road trauma are well known, as their own innovative improvements. The that by investing in safer roads, the The central message of Vaccines for are ‘vaccines’ to prevent them. We know focus then shifted to low-income and social and economic burden on families, Roads is simple: large-scale, immediate there is enormous potential to generate middle-income countries, where the road communities, workplaces and hospitals improvements to high-risk roads will save large social and economic returns from trauma crisis is most urgent. It culminated can be significantly lessened. By setting lives today and long into the future. better investment; the United Nations in the first edition of Vaccines for Roads ambitious policy targets such as the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011- in 2008 which presented pioneering work elimination of one-star and two-star roads Together, we can create a world free of 2020 brings unprecedented international in Chile, Costa Rica, Malaysia and South by 2020 or a requirement that all new high-risk roads. leadership and political-will to the cause. Africa. roads achieve four-stars, countries can We can, and must, make this happen. create a legacy of safe roads for future iRAP is now a global programme of local generations. iRAP is an international charity dedicated road safety champions leading RAP to creating a world free of high-risk roads. activities in more than 70 countries. Some As a registered charity, iRAP benefits from We work on a global scale and are moving half a million kilometres of roads have the generous financial support of the FIA urgently to save lives. We act on sound been assessed. This second edition of Foundation, the Road Safety Fund which research and compelling evidence. Road Vaccines for Roads describes that work, is jointly managed by the FIA Foundation Assessment Programmes (RAPs) are a with a particular focus on results in low- and the World Health Organisation, and catalyst for change, providing political income and middle-income countries. the Global Road Safety Facility. This leaders, policy makers and road builders Sadly, about half the roads assessed in support enables us to provide safety tools with the social, economic and engineering these countries are rated in the highest risk and software to low-income and middle- evidence and tools needed to transform bands: one-star or two-stars. The reasons income countries free-of-charge and give entire road networks. for this are clear and include the fact that the programmatic support needed to 84% of the roads where pedestrians are ensure that assessments are completed RAPs started with EuroRAP in 2001, as present have no footpaths. to the same, high-quality consistency Rob McInerney a partnership between automobile around the world. We are very fortunate Chief Executive Officer Numerous publications show how death • Mistakes, errors of judgment and poor just ‘patching up’ apparent problem A SAFE SYSTEM and serious injury can be prevented decisions are intrinsic to humans. The areas. globally, including: Towards Zero: road system needs to be designed and • The ‘engineered’ elements of the Ambitious Road Safety Targets and operated to account for this. system—vehicles and roads—can be the Safe System Approach, produced • Humans are fragile. Unprotected, we designed to be compatible with the Road deaths and injuries are by the Organisation for Economic cannot survive impacts that occur at human element, recognising that, a function of the way people Cooperation and Development (OECD), greater than around 30km/h. while crashes might occur, the total behave, the different types the multilateral development banks’ A • People who behave with disregard for system can be designed to minimise of vehicles in use and their Shared Approach to Managing Road the safety of themselves and others harm. speeds, and road design. Safety, and the United Nations’ Global should expect tough policing and Plan for the Decade of Action for Road tough penalties. Despite this complexity, the Countries leading in road safety have Safety 2011-2020. The following principles • Safety can be built into the road put these principles into practice with way in which a genuinely safe broadly underpin the safe system system comprehensively and outstanding results. road system can be created is approach and inform iRAP’s approach: systematically, involving more than well understood After decades of building roads, causes of death and serious injury are well known... Bicyclists are typically killed or Pedestrians are typically killed or Vehicle occupants are typically killed or Motorcyclists are typically killed seriously injured when cycling along seriously injured when walking along or seriously injured in run-off road, head-on or or seriously injured in run-off road, the road and at intersections across the road intersection crashes head-on or intersection crashes As just one example, the Swedish Road Sweden then took even more country to country, the principles are saving 6,000 lives and generating crash- Administration defined a safe road progressive steps towards improving universal. The moral imperative for taking cost savings of £25-£35 billion.5 transport system as one where: the road features to harness the substantial this approach is compelling. So too is driver uses a seat belt, does not exceed synergies that occur when speed and the economic imperative; it is estimated the speed limits, and is sober; the forgiving infrastructure interact in a that a single road death costs as much vehicle has a five-star rating by the Euro compatible way.2 For example, by 2020 as 60-80 times a country’s gross domestic NCAP (European New Car Assessment three quarters of traffic flow with speeds product (GDP) per capita, yet the Programme); and the road has a four- over 80 km/h will be on roads with a economic savings from targeted safety star rating by EuroRAP. Research showed median barrier, where the risk of death upgrades typically exceed the cost of this combination to be a stunning or serious injury in a head-on crash is their construction and maintenance.4 It success: just 2-3% of road deaths significantly reduced.3 was found in the United Kingdom that by occurred when these conditions were investing less than 10% of existing road met, despite them coinciding with 30% of Although the specific approach to budgets, one-star and two-star roads traffic flow.1 creating a safe system might vary from could be eliminated in the next decade, ...as are engineering treatments to prevent unnecessary suffering.6 Bicycle paths like this one Pedestrian footpaths, like this one Energy-absorbing safety barriers, Well-designed roundabouts can This exclusive motorcycle lane in in China reduce the risk that in the Philippines, can reduce like this one in New Zealand, reduce casualty crash risk at Malaysia, the first of its kind in the bicyclists will be struck by fast- the likelihood that people will be significantly reduce the risk of intersections by more than 60% world, ensures that motorcyclists moving cars, trucks or buses, struck by vehicles while walking death or injury. Prior to being and have been shown to be do not need to mix with heavier by physically separating travel by as much as 40-60%. ‘Raised upgraded, this section of road highly cost-effective and often faster-moving traffic. lanes. Well-designed on-road table’ pedestrian crossings help rated two-stars and three-stars The construction of this lane bicycle lanes can reduce to reduce traffic speeds and under KiwiRAP. Now it rates four- resulted in a 39% reduction in bicyclist crashes by 25-40% lower the risk of injury stars. Fatal and serious injury motorcycle crashes crashes decreased by 63% iRAP inspections use specially equipped Countries do not need to inspect every ROAD SAFETY vehicles to collect digital, panoramic road in order to make a large difference; INSPECTIONS images or videos of roads.