DEVELOPMENT OF ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE SAFETY FACILITY STANDARDS FOR THE ASIAN HIGHWAY NETWORK Bangkok APRIL 2017 The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations Secretariat. The opinions, figures and estimates set forth in this publication are the responsibility of the authors, and should not necessarily be considered as reflecting the views or carrying the endorsement of the United Nations. The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Mention of firm names and commercial products does not imply the endorsement of the United Nations. This publication is issued without formal editing. 2 Table of Contents Executive Summary ...................................................................................................... 5 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 7 2. Status of Road Safety in the Asian Highway member countries .......................................... 10 3. Current design standards for the Asian Highway Network ................................................. 13 3.1 Asian Highway Classification and Design Standards .................................................. 13 3.2 Asian Highway Database ......................................................................................... 13 4. Study Approach and Structure .......................................................................................... 18 Participating Countries................................................................................................. 20 5. Star Ratings for Road Safety .............................................................................................. 21 5.1 Star Rating System .................................................................................................. 21 5.2 Key Road Attributes Studied by iRAP Analysis .......................................................... 22 5.3 Star Ratings of Road Infrastructure Safety Facilities ................................................. 24 5.4 Safer Roads Investment Plans: an Example from Indonesia ...................................... 27 6. Design Standards on Road Infrastructure .......................................................................... 28 6.1 Citations by road user ............................................................................................. 29 6.2 Citations by road attribute ...................................................................................... 29 6.3 Discussion on quantitative analysis ......................................................................... 32 6.4 The Safe System Approach ...................................................................................... 33 6.5 Additional Design Standards Reviewed from International Sources .......................... 35 7. Selected Road Infrastructure Safety Facilities for the Asian Highway .................................. 37 7.1 Pre-selection of Road Facilities ................................................................................ 37 7.2 Survey in the Asian Highway Member Countries ...................................................... 44 7.3 Perceived effectiveness of road infrastructure safety facilities (RIFs) ........................ 50 7.4 Discussions and Conclusions on the Survey .............................................................. 56 8. Star Rating Testing for the Asian Highway Design Standards .............................................. 58 8.1 iRAP Star Ratings .................................................................................................... 58 8.2 Analysis approach for the Star Rating ...................................................................... 59 8.3 Existing Asian Highway Network Design Standards and Star Ratings ......................... 60 8.4 Scenarios considered .............................................................................................. 61 8.5 Results of the Star Rating Testing ............................................................................ 68 3 8.6 Results by road user type ........................................................................................ 73 8.7 Discussion and Conclusion on the Star Rating Testing ............................................... 80 9. Considerations and Scope of the Design Standards ............................................................ 82 9.1 Considerations for the development of the design standards ................................... 82 9.2 Scope of the Design Standards ................................................................................ 82 9.3 Structure of the Design Standards ........................................................................... 83 9.4 Evaluation of the Selected Road Infrastructure Safety facilities ................................ 85 9.5 Other Road Infrastructure Safety Facilities ............................................................. 101 10. Conclusions and Recommendation .................................................................................. 104 Appendix A: Road Design Standards and Guides Cited (Literature Review) ................ 107 Appendix B: Inputs from the National Experts of the Participating Countries ........... 124 Appendix C: Standards/Guidelines/Manuals Cited in the Survey Replies ................. 130 4 Executive Summary Road safety is a sustainable development issue that needs greater attention as road traffic fatalities and injuries place a significant burden on national economies. The Asia-Pacific region accounted for 58% of the global road traffic deaths in 2013. Between 2010 and 2013, while 16 Asian Highway member countries were successful in reducing road fatalities, others failed to do so. The seventh Goal of the “updated Regional Road Safety Goals and Targets for Asia and the Pacific, 2016-2020” emphasizes on developing the Asian Highway network as a model of road safety. Studies show a strong correlation between infrastructure design and road safety and road engineering and design can influence the severity of the crashes. In this regard, the Annex II to the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Asian Highway Network which entered in to force on 4 July 2005 includes design standards for the Asian Highway Network. However, the design standard does not provide adequate guidance on the road infrastructure safety facilities. As one of the initiatives to address the road safety problem on the Asian Highway Network, the ESCAP secretariat, in association with the Korea Expressway Corporation conducted a study on the development of technical standards on road infrastructure safety facilities for the Asian Highway Network. A detailed literature review on existing standards for infrastructure element design and specification to address road safety in the Asian Highway member countries and other international sources was conducted. A list of 36 road infrastructure safety facilities was prepared. Detailed information on road infrastructure safety practices was collected from five participating countries. A survey was conducted to assess the prevalence, types and design standards of road safety facilities in the Asian Highway member countries in end 2015. The international road assessment programme (iRAP) methodology was used to illustrate how relative risk levels would change if road infrastructure safety facilities were added to the existing Asian Highway standard.The results concluded that there is potential to promote the use of a broader range of road infrastructure safety facilities for the Asian Highway Network. The study suggested that the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Asian Highway Network provides an adequate institutional platform for providing guidance to member countries in a number of areas and could further be used for promoting a coordinated approach to the development and adoption of standards of road infrastructure safety facilities. The study emphasizes on providing guidance to the Asian Highway member countries through a dedicated new annex to the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Asian Highway Network. In this regard, proposed mandatory minimum design standards of road infrastructure safety facilities for the Asian Highway Network which could serve as 5 a draft Annex IV to the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Asian Highway Network; and comprehensive design guidelines of road infrastructure safety facilities which could serve as a recommended practice for the Asian Highway Network have been developed. The study recommended the Asian Highway member countries to consider adopting and practicing technical design standards of road infrastructure safety facilities towards improving road safety on the Asian Highway Network. 6 1. Introduction The concept of an Asian Highway network was revived in 1992 under the framework of the Asian Land Transport Infrastructure Development (ALTID) project adopted at the 48th Commission session, following which a number of studies were implemented over the period 1993-2001 to bring the Asian Highway network to over 140,000 kilometres. Subsequently, the network was formalized through an Intergovernmental