The Strategic Road Network Star Rating Report June 2019 Introduction

The strategic road network star rating report June 2019 Introduction

At Highways England safety is our first targeted programme to improve the star rating imperative and we aim to have the safest roads of 1-star and 2-star roads. However, we are not in the world. Our road network is a vital national complacent, and the detail offered through the asset, supporting economic growth, regional latest version of the star rating model provides development, and employment opportunity across us with the opportunity to re-evaluate and further England. It connects families, communities and improve our roads making it safer for those businesses, enriching the lives of many citizens. travelling and working on the network.

We believe no one should be harmed when We are also committed to working closely with travelling or working on our road network. Our the International Road Assessment Programme work to modernise and maintain the network (iRAP), the Road Safety Foundation, Transport includes a range of safety measures: upgrading Research Laboratory (an iRAP centre of junctions, removing bottlenecks, developing excellence) and the Department for Transport higher standard A-roads, upgrading barriers and to inform the development of a comprehensive verges, and improving signage. star rating system which is better tailored to the strategic road network. This report outlines progress against our commitment to ensure that, by the end of 2020 The revised model will be used to re-baseline more than 90% of travel on our roads is at least the star rating of the network in 2020 and will 3-star rated, and that we improve the majority of continue to form part of our wider analysis of 1-star and 2-star rated to 3-star rated or more. safety improvements on our network to help us The latest data indicates that 95% of travel on make informed decisions about future investment. our roads will be 3-star rated roads or above, meaning we have exceeded the target set in our delivery plan. We are also delivering a Key Headlines 3. A shared responsibility exists amongst those who design, build and manage roads, those We have assessed the star rating of our who use roads and vehicles, and those who network to set a baseline in 2015 and to provide post-crash care to prevent crashes forecast results for 2020. These are based on resulting in serious injury or death. model version 1.0 on which our target was set. 4. All parts of the system must be strengthened to Our assessment indicates we will have met our multiply their effects; and to ensure that if one target that 90% of travel will be on 3-star rated part fails, road users are still protected. roads or more in both 2015 and 2020. We are delivering £11 billion of investment We have adopted a comprehensive approach to modernise and maintain the strategic based on safe systems which maximises road network, these investments will deliver opportunities to reduce the number of casualties. improvements in safety and improve the star Safe systems is a holistic approach to road rating of our network. This investment has safety, managed so that the elements of the road been informed by our star rating work and has transport system combine and interact to guide contributed to the development of targeted users to act safely and to prevent crashes – and investment programmes which tackle and when crashes occur, ensure that the impact forces improve 1-star and 2-star rated roads. do not exceed limits of human tolerance that, if We will resurvey the network in summer 2020 exceeded, result in serious injury or death. to assess how this investment has further improved the star rating of the strategic road On the road, this proactive approach moves the network. focus away from historical crash ‘cluster’ data. We continue to work collaboratively with Instead, by implementing road infrastructure partners to develop an improved star rating treatments we seek to reduce risk before people model which better reflects the strategic road are harmed. This is not to say that crash data network and provides us with further details should not be used: historical crash data can be to improve the safety of our roads in the next helpful in identifying and prioritising treatments roads period. on high risk routes, for example, because larger numbers of crashes over a longer length of road Safe systems and road safety management are less likely to come about by chance. This is called ‘risk mapping’ and presents colour-coded Many countries across the world are now maps which indicate the relative risk of different adopting the safe systems philosophy, based routes based on historical crash data. on the principles of inevitability that crashes will occur owing to humans being error-prone, and Risk mapping and star rating are different, but can the survivability of crashes based on known be used together to prioritise routes that require tolerances of the human body to crash forces. further investigation and investment. This requires the design of a holistic system that will protect the road user from death or serious iRAP star rating injury when crashes do occur. iRAP star rating is a tool that assesses the safety The safe systems approach includes the standard of a road against safe system principles. following principles: The star ratings are based on road inspection data and provide a simple and objective measure 1. People make mistakes that can lead to of the level of safety which is ‘built-in’ to the road. road crashes. The higher the star rating, the safer the road. The 2. The human body has a limited physical ability iRAP star rating model used today is the result to tolerate crash forces before harm occurs. of 20 years of development work, which began with EuroRAP (http://www.eurorap.org) in 1999. allowing a better appreciation of the safety The model is adjusted as new knowledge, new condition of the network; for example, with just ideas, and better understanding come to light. a click, a practitioner can see how much of the These changes keep the model relevant, as network has unprotected roadside obstacles, or we have seen in other sectors such as vehicle how much of the network has shoulder rumble safety with EuroNCAP for example. The iRAP strips (known as raised rib edge lines). The survey Global Technical Committee (GTC) oversees any data also assists with the planning, appraisal and changes. prioritisation of safety countermeasures. New designs can also be star rated, and star rating In the last ten years, the most significant change performance requirements, minimum 3-star, can has been to move from a 4-star model that only be built into contracts to challenge design teams. dealt with crash severity to a 5-star model that includes both crash severity and likelihood. The The star rating of a road depends on a variety star rating assessment of our network is based on of factors relating to the nature of the road. As a the original version of the model, version 1.0 (v1.0) result, motorways, with fewer merging junctions on which our 2015-2020 target was established. and more roadside barrier, normally have higher star ratings than non-motorways. Similarly, We have also reviewed and used the current version dual carriageways, with opposing flows of of the model, version 3.02 (v3.02), identifying a traffic being physically separated, tend to have range of areas where it can be enhanced. For higher star ratings than single carriageways. example, we have commissioned the development These differences in star ratings reflect the real of a shunt module which will feed into future differences in crash risk: on our network in 2017, model development and will have a global impact. motorways have an average of 12 fatal and serious Star rating not only provides a good and easily crashes per billion vehicle miles travelled, dual understood safety performance indicator, but also carriageway A-roads have 24 fatal and serious provides a rich data source for practitioners. crashes per billion vehicle miles, and single The data collected provides a road safety carriageways have 77 fatal and serious crashes inventory every 100m along the surveyed network, per billion vehicle miles.

Part of a global programme Sweden: 75% of travel on 3-star or better by 2020 and approaching 100% by 2025. England is far from the only place in the world to This analysis is being done by modelling have embraced iRAP star ratings. For example, rather than re-surveying, based on the the World Health Organisation has said that, by policy of introducing wire-rope barriers on 2030, all new roads should achieve technical all medians. standards for all road users that take road safety New Zealand: Roads of national into account, or meet a 3-star or better. The significance to be 4-star. This is based on a following countries / states are amongst those to locally adopted version of the model. have adopted targets based on star ratings: Australia (Tasmania & Queensland): Minimum 3-star related targets for The Netherlands: No 1-star or 2-star national highways. national roads by 2020. This target was set Malaysia: 3-star or better by 2020 for 75% around a decade ago. It should be noted of travel on high volume networks. that the network of national roads has only limited sections of single carriageway. Star rating our road network

To undertake iRAP surveys, our roads were videoed. The images were then used to record road features known to influence crash severity every 100m along the network. The star ratings are produced in the programme by assigning a roadside, central reservation and junction score to each 100-metre section of road. The scores are based on detailed inspections and decades of research into the relative risk associated with different road infrastructure features. This data, along with traffic flows and speeds, were combined with information about pedestrian and bicyclist road use, and calibrated using crash data. The data was then uploaded into the iRAP analysis tools (vida.irap.org).

Having assigned a score for each part of the road, they are then combined to form an overall score and star rating. A 4-star road is likely to have safety barriers at the side of the road and in the central reservation, and to have junctions with motorway-style slip roads. On this type of road, road users are significantly less likely to be killed EuroRAP risk mapping or seriously injured in the event of a crash than if they were travelling on a 1-star road. Low scoring Risk mapping presents colour-coded maps that sections have hazardous fixed objects close indicate the relative risk of different roads given to the road, frequent junctions and no head-on their traffic volumes. The risk map for our network, protection from oncoming traffic, such as a central covering the 2014-16 period, is presented overleaf, barrier. displaying the fatal and serious crash rate in coloured bands according to a standardised For more detail about the model, please refer EuroRAP scale. Most of the strategic road network to the technical specifications area of irap.org. is in EuroRAP’s ‘low risk’ or ‘low-medium risk’ bands. Our road safety performance There are, however, some ‘medium risk’ and In 2017, there were 1,542 crashes on our road ‘medium-high risk’ roads on this network; the network which resulted in someone being killed longest sections of these are around Hastings or seriously injured; 619 of these crashes were on and, according to the Star Rating results, these motorways, 605 were on A-road dual carriageways also contain 1-star or 2-star rated road sections. and 318 were on A-road single carriageways. The risk of a road alongside its star rating are Overall, these figures represented a reduction important factors in identifying those locations of around 9% in the number of such crashes where investment is required. For example, compared with the 2016 figures, and around 11% locations which are high risk and low star rating in the fatal and serious crash rate. should be prioritised. Risk rating of England’s strategic road network

This map shows the statistical risk of death or serious injury occurring on England’s strategic road network for 2014-2016. These risk ratings inform our investment plans, along with analysis of the star rating data. The risk is calculated by comparing the frequency of road crashes resulting in death and serious injury on every stretch of road with how much traffic each road is carrying. For example, the risk on a road carrying 10,000 vehicles a day with 20 crashes is ten times the risk on a road that has the same number of crashes but which carries 100,000 vehicles. For more information on the Road Safety Foundation go to www.roadsafetyfoundation.org. For more information on the statistical background to this research, visit the EuroRAP website at www.eurorap.org

Berwick- upon-Tweed Road Assessment Programme Risk Rating

Low risk (safest) roads

A 1 Low-medium risk roads

Alnwick Medium risk roads

A Medium-high risk roads

Morpeth High risk roads

A 1 Unrated roads

A Tynemouth 1 A69 9 Roads not on the SRN A69 Newcastle upon Tyne Hexham A1 Carlisle Consett Sunderland

M6 Durham Scale 0 20 40 miles A1(M) A 1 Hartlepool Workington Penrith Bishop Auckland 9 A66 0 20 40 60 km A66 A6 6 Barnard Middlesbrough Whitehaven Keswick 4 Castle Darlington A17 A6 6 Whitby Brough A66 Guisborough M6 Windermere A 1

A Kendal Scarborough Thirsk 90 A5 8 6 Kirkby Lonsdale 1 A6 4 Ripon A

4 Malton 6 Barrow-in- A Furness A1(M) Bridlington Lancaster Harrogate M6 Skipton York Fleetwood Market

Clitheroe 4 Weighton A6 A Blackpool 585 M65 LEEDS 4 A6 Selby M55 Burnley A Blackburn M1 1 M62 A63 A63 Kingston 6 Preston 5 BRADFORD M65 A M62 Goole upon Hull Southport M62 M18 Immingham A M66 1 Bolton M62 Huddersfield M1 Scunthorpe A180 M61 Bury M180 Grimsby M58 MANCHESTER Barnsley Doncaster A6 M6 A628 16 M57 M62 A1(M) LIVERPOOL M60 M60 M1 M18 M62 Louth Sheffield Gainsborough Warrington M56 M53 Worksop M56 M1 M6 Buxton A Macclesfield 1 Lincoln Chesterfield 6 Chester A4 Skegness Leek Mansfield Newark-on-Trent Crewe Stoke- 6 Ashbourne M1 4 A on-Trent A 1 Sleaford Cromer 8 3 Nottingham Boston A

A A50 A5 2

5 A52 A Derby 52 Grantham Oswestry M6 Uttoxeter A50 A5 6 0 4 Fakenham 3 A 8 A Spalding 4 5 King’s A Newport 8 2 Melton Stafford 3 Burton 4 A A Lynn Mowbray A Shrewsbury upon Trent M1 A 4 A47 A5 1 7 46 Wisbech A47 A458 Lichfield A Stamford 7 Great Telford M54 A4 A5 M42 A47 Norwich Yarmouth M6 Toll A A5 1 9 Leicester Wolverhampton 2 4 A Hinckley M69 A1 1 A1 M6 M1 Peterborough Bridgnorth A Lowestoft 5

BIRMINGHAM M42 M6 A1(M) Ely Diss M5 Kettering 11 Thetford Coventry Rugby A14 A 9 Kidderminster A Huntingdon 4 A 14 A 45 Bury St M40 A46 A 5 1 A14 Warwick A Newmarket Edmunds Redditch Northampton A1 4 St 1 4 Leominster A45 A Daventry Neots A Worcester 14 A5 1 A1 6 42 4 A Cambridge A 1 Stratford- Bedford A1 9 M40 M1 4 M11 A upon-Avon Ipswich 43 A Royston Sudbury A 5 A Evesham 14 6 2 Hereford 4 Banbury 1 A Milton Keynes A A Felixstowe 4 Buckingham A 9 M50 A5 M1 1 2 0 120 Harwich Stevenage A120 A Cheltenham Luton A 120 A40 Colchester Bicester A Braintree 2 1 Gloucester 5 St A A34 A M40 4 Albans Clacton- 1 Aylesbury Harlow Chelmsford 7 A1(M) on-Sea Cirencester 2 M5 Oxford A 1 40 M25 A

A M11 4 High Wycombe Watford 19 M40 M1 Basildon Swindon Romford M25 Southend-on-Sea A Maidenhead M49 3 M25 M4 4 M32 M4 Sheerness M4 Reading LONDON Dartford Margate M5 Bristol Chippenham M4 Bracknell Rochester

9 4 Ramsgate Newbury 2 A36 M25 A3 M2 A Bath M3 A2 A M20 3 M26 Canterbury 4 Woking Dorking M25 Maidstone Shepton Basingstoke 3 Sevenoaks Andover A M20 A2 Warminster A Mallet 303 Guildford M23 2 A 03 A Farnham 1 Ashford 36 A303 A3

M3 A Dover

A Crawley A Bridgwater 2 20 3 3 Royal Barnstaple 4 A 0 7 Folkestone M5 Street 0 A23 Tunbridge Bideford 3 A30 Salisbury Winchester Horsham Wells Taunton A3 6 59 3 3 A 2 0 A 3 A 2 A Petersfield 1 Yeovil 1 Blandford A3 Tiverton A27 Lewes 9 Forum Southampton M27 A3(M) 7 25 A2 A27 A A30 31 Hastings A Ringwood Fareham A2 7 M5 A35 30 31 Brighton A A A30 Portsmouth Bognor A35 A35 Poole Exeter Bridport Regis Launceston A30 Dorchester Bournemouth Isle of Wight A38 Exmouth Weymouth 0 3 A Tavistock Newquay Bodmin A Torquay 3 8 A38 Paignton 0 A3 St Austell Plymouth © Road Safety Foundation 2018. Digital Map Data © Collins Bartholomew Ltd 2018. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and Truro database right 2018. The Foundation is indebted to the Department for Transport (DfT) for allowing use of data in creating the map. This work

0 A3 has been financially supported by Ageas. Crash information is for 2014-2016. Traffic is calculated using the averages for 2014-2016 weighted by Penzance Falmouth section length. The roads shown are based on the 2015 network but the map excludes the centres of major cities. No results are presented for roads shown in grey - these are roads that are not statistically robust enough for analysis. Risk rates on road sections vary but it is expected that, on average, those off the A road network will have higher rates than sections on it. Generally, motorways and high quality dual carriageway roads function in a similar way and are safer than single carriageway or mixed carriageway roads. Prepared under licence from EuroRAP AISBL using Risk Bands 2020 protocols © Copyright EuroRAP AISBL.This map may not be reproduced without the consent of the Road Safety Foundation. Star rating performance Our assessment of star ratings in 2020 is based on the programme of major projects which will be We have assessed our network based on the completed by March 2020. These estimates are, iRAP model (version 1.0) on which the target was by their nature, conservative as they do not reflect established. This indicates that by 2020 95% of the impacts or include the result of designated travel on our network will be on roads rated 3-star funds targeting single carriageways, the safety or 4-star and that we will have exceeded the 90% and congestion fund, and other improvements target by 2020, using version 1.0 of the model. and enhancements which cannot be accurately represented and forecast within the model given 5% the nature of improvements. The full effect on the star rating performance resulting from these improvements will only be fully understood when the network is re-surveyed in 2020. These 60% 35% conservative estimates have been compared with the 2015 Star Ratings below.

100% 100%

90% 90%

Percentage travel 2020 by star rating 80% 80%

23% 70% 56.1% 59.6% 70%

60% 60%

50% 50%

70% 40% 40% Motorways Percentage of traffic of Percentage 30% 30% 5% 38.7% 35.3% 20% 20% 32% 10% 10%

5.0% 4.9% 0% 0% 63% 0.2% 0.2% 2015 results 2020 forecast 87.2 billion vehicle km 99.7 billion vehicle km Dual carriageway A-roads The percentage of traffic on our network 4% 2% travelling on roads that is forecast to be rated 3-star or above in 2020 is expected to increase only slightly between 2015 and 2020. However, 36% 58% projections suggest there will be a shift upwards in the star ratings above the 3-star threshold: the percentage of travel which is on 4-star roads is expected to go up from 56.1% Single carriageway A-roads to 59.6% and the percentage on 3-star roads is expected to fall from 38.7% to 35.3%. 1 star 2 star 3 star 4 star Highways England strategic road network vehicle occupant star ratings (version 1.0) 2020

Star ratings provide a simple and objective measure of the level of safety ‘built in’ to the road for the safety of vehicle occupants. Using iRAP v1.0, 4-star roads are the safest, and 1-star roads are the least safe. Star ratings are based on road inspection data collected through surveys and analysis. Further details at: www.irap.org

Berwick- upon-Tweed Star Ratings

A 1

Alnwick

Morpeth Roads not on the SRN

A 1

A Tynemouth 1 A69 9 Scale A69 Newcastle upon Tyne Hexham A1 0 20 40 miles Carlisle Consett Sunderland 0 20 40 60 km M6 Durham

A1(M) A 1 Hartlepool Workington Penrith Bishop Auckland 9 A66 A66 A6 6 Barnard Middlesbrough Whitehaven Keswick 4 Castle Darlington A17 A6 6 Whitby Brough A66 Guisborough M6 Windermere A 1

A Kendal Scarborough Thirsk 90 A5 8 6 Kirkby Lonsdale 1 A6 4 Ripon A

4 Malton 6 Barrow-in- A Furness A1(M) Bridlington Lancaster Harrogate M6 Skipton York Fleetwood Market

A A50 A5 2

M3 A Dover

0 A3 Penzance Falmouth

Prepared under licence from iRAP using protocol version v1 © Copyright iRAP and EuroRAP 2019. This map may not be reproduced without the written consent of Road Safety Foundation. Digital Map Data © Collins Bartholomew Ltd 2019. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2019. 100% 100%

90% 90%

80% 80%

70% 70% 71.8% 60% 76.8% 60%

50% 50%

40% 40% Star rating forecasts for 2020

Percentage of traffic of Percentage 30% 30% While all travel on our motorways is already on 20% 20% 28.2% 3-star or above sections, we expect there will be an 10% 23.2% 10% increase in the proportion of this travel which is on 0% 0% 4-star sections. We predict a similar upward shift in 2015 results 2020 forecast 87.2 billion vehicle km 99.7 billion vehicle km the star ratings of travel on our dual carriageways, Motorways including a small reduction in the modest amount of travel on 2-star sections. The percentage of travel 100% 100% on single carriageways which are rated 3-star or 90% 90% 30.8% 32.1% above is expected to fall slightly between 2015 and 80% 80% 2020 due to the increased risk of head-on crashes 70% 70% resulting from increased projected travel levels. 60% 60% However, it is on these roads that we will see the

50% 50% effect of wider improvements which have not been captured in our current forecast. Travel on single 40% 40% 63.9% 62.7% carriageways accounts for only a small proportion

Percentage of traffic of Percentage 30% 30% of travel on our network. Overall, there is expected 20% 20% to be a shift upwards in the star rating on the 10% 10% strategic road network because of planned 5.2% 5.1% 0% 0.1% 0.1% 0% infrastructure investments. 2015 results 2020 forecast 37.3 billion vehicle km 43.7 billion vehicle km Our approach – applying star rating Dual Carriageways Targeted safety programmes - addressing 100% 100% 4.2% 4.1% 1 and 2 star roads 90% 90%

80% 36.2% 35.8% 80% Our designated funds safety programme is 70% 70% delivering targeted route treatments for single 60% 60% carriageway corridors where the star ratings are

50% 50% generally lower, for example on the A49, A47 and A21 corridors. We are investing £77m by the end 40% 40% of this roads period (end of March 2020) on these

Percentage of traffic of Percentage 30% 57.4% 58.1% 30% corridors delivering a range of improvements. These 20% 20% include enhanced lining and signing, creating safer 10% 10% verges through removal of obstacles, improving 0% 2.2% 2.0% 0% visibility through vegetation clearance, improved 2015 results 2020 forecast vulnerable road user facilities, localised widening, 8.2 billion vehicle km 9.2 billion vehicle km overtaking bans and speed limit reviews. To date we Single Carriageways have invested approximately £44m delivering over

1 star 2 star 3 star 4 star 90 schemes on our single carriageways. This includes improvements on the A64 between A64 improvements York and Scarbourgh, where we are investing over £3m in 2019/20 introducing village ‘gateways’, lower speed limits as appropriate, improved pedestrian crossing routes, improved bus stop facilities, dedicated right turns and additional footways, applied consistently throughout the route. This work will alleviate inconsistencies on the A64 in relation to speed limit application, signage and enforcement, while balancing the needs of all road users.

These improvements are also supported by wider investments as outlined in our safety and congestion programme, which will invest £220m by the end of this roads period, and deliver significant safety improvements across the network; for example, improved safer junction arrangements on A64 at Barton Hill (see pictures to the right).

These programmes have been informed by our assessment of the networks star rating. We have also trained over 80 of our engineers to use the iRAP data to help them to develop proactive road safety engineering solutions which will improve safety and the star rating of our network.

Our work on star rating has also been used to inform and develop new infrastructure solutions to prevent collisions on the single carriageways. For example, the introduction of hard shoulder rumble strips (raised rib edge lines) as part of new planned investments. It is also informing the development of our new design standards to ensure that our roads will meet, if not exceed, the 3-star requirement.

Future proofing the iRAP model

Working closely with the Road Safety Foundation and iRAP we have invested in the development of the model, for example incorporating shunts and improving the coding of junctions. This makes it more sensitive to the specific needs of the strategic road network while also benefiting other iRAP users around the world. It is envisaged that these developments will form the basis of a new model to assess the network when it is re-surveyed in 2020. We are also working collaboratively with local authorities to apply iRAP in a targeted manner on their networks, and to support the development of plans for the major roads network.

Developing new performance metrics

We are committed to implementing a safe system across our network. We are working towards our vision that no-one should be harmed whilst working or travelling on our network and that everyone gets home safe and well. Taking a proactive approach to road risk management is an integral part of our strategy. We are in the process of identifying the most appropriate interim casualty targets, such as the reduction in the number of fatal and serious injured casualties by 2030. We are also developing a range of performance indicators to support the achievement of this target, which are likely to include a measure of road design safety using the most up-to-date (3.02) version of the iRAP model.

For more information please email the Strategic Safety Team at: [email protected] If you need help accessing this or any other Highways England information, please call 0300 123 5000 and we will help you.

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