A Basic Frame Work For Formulation Of Road Safety Improvement Program

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Published On: February 16, 2016

International Journal of Informative & Futuristic Research ISSN: 2347-1697

Volume 3 Issue 6 February 2016 Reviewed Paper

Abstract

Road accidents have increased and reached to an alarming point in past few years in most of the developing countries including India. The continued steep increase in the number of road accidents indicates that these losses are undoubtedly inhibiting the economic and social development of the countries and adding to the poverty and hardships of the poor. Thus, there is an urgent need to take preventive measures to reduce accidents and to develop road safety improvement program. This study proposes a basic frame work for formulation of road safety improvement program. The framework consist of four major stages i.e Stage I ranking of safety hazardous location, stage II evaluation of safety hazardous condition at different Section in road network, Stage III prioritization of remedial safety measures and Stage IV selection of safety measures (formulation of road safety improvement program) . This study also presents the basic concepts to develop a methodology for formulation of road safety improvement program. Thus, this study will be useful for researcher and policy makers to develop a methodology for formulation of road safety improvement program to select remedial safety measures to improve safety on hazardous location in the road

network.

A Basic Frame Work For Formulation Of

Road Safety Improvement Program Paper ID IJIFR/ V3/ E6/ 011 Page No. 1885-1893 Subject Area Civil Engineering

Keywords Framework, Ranking, Prioritization, Selection

1st Rakesh Mehar

Ph.D. Scholar

Department of Civil Engineering

Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology,

Bhopal (M.P), India

2nd P.K Agarwal

Professor

Department of Civil Engineering

Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology,

Bhopal (M.P), India

http://www.ijifr.com/

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ISSN: 2347-1697

International Journal of Informative & Futuristic Research (IJIFR)

Volume - 3, Issue -6, February 2016

Continuous 30th Edition, Page No.:1885-1893

Rakesh Mehar, P.K Agarwal :: A Basic Frame Work For Formulation Of Road Safety Improvement Program

1. INTRODUCTION

According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2014), road traffic injuries

are a leading cause of death, killing nearly1.3 million people annually. By 2030, this

figure is predicted to rise and become the fifth leading cause of death in the world. Road

accidents have increased and reached to an alarming point in past few years in

developing countries like India. Eighty-eight countries have reduced the number of

deaths on their roads – but the total number of road traffic deaths remains unacceptably

high at 1.24 million per year. However, less than 35% of low- and middle-income

countries have policies in place to protect these road users. Every year around 1.24

million people lost their life every year on the world’s roads, and another 20 to 50 million people injured as a result of road traffic crashes (WHO, 2014). The number of

road accidents, road accident fatalities and persons injured in road accidents in India

during 2002 and 2012 is shown in Table 1. (MORT&H, 2013).

Table 1: Number of Road Accidents and Number of Persons Killed: 2002-2012

Year Number of Accidents Number of Persons

Total Fatal Killed Injured

2002 4,07,497 73,650 84,674 408,711

2004 4,29,910 79,357 92,618 464,521

2006 4,60,920 93,917 105,749 496,481

2008 4,84,704 93,917 119,860 523,193

2010 4,99,628 1,19,558 134,513 527,512

2012 4,90,383 1,23,093 1,38,258 5,09,667

It is required to improve the road safety condition by reducing the number of accident on

hazardous locations. A road safety improvement program (RSIP) is identification of a

set of remedial safety measures, to be implemented on identifies sections in the road

network to reduce the injuries, fatalities, deaths and loss of public properties because of

road accidents on the basis resources available. It is required that various corporate

houses can collaborate this road safety improvement program under public private

partnership to improve road safety in India. The selection of safety remedial measures

should be made considering the effectiveness of each remedial measure considered in

reducing the rate for the similar type of accident being considered and safety hazardous

condition of that location in a road network (Mehar, 2013). Thus, there is an urgent need

to develop a methodology to formulate road safety improvement program. However,

literature does not suggest any comprehensive and simple methodology to select

remedial safety measures to improve hazardous condition of different section in the road

network. A critical review of the literature (Agarwal, 2015, Andrew, 2004, Meeghat,

2011 and Mohammed, 2012) indicated that most of the methodologies for improving

road safety require accident data.

The preparation of such comprehensive accident data is, however, expensive and time

consuming; specially, when the data is prepared for a road network. Hence, hardly any

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meaning full analysis is done to find out the accident hazardous location, vulnerable

road users, road users involved in accidents, causes of accident etc. which are so

essential to select remedial measures to improve safety of road network. Thus, there is

an urgent need to develop a methodology to improve safety of road network. Further it is

required that such methodology can evaluate safety hazardous condition at different

section in road network in a simple manner and also able to rank these safety hazardous

locations considering the safety hazardousness at that location. It is also required that

the methodology should select the remedial safety measure on the basis of its

effectiveness in improving safety hazardous condition of the sections in the road

network.

Looking to the importance of the issue, Hon'ble Supreme Court of India

has constituted a Committee on Road Safety vide their Order dated 22-04-2014 in

W.P.No. 295 of 2012. The Committee has been interacting with different Ministries of

Government of India and State Governments. Four Working Groups were set up by the

Government of India to submit recommendations and suggestions on short term and

long term measures to curb road accidents in the country. These four Working Groups

were required to go into four ‘Es’ of road safety, namely, Engineering, Enforcement, Education and Emergency Care. Hence the Engineering is first and most important

aspect of Road Safety. Thus, this study presents a basic framework for formulation of

Road Safety Improvement Program in India, particularly the Engineering aspect of Road

Safety. The study proposes a framework to rank safety hazardous locations, evaluation

of safety hazardous condition and frame work for prioritization of remedial safety

measures.

This paper consists of three sections. The first section presents the introduction of the

study and critical review of relevant literature and identifies the important deficiencies in

present state of the art for formulation of a framework for road safety improvement

program. Third second section presents the basic framework and sub stages of the

proposed framework for formulation of road safety improvement program in India. The

last section presents the important conclusions made from this study.

2. BASIC FRAMEWORK FOR FORMULATION OF ROAD SAFETY

IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM

A basic framework for formulation of road safety improvement program is

developed and presented in Figure 1. Based on this framework, the major stages

identified are i.e. Stage I- Ranking of safety hazardous locations, Stage II- Evaluation of

Safety Hazardous Condition at different Section in road network, stage III prioritization

of remedial safety measures and stage IV formulation of road safety improvement

program.

Some basic concepts and details of various sub stages for each of the stages of basic

framework for formulation of road safety improvement program is presented in the

following sections:

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Figure :. A Basic Framework for Formulation of Road Safety Improvement Program

2.1 Stage-I Ranking of Safety Hazardous Locations

The first stage in the frame work for development of road safety improvement

program is the ranking of safety hazardous location. .The main purpose of this stage is

to rank the safety hazardous location because it is generally not possible to implement

all remedial measures identified due to limited budget available for road safety

improvement. Hence, it is required to rank the hazardous locations so that depending on

the available budget, the hazardous locations can be treated. Further, it is proposed to

develop two methodology for ranking of safety hazardous location i.e. stage I(ARA)

when accident record is available (ARA) and stage II(ARN) when accident record is not

available. Details are as follows.

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2.1.1 Stage I (ARA): Ranking of Safety Hazardous Locations (Accident record

available)

This stage presents the frame work of ranking of safety hazardous location when

accident record is available. Details of sub stages is presented in Figure.2

Figure 2: Details of Sub stages of stage I (ARA) (Ranking of Safety Hazardous Locations)

2.1.2 Stage I (ARN): Ranking of Safety Hazardous Locations (Accident record is

not available)

The stage I (ARN) present the sub stages frame work of ranking of safety

hazardous location if accident record is not available. The safety hazardous locations can

be a specific location or a spot (one or more distinctive, adverse geometric feature such

as horizontal or vertical curve, bridge, underpass, intersection) or a road section ( i.e. an

identified length of road possessing uniform geometric, traffic and culture, and

homogeneous as to cross section, surface type, access control, and urban rural

characteristics). Therefore, a comprehensive methodology is developed which can rank

various hazardous location considering safety hazardous conditions at that locations.

Details of sub stages is presents in Figure.3

Figure 3: Details Sub Stage of Stage I (ARN) ( Ranking of Safety Hazardous Locations)

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2.2 Stage II: Evaluation of Safety Hazardous Condition at Different Section in

Road Network The second stage of basic frame work for formulation of road safety improvement

program is evaluation of safety hazardous condition at different section in road network.

The purpose of, this stage is to identify the basic factors which affect the safety on road

network. Further, the methodology is developed to evaluate the safety hazardous

condition at different section in road network. Factors affecting safety like carriageway

surface, shoulder, side slope, obstacle, drainage road width, sight distance, median,

lighting, traffic sign , road marking and over speed, Further, various indices to evaluate

the condition of these factors at different section are also developed. The rationale

behind formulation of indices is that the distress condition of the safety hazardous factor

is divided by the total condition of that particular factor on the particular section. These

indices are developed in such a way that safety hazardous condition of different section

of the road network can be compare. Details of sub stages is presents in Figure.4

Figure 4: Details Sub Stage of Stage II (Evaluation of Safety Hazardous Condition)

2.3 Stage III: Prioritization of Remedial Safety Measures

After the evaluation of safety hazardous locations, the next stage for is the prioritization

of remedial safety measures to be implemented on the different safety hazardous

locations. The objective of this stage is to identify appropriate and effective remedial

measure to alleviate the identified safety deficiencies on identified safety hazardous

locations in the road network. Safety remedial measures should be prioritize

considering that how much it is more important to improve safety at different sections in

the road network. The Figure.5 presents the sub stages of prioritization of remedial

safety measure.

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Figure 5. Details of the Sub Stage of Stage III (Prioritization of Remedial Safety Measures)

2.4 Stage IV Formulation of Road Safety Improvement Program

The last stage of the frame work for is the formulation of road safety improvement

program. The purpose of this stage is to evaluate the effectiveness of the selected the

remedial safety measure on the identified hazardous location on considering the

effectiveness of road safety improvement program and availability of resource. It is

required to develop performance measures to evaluate the effectiveness of road safety

improvement program. Performance measures should be able to identify the

effectiveness of utilizing resources. Performance measures must be sensitive enough to

asses change in safety performance after road safety improvement program

implemented. Agency should also capable of collecting or accessing timely and

accurate data relevant to the performance measures.Figure.6 presents the sub stages of

stage IV i.e. formulation of road safety improvement program.

Figure 6: Details of Sub Stages of Stage IV (Formulation of Road Safety Improvement Program)

The outcome of these stages presents the basic framework for formulation of Road

Safety Improvement Program. Analysis and result using the proposed framework is

presented elsewhere (Agarwal, 2015; Agarwal, 2015). Further, various corporate houses

can collaborate this road safety improvement program under public private partnership

to improve road safety in India. This framework will be useful for improving safety on

Indian roads.

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4. CONCLUSIONS

Study presents basic frame work for formulation of a road safety improvement program

in India. The following conclusions may be drawn based on the present study:

There is an urgent need to develop a methodology to formulate road safety

improvement program. Further it is required that such methodology can evaluate

safety hazardous condition at different section in road network in a simple

manner and also able to rank these safety hazardous locations considering the

safety hazardousness at that location. It is also required that the methodology

should select the remedial safety measure on the basis of its effectiveness in

improving safety hazardous condition of the sections in the road network.

However, literature does not suggest any comprehensive and simple

methodology to select remedial safety measures to improve hazardous condition

of different section in the road network

This study proposes a basic frame work for formulation of Road Safety

Improvement program. The framework consist of four major stages i.e Stage I

ranking of safety hazardous location, stage II evaluation of safety hazardous

condition at different Section in road network, Stage III prioritization of remedial

safety measures, Stage-IV formulation of road safety improvement program .

This study also presents the details of sub stages of various stages identified and

some basic concepts so that road safety improvement program can be

formulated.

It is expected that this basic framework will be useful for the formulation of Road

Safety Improvement Program and thus pave the way for improving safety on Indian

roads.

5. REFERENCES [1.] Andrew, P. & Kanodia, M. (2004). Effective and fair identification of hazardous

locations. 83rd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, January 11-15,

Washington D.C

[2.] Agarwal P.K., Garg S. and Bhawsar U.(2013).A Rational Approach for development of

Maintenance Program for Improving Road Safety Conditions. International Journal of

Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering, ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008,

Volume 3.

[3.] Agarwal P.K., Mehar R., and Garg S ., “An Approach for ranking Accident Black Spots

in A Road Network”. International Journal of Frontier in Technology, ISSN No:2350-

0344,. Vol. 1,Issue no.2,January 2015.

[4.] Moonjely, T., and Padmakumar, R. Effect of road characteristics on road safety: study

in Trivandrum rural highways. International Conference on Transportation Planning &

Implementation Methodologies for Developing Countries. 2014, Mumbai (India).

[5.] Meeghat, H., Mahmood., M. & Sobhani A. (2011). Ranking of hazardous road locations

in two-lane two-way rural roads with no accident record. Australasian Transport

Research Forum, 28:30, Adelaide.

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[6.] Mehar, R., Agarwal,P.K, A systematic approach for formulation of a road safety

improvement program in india. Procedia Social and Behavioural Science, vol. 104,

2013, pp.1038-1047

[7.] Mohammed, T. O., & Thanaa, M. (2012).Traffic Accidents at Hazardous Locations of

Urban Roads Jordan Journal of Civil Engineering, Vol. 6, No. 4. 436:447.

[8.] MORT&H. (2013). Road Accidents in India, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways,

Government of India, Available from,

http://morth.nic.in/writereaddata/mainlinkFile/File1058.pdf

[9.] Narasimha, V. L., Sundararajan, T., and Raja, M. Subjective rating technique-a tool for

prioritizing roads in a network for periodic maintenance, Highway Research Bulletin

(69), The Indian Roads Congress, New Delhi, 2003, pp. 1–14.

[10.] World Bank and the World Health Organization, (2014).World report on road traffic

injury prevention, www.who.int/gho/publications/world_health_statistics/2014/en.

[11.] Agarwal, P.K., Mehar, R., Ahirwar, K., 2015. “A Rational Methodology to Improve

Safety on Road Network in Developing Countries,” Accepted in 3rd Conference of the

Transportation Research Group of India (3rd CTRG) December,2015

http://morth.nic.in/writereaddata/mainlinkFile/File1058.pdf

http://www.who.int/gho/publications/world_health_statistics/2014/en