Chapter 3 The Road Safety Audit process

Transcription

1 Practical Road Safety Auditin ISBN ICE Publishin: All rihts reserved Chapter 3 The Road Safety Audit process How to carry out a Road Safety Audit A Road Safety Audit tries to identify potential road safety problems and to suest ways in which these identified problems can be minimised. The UK Hihways Aency (HA) standard HD 19/14 suests that issues to be investiated include collisions between vehicles, collisions between vehicles and vulnerable road users, and situations in which pedestrians could trip or fall on the hihway (HA, 2014). Road Safety Audits in the UK are carried out at specific staes in the desin, construction and monitorin phases of a project: Stae 1: Stae 2: (Stae 1/2: Stae 3: Stae 4: completion of preliminary desin completion of detailed desin completion of detailed desin on minor schemes) completion of construction monitorin. There is an additional type of Road Safety Audit known as an interim audit that can be carried out durin desin or construction. Some schemes (such as those related to major developments) are sometimes subject to a Feasibility Stae Road Safety Audit prior to the Stae 1 audit, althouh this is not specifically required on a motorway or trunk road project. Road Safety Audits are not carried out on existin roads in the UK, althouh they are routinely carried out in other countries (see Chapters 8 and 10). In the UK, this type of work is carried out routinely by local hihway authorities as route safety studies usin historic collision data to identify problem routes and to establish common types of collisions. In addition, since 2002, the Road Safety Foundation has produced an annual report mappin the risks on motorways and major A roads in the UK as part of the EuroRAP project (Road Safety Foundation, 2013). The report compares risks on roads in different areas of the UK, and shows how risks on roads have chaned over time. The EU Directive on Road Safety Infrastructure Safety Manaement (EU, 2008) already referred to in Chapter 1 not only makes Road Safety Audit a requirement on major roads in Europe but it also requires road safety inspections of existin roads. Article 6 of the 1

2 Practical Road Safety Auditin Directive states that Member States shall ensure that safety inspections are undertaken in respect of the roads in operation in order to identify the road safety related features and prevent accidents, and oes on to say that such inspections shall be sufficiently frequent to safeuard adequate safety levels for the road infrastructure in question. HD 19/14 provides advice and uidance on how to undertake Road Safety Audits on trunk roads (includin motorways). On local road schemes there is more flexibility in the way Road Safety Audits are undertaken, and more advice can be found in the Institution of Hihways and Transportation (IHT) Road Safety Audit uidelines (IHT, 2008). Some local authorities have their own procedures for carryin out Road Safety Audits in their own areas. However, there are six fundamental principles that should always be applied when carryin out Road Safety Audits, reardless of the jurisdiction. 1. The Road Safety Audit should be carried out independently from the desin team It is important that a Road Safety Audit is carried out independently from the desin team. This will ensure that the Road Safety Audit Team is not influenced by familiarity with the project. The definition of independence can vary between clients. Some clients will accept an audit team from the same oranisation as the desin team while others insist on complete independence. 2. The Road Safety Audit should be carried out by a team consistin of at least two suitably qualified people Experience has shown that two people carryin out a Road Safety Audit will identify more potential safety issues than a sinle Road Safety Auditor. The number of items to be checked, particularly on lare hihway schemes, can be onerous. A hih number of detailed scheme plans may have to be examined. In addition, it is helpful to be able to discuss possible recommendations with another Road Safety Auditor. Usin a Road Safety Audit Team helps to avoid the situation in which a sinle Road Safety Auditor can sometimes overemphasise a particular issue because of that individual s experience or even prejudice. 3. There should be substantial road safety enineerin experience within the Road Safety Audit Team Without road safety enineerin experience and an understandin of safety principles, a Road Safety Audit can become simply a desin check. Road safety experience is essential in enablin Road Safety Auditors to identify road safety problems and in assistin to make appropriate recommendations. Chapters 5 and 6 provide extensive information on the subject. In addition to experience, members of a Road Safety Audit Team should have received adequate trainin from an approved trainin provider. 2

3 The Road Safety Audit process Fiure 3.1 Deleates on a Road Safety Audit trainin course HD 19/14 has specific requirements for the trainin and experience requirements of Road Safety Auditors. Three cateories of auditors are specified Observer, Team Member and Team Leader. The requirements for each cateory are as follows. Observer: a minimum of 1 year s experience in collision investiation or road safety enineerin at least 10 days of formal collision investiation or road safety enineerin trainin. Team Member: a minimum of 2 years experience in collision investiation or road safety enineerin completion of at least five Road Safety Audits in the past 2 years at least 10 days of formal collision investiation or road safety enineerin trainin a minimum of 2 days continuin professional development (CPD) in the field of Road Safety Audit, collision investiation or road safety enineerin experience in the past 12 months. Team Leader: a minimum of 4 years experience in collision investiation or road safety enineerin 3

4 Practical Road Safety Auditin Fiure 3.2 Deleates at a TMS Consultancy trainin course workshop completion of at least five Road Safety Audits in the past year sufficient trainin to become a Team Member a minimum of 2 days CPD in the field of Road Safety Audit, collision investiation or road safety enineerin in the past 12 months. These trainin and experience requirements were introduced in the previous Road Safety Audit standard (HD 19/03). The requirements were welcomed by most experienced Road Safety Auditors, but caused some problems in the wider Road Safety Audit community. Althouh the requirements were for uidance only on non-trunk road schemes, clients often insist on the Road Safety Auditors complyin to the letter. Some smaller local authorities initially found themselves without sufficient numbers of qualified auditors, but most have now achieved compliance. HD 19/14 recommends that, in addition to the road safety experience detailed above, Road Safety Auditors should have an understandin of how best-practice hihway desin can benefit road safety. To do this, Road Safety Auditors need to have a workin knowlede of desin standards and best practice. In order to ensure that Road Safety Auditors comply with the experience and trainin outlined above, HD 19/14 requires at least one member of the Road Safety Audit Team to have a Certificate of Competency (see Chapter 4). 4

5 The Road Safety Audit process There are very few HA standards where such specific requirements are included, and this situation could be said to have created anomalies. For example, there are no particular trainin and experience requirements for a desiner of a traffic sinal junction, but the Road Safety Auditors checkin the scheme may need to comply with HD 19/14. In addition to the specific qualifications and experience, there are other qualities required to be a ood Road Safety Auditor. These include: the ability to understand complex schemes the ability to visualise the completed scheme from a series of plans the ability to imaine schemes from the point of view of all types of road users attention to detail a ood memory for standards, advice and research reports the ability to write clear, concise reports. 4. A site visit should be carried out as part of each stae the Road Safety Audit It is very important that a comprehensive site visit is carried out not only to the scheme itself but also to the surroundin area. Particular attention needs to be iven to the tie-ins between the proposed scheme and the existin road network. HD 19/14 specifies that the whole audit team should visit the site toether at all Road Safety Audit staes. Some local authorities relax these requirements by havin one auditor visitin the site on smaller schemes. Health and safety requirements need to be checked where only one person carries out the site visit. 5. The Road Safety Audit should be systematic and objective A number of different plans and schedules often need to be reviewed for a sinle hihway scheme. It is imperative that all plans and other information (e.. traffic flows, collision details, scheme brief, departures from the standard) are thorouhly examined to check for possible safety problems. Items on different plans must be checked for consistency. At later staes durin the Road Safety Audit process, the Road Safety Auditor should consult reports written at previous staes. These reports may not have been written by the same Road Safety Audit Team. Clients requirin Road Safety Audits are responsible for producin a Road Safety Audit Brief. Requests for Road Safety Audits sometimes come from clients who are unfamiliar with the process. TMS Consultancy routinely sends out a checklist (shown below) indicatin what is required to complete a Road Safety Audit. 5

6 Practical Road Safety Auditin Stae 1 (preliminary desin) (Please provide hard copies of any drawins or plans for the scheme) A Audit brief (reasons for project, backround information, any departures from the Road Safety Audit standard) A Location plan of site A General arranement drawin A All other scheme drawins available A A3 or A4 drawin of scheme (to be marked up by the audit team to show locations of problems identified, and attached to audit report) A 3 year collision data, if available A Traffic flow data, if available Stae 2 (detailed desin) or stae 1/2 combined (Please provide hard copies of any drawins or plans for the scheme) A Audit brief (reasons for project, backround information, any departures from the Road Safety Audit standard) A Copy of stae 1 audit (if not carried out by TMS Consultancy) includin desiners responses and exception reports if appropriate A Location plan of site (if Stae 1 not carried out by TMS Consultancy) A Detailed drawins (full set of contract drawins if available), showin: Sins A Road markins A Lihtin A Drainae A Pavements A Kerbin (includin any tactile pavin) A Construction details A Landscapin A Other information A A3 or A4 drawin of scheme (to be marked up by the audit team to show locations of problems identified, and attached to the audit report) A 3 year collision data (if available) A Traffic flow data (if available) Stae 3 (post-construction) A Audit brief (reasons for project, backround information, any departures from the Road Safety Audit standard) A Copies of Stae 2 audit (if not carried out by TMS Consultancy) includin desiners responses and exception reports if appropriate A Location plan of site and eneral arranement drawin (if Stae 2 not carried out by TMS Consultancy) A Contact details of people who should attend audit, normally: A Police A Hihway authority representative A Any other interested parties 6

7 The Road Safety Audit process HD 19/14 describes the requirements for a Road Safety Audit Brief on trunk road and motorway schemes, and a typical brief is included in an appendix. It should be noted that the brief should identify whether the site should be visited at a particular time of day (peak hours, or school start or finish times). If the Road Safety Audit Team considers that more information is required, the Team Leader can request such information. 6. The Road Safety Audit should be looked at from all road users perspectives In addition to the interaction between desin elements, one of the other important checks carried out involves assessin the safety of the scheme from the perspective of different potential road users. Durin the desin staes the Road Safety Auditor has to imaine what it would be like to walk, cycle and drive the scheme. Walk should include elderly people, children, wheelchair users and those with a visual impairment. Cycle should include pedal cyclists and motorcyclists. Drive should include cars, vans, trucks and buses. For some schemes, the equestrian viewpoint should be considered. The Road Safety Auditor tries to develop scenarios when readin the scheme plans: for example, Would a driver be able to see a pedestrian waitin to cross the road at this point in darkness? Some Road Safety Auditors use checklists describin some of the potential safety issues, but care should be taken not to be restricted by items on the checklists. A checklist should not be used as a substitute for road safety enineerin experience. It is sometimes the interaction between desin elements that can lead to safety problems and not one element in isolation, for example a junction on a bend on a downhill section. Checklists are provided in HD 19/14 and in Appendix 4 of the 2008 IHT Road Safety Audit uidelines. The common problems hihlihted in Chapter 6 could be used as the basis for producin checklists. In 2008, the IHT in conjunction with Lancashire County Council and TMS Consultancy developed a series of interactive checklists. These are still available to Road Safety Auditors throuh the Lancashire County Council website (Lancashire County Council, 2008). The checklists enable auditors to choose a scheme type from a menu, toether with the appropriate stae of Road Safety Audit. This selection enerates a comment based on the most common safety issues identified for that scheme type and audit stae. These comments were derived from research similar to that undertaken to produce Chapter 6 of this book. In addition to the comment, the interactive checklist identifies the main road user affected, provides collision control data where available, and provides desin advice from published documents that could assist with recommendations. Checklists, such as the one in Fiure 3.3, are useful for new Road Safety Auditors and can also be used as an aide memoire by experienced staff after the Road Safety Auditor has considered the scheme from all road users points of view. 7

8 Practical Road Safety Auditin Fiure 3.3 A screen dump from the interactive checklist for traffic sinals Methodoloy for undertakin Road Safety Audits durin the desin process (Feasibility Stae, Stae 1 and Stae 2) This section describes a workin method for carryin out Road Safety Audits as a scheme passes throuh the desin process (Feasibility stae, Stae 1 and Stae 2 Road Safety Audits). (a) The Road Safety Audit Team looks throuh the audit brief and scheme plans to understand the scheme concept. (b) It may be useful to arrane a meetin between the Road Safety Audit Team and the desin team, particularly on larer, more complex or innovative schemes. (c) The Road Safety Audit Team visits the site toether (takin photoraphs and makin notes). (d) The Road Safety Audit Team Members systematically and independently examine all plans and other information provided (includin photoraphs taken durin the site visit), and write down any comments with reference to plan numbers. (e) The Road Safety Audit Team Members meet to discuss comments. (f) The Road Safety Audit Team decides which comments are related to safety, and discusses possible recommendations. Any comments recorded by Team Members that do not o forward to the final report should be noted, toether with a reason statin why an issue is not to be included. () One Road Safety Audit Team Member produces a draft audit report. (h) Another Road Safety Audit Team Member checks the report and edits it if necessary. (i) The Road Safety Audit Team produces the final report. The report is sined, and it is sent to the client oranisation (or desin team). Some clients (such as the HA) require a draft report to be provided so that they can check that the report has stayed within the audit brief. 8

9 The Road Safety Audit process Fiure 3.4 A Stae 2 Road Safety Audit bein carried out in the TMS Consultancy office A format for recordin each Road Safety Audit Team Member s comments is shown below: <Setter: Box 3.10 is to appear on a pae by itself:. Ideally the above para will be at the foot of the precedin pae.. If para not at foot, (1) replace below: with. (note full stop) and (2) palce Box 3.10 on facin pae>. Some Road Safety Audit Teams prefer to undertake the examination of plans toether rather than separately as described in (d) above. This method could stifle individual comments, particularly for a more junior member of staff. It may also be more difficult to record all the discussion for future reference. Interim Road Safety Audits The desin oranisation or client can ask for an interim Road Safety Audit durin the desin process so that road safety advice can be obtained before the more formal staes of desin are reached. The Road Safety Audit standard describes these interim Road Safety Audits as bein 9