Road safety audit

A road safety audit ( also road safety audit) may show deficits in planning for the road, to give a higher priority to road safety. In the planning of roads compromise between the interests of different stakeholders must be addressed. The development environment, fauna and flora and economic conditions may require adjustments to the planning and approaches to the limits of the Technical Rules. On the other hand, often have complex planning situations high demands on planners, clients and the authorities entrusted with the quality assurance engineers. These situations can be mastered experience, do not always optimal. Reliable results of accident investigations show that a not to be underestimated potential for safety and security for existing and even at relatively newly built roads there. This may be due to the fact that the aspects of road safety have not been sufficiently taken into account in planning. So can lead to human suffering and economic damage on new or upgraded roads avoidable accidents. During the audit, a road design is evaluated exclusively in terms of traffic safety, based on this evaluation, there is a feedback to the planners at discernable deficits planning.

Development

In the UK, road safety audits with the Road Act was introduced in 1988. Base was the decades-long experience of similar procedures in the field of railways. Since then, many other countries have introduced the Road Safety Audit. Mention may be made, for example, Austria, Denmark, France and Romania. In Germany a decisive step has been done on the use of road safety audits with the "Recommendations for the Safety Audit of Roads" ( ESAS ) in 2002 and the acts building upon certification of road safety auditors.

The European Union has published on 19 November 2008, the " Directive 2008/96/EC on safety management of road infrastructure ". Member States must this policy that applies situated within planning, construction or operating roads, the parts of the trans-European road network, apply from 9 December 2010.

Costs and benefits

The costs depend on the nature and scope of the planning project to be audited. Moreover, it is significant whether the audit is carried out in a team or individual auditors. As an orientation would be to call for an audit an expense of about 2 to 6 days Auditore works. In relation to the German situation, the costs thus amount to about 800-2400 euros per planning and design phase.

The road safety audit has the following benefits:

• Security risks for the various user groups are shown,
• Later improvements of safety deficiencies are not required
• Avoid economic losses caused by traffic accidents,
• Increase in the quality of street designs by intensive technical discussion between planners, administrations and auditors.

Often it is not simply a benefit-cost analysis of road safety audits carried out. Generally one can say that the benefits outweigh the costs. In some countries, research has been conducted on the cost- benefit. The Austrian Road Safety Board has calculated for Auditing an economic benefit of more than 50 times compared to the effort. In Denmark in 1995 determined a cost-benefit factor of 16.8. In Germany, the Institute for Traffic Engineering of the Association of Insurers in 2004 has found in a detailed study of cost-benefit factors within a range of 4-99.

The road safety audit in the Federal Republic of Germany

As mentioned above, the road safety audit was recommended with the publication of the ESAS in 2002 on the application. The application is the responsibility of the relevant authorities of the federal states and municipalities. For the federal trunk road network, it is now in all federal states in the application.

The published in 2003, "Recommendations for the safety analysis of road networks (ESN ) " should be applied with regard to the review of existing road networks. Both recommendations apply to motorways, highways, main roads and access roads. Investigations in accordance with the ESN, however, are provided with serious personal injury only if the accumulation of accidents. Since 2006 also are the "Recommendations for protection against accidents with impact on trees ( ESAB ) " before.

The training and certification is currently being carried out at the Universities of Weimar and Wuppertal. For this purpose, the Audit partnership of university teachers was established ( ADH SAS). The Federal Highway Research Institute ( Federal Highway Research Institute ) has for some years a list of certified in Germany road safety auditors. The technical and scientific exchange between auditors and other road safety experts is promoted through various activities. It can find to place relevant annual thematic symposia, organized by the Research Society for Road and Transportation Association ( FSGV ). In 2005, a non-profit association of road safety auditors and experts was established, which is also the exchange of experience in this field is used ( German Road Safety Audit eV - GRSA ).

Criticism

The foot eV, Association of foot traffic in Germany, criticized the fact that the formal road safety audit refers only to new construction and remodeling plans. By far the largest stock of road going but largely ignored or refers only to black spots. Safety potential, especially for pedestrians and cyclists, could can be converted here to a considerable extent .. The author points out that in the UK and Scandinavia has long been a pedestrian traffic audit ( English: Pedestrian Audit), in Switzerland as appearances foot traffic, is, the essential aspects of a safety audit involves taking this significant for road safety aspect, with the comfort for pedestrians at road crossings is an essential component.