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Road Safety Audits
"Saving Lives Saving Money"
" The Road Safety Audit process is valuable from a perspective of identifying deficiencies, developing mitigative strategies, improving public relations and enhancing our agency's credibility."
Bernie Arseneau
Director, Office of Traffic, Security and Operations
Minnesota Department of Transportation |
Definition
Road Safety Audit (RSA) |
A road safety audit is a formal safety performance examination of an existing or future road or intersection by an independent audit team. |
Typical Improvements
Road Safety Audits can be used in any phase of project development from planning to construction. RSAs can also
be used on any size project from minor maintenance to mega-projects. Typical improvements suggested include:
- Removal of sight distance obstructions
- Addition/design changes to turn lanes
- Improvement to acceleration/deceleration lane design
- Illumination
- Median barrier placement
- Consideration of pedestrian's ability to cross a street
- Improvements to superelevation
- Drainage improvements
- Roadway shoulder and lane width modifications
- Access management/consolidation of driveways
- Realignment of intersection approaches
Steps to Conduct RSA's
- Identify project or existing road to be audited (Responsibility - Design Team/Project Owner)
- Select interdisciplinary audit team (Responsibility - Design Team/Project Owner)
- Conduct a Pre-audit meeting to review project information and drawings(Responsibility - Audit Team and Design Team/Project Owner)
- Perform field reviews under various conditions(Responsibility - Audit Team)
- Conduct audit analysis and prepare report of findings (Responsibility - Audit Team)
- Present Audit findings to Project/Owner Design Team (Responsibility - Audit Team and Design Team/Project Owner)
- Prepare formal response (Responsibility - Audit Team)
- Incorporate findings into the project when appropriate (Responsibility - Design Team/Project Owner)
Before RSA
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After RSA
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Keys to Successful Implementation
- Agency support and willingness to incorporate audit findings
- Small multidisciplinary audit team consisting of 3 to 5 people (may include highway/traffic safety, traffic engineering, planning, geometric design, construction, maintenance,
human factors, and enforcement)
- Conduct the audit at the earliest possible stage from minor maintenance to mega-projects.
- Willingness to investigate new ideas outside the traditional scope of work Removal of sight distance obstructions
Benefits
- Helps produce designs that reduce the number and severity of crashes
- May reduce costs by identifying safety issues and correcting them before projects are built
- Promotes awareness of safe design practices
- Integrates multimodal safety concerns
- Considers human factors in all facets of design
Q: |
Why should we conduct Road Safety Audits?...We already do safety reviews." |
![clip art of man sitting at work desk](images/workman.jpg) |
A: |
"RSAs are different from existing safety reviews in most States
because RSAs are proactive, consider all road users and all factors that
may contribute to a crash, include day and night field reviews, and are
conducted by a multidisciplinary and independent team" |
" We review RSAs as a proactive low cost approach to improve safety. The RSAs helped our
engineering team develop a number of solutions incorporating measures that were not originally included in the projects. The very
first audit conducted saved SCDOT thousands of dollars by correcting a design problem." |
Terecia Wilson
Director of Safety
South Carolina Department of Transportation
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Resources
"We have implemented RSAs on proposed resurfacing projects. Previously, very few safety improvements were incorporated into
our resurfacing projects. We now see our staff consistently looking for an implementing numerous low cost safety improvements on Iowa's roads"
Thomas M. Welch, P.E.
State Transportation Safety Engineer
Iowa Department of Transportation |
Road Safety Audit Training |
NATIONAL HIGHWAY INSTITUTE
Course: 380069A
Title: Road Safety Audits and Road Safety Audit Reviews
www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov
703-235-0528
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For more information, please contct FHWA's Office of Safety Design at 202-366-1795.
FHWA-SA-04-004
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