The limited funds available for minor safety works must be spent on the right sites and consequently the identification of those sites and appropriate treatments cannot be over emphasised. This can be a real challenge on a large rural network where several sites compete for limited funds. This paper presents a framework that may assist in preparing road safety action plans for rural road networks taking a holistic approach encompassing educational, enforcement and engineering measures. A top-down framework consisting of four steps with macro level analysis at the top and detailed analysis at the bottom is presented. The macro level analysis gives a strategic overview of the road safety trend, crash pattern, and crash characteristics over the network. The meso level analysis identifies the spread of crashes and contributing factors over the network. The findings from macro and meso level analyses may assist in designing educational and enforcement measures. The micro level analysis identifies black and white spots by distinguishing sites with an over- and under-representation of crashes, respectively. Finally, the detailed analysis assists in the selection of appropriate treatment. The framework is being applied to a road network of about 844 kilometres in length and preliminary results are presented. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. 0612AR242E.
Abstract