Road Traffic Safety Analysis on Roads with Widened Paved Shoulder.

After its accession to the European Union Latvia has a duty to implement the common methods applied on the European roads with the aim to reduce the number of road traffic accidents. The new White Paper European transport policy for 2010: "time to decide" states: "The European Union must, over the next 10 years, pursue the ambitious goal of reducing the number of deaths on the road by half; this by way of integrated action taking account of human and technical factors and designed to make the trans-European network as safer network . Though responsibility for taking measures to halve the number of road deaths by 2010 will fall chiefly to the national and local authorities, the European Union too needs to contribute to this objective, not just through the exchange of good practice, but also through action at two level - harmonisations of penalties and Promotion of new technologies to improve road safety" Improvement of road traffic safety is one of the most topical issues in the policy of the European Union, and it defines the following four most important priorities: road infrastructure design and redesign; vehicle design (to prevent accidents and to reduce injuries of vehicle passengers as well as vulnerable road users); traffic signing and control, and driver behaviour (e.g. appropriate speed, no alcohol and drugs, wearing seat belts). One of the main tasks in Latvia is to provide its contribution to the implementation of the above mentioned activities. Specific improvements are defined in the National Traffic Safety programme, particularly in relation to the main route in Latvia, the Via Baltica. The paper evaluates road traffic safety in relation to: the use of roads with widened paved shoulders (NP14) on Latvian roads; a comparison of two different shoulder widening schemes (NP14 and NP14.5); the influence of junctions on the accident rate on roads with a NP14 cross profile; the influence of roadside services located in the right of way; possibilities for using widened shoulders on roads with NP14 cross profile in relation to road traffic accident statistics, and changes in road traffic accident statistics resulting from increase or reduction of roadway or shoulder width. Recommendations are made with respect to: measures to avoid collisions with stationary vehicles; reduction of the number of junctions and roadside services in the right of way; media advertising campaigns for the correct use of roads with NP14 cross profile. For the covering abstract see ITRD E136183.