Road Safety Audit (RSA) is a systematic procedure, which brings traffic safety knowledge into the road planning and design process with the purpose of preventing traffic accidents. Road Safety Audit is a formal systematic road safety assessment of the road or road scheme carried out by an independent, qualified auditor or team of auditors who reports on the projects accident potential for all kind of road users. If the road schemes are done properly from the start, many lives can be saved and serious injuries can be avoided, while at the same time the cost of the scheme will be reduced over time. Although the initial cost of the design will be a little higher, the expense of rebuilding subsequent "black spots" can be avoided. Accident costs can be a major component of total road costs when considering the entire economic life of a project when a significant safety problem is initially designed into the road. PIARC Technical Committee on Road Safety (C13) has focused on this subject. Information on current practice and experiences in different member states have been collected, analysed and discussed by its members. The results of this work have been summarised in Chapter 1 - 8. The following chapters present the national experiences in Denmark, New Zealand, France and USA. (A)
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