Safety audit of existing urban roads in France.

In France, an important safety programme called "Controle de securite des infrastructures" has been undertaken. The general project manager is the "Ministere de l'Equipement", and the definition of safety audit methods has been carried out by CERTU for urban matters, and by SETRA for rural matters. The original idea was to put on a system of control (or safety audit) for existing roads. This project started in 1992. It needed first to formalize the knowledge about safety and road design, in the book "Securite des routes et des rues" (1992). Then, some experimental controls have been organised on existing roads, between 1992 and 1995. The last ones concerned 2500 km of rural roads, and 130 km of major city roads in 8 cities. The evaluation was completed in 1996. The evaluation concluded that the safety audit method tested was suitable to control any important road network at a reasonable price. An extension of safety audit practices should soon be decided. The paper presents the state of the art, and gives some tendencies for the near future. As there are many differences between urban and rural matters, the technical safety audit methods are different. The paper concerns urban matters and gives information about: (1) what must be controlled and who controls what? (2) what are the usual detected road flaws? (3) what must be repaired after control, at what price and who pays? (4) differences between a safety audit and other analysis methods? (5) links between audit and past accidents? (6) change in the technicians or local managers practices? and (7) future evolutions, for existing roads and for projects?