A Study on Road Safety Audit and Black Spot Identification

Abstract

Road Safety Audit (RSA) is a formal procedure for assessing accident potential and safety performance of new and existing roads. Road safety audit is an efficient, cost effective and proactive approach to improve road safety. It is proved that RSA has the potential to save lives. The RSA was originated in Great Britain and is well developed in countries like UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Canada, Malaysia and Singapore. Presently, it is at varying stages of implementation in developing nations like India, South Africa, Thailand and Bangladesh. Therefore, road safety audit appears to be an ideal tool for improving road safety in India. In this study, a rural road stretching from Rallaguda bridge to Vardhaman College of Engineering in Hyderabad city is chosen for road safety audit. Safety assessment is done using iRAP application by collecting road side features, midblock details, intersection features, vulnerable road users' facilities, speed and flow details. The secondary objective is to find out the Black Spot locations within Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) police station jurisdiction of Hyderabad city. Accident prone areas are identified by estimating Weighted severity and accident severity indices with the help of historical accident data. Finally, major causes of accidents and measures to improve safety of the chosen road section are suggested.