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FHWA Highway Safety Programs

Appendix B

Evolution of Road Safety Audits

The concept of RSAs originated in the United Kingdom (UK) during the early 1980's. The concept evolved out of concerns that some newly constructed roads were experiencing high crash frequencies or severities that could have been prevented through more safety-conscious design decisions. By 1991, the UK Department of Transport made RSAs mandatory for all national trunk roads and freeways. National guidelines adopted in 1996 recommend that ideally all projects should be subjected to a RSA if it is achievable, within available resources.

By the early 1990's, RSAs were being introduced in Australia and New Zealand. Individual states in Australia use their own policies to select projects for auditing. Through the 1990s, RSAs were introduced to other countries such as Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and South Africa. In recent years RSAs have been actively implemented in the developing countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh, India, Mozambique and United Arab Emirates. Presently, the World Bank and European Transport Safety Council are actively promoting RSAs as part of national road safety programs.

Recognizing a potential for RSAs to become an effective proactive tool in road safety management systems in the US, the FHWA sponsored a scanning tour in Australia and New Zealand in 1996. The conclusion was that RSAs hold promise in maximizing the safety of roadway designs and operations and should be piloted in the US. The FHWA National Highway Institute (NHI) offers a training course on RSAs and FHWA has developed a new course on road safety audits for local agencies. Information on these training courses as well as basic information and success stories relating to RSAs can be found at http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/rsa/

Visit the FHWA RSA website at http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/rsa.

A major step towards implementation of RSAs in the US was the FHWA RSA pilot program. Pennsylvania DOT developed a program to implement RSAs at the design stages of projects. New York DOT developed a program to integrate RSAs into their pavement overlay program. Iowa DOT developed a program to integrate RSAs into their 3R projects (pavement rehabilitation, restoration and resurfacing). The first application of RSAs to a mega-project in the US occurred in 2003, when designs for the Marquette Interchange upgrade in Milwaukee, Wisconsin were audited. RSAs for existing local roads are also being conducted by the Metropolitan Planning Commissions of New Jersey and Vermont.

NCHRP Synthesis of Highway Practice 3-36: "Road Safety Audits: State of the Practice".

Experience from the pilot RSAs indicates that they have a proven positive road safety effect and should be further integrated into road safety management systems. The pilot programs also revealed a diversity of opinions and views that currently exist regarding the role, scope, and application of RSAs. Details on RSA practice in the US are contained in the NCHRP Synthesis of Highway Practice 3-36: "Road Safety Audits: State of the Practice" available from the Transportation Research Board (TRB) bookstore at http://trb.org/bookstore/ or call (202) 334-3213.

This synthesis includes documented information, results of surveys of state and local transportation agencies along with detailed case study information and profiles of innovative agencies and practices.