Rachelle McFarlane | Deadly road improvements

While driving to work one morning, heading towards Lee's Family Supermarket, I made a right turn on to Pamela Avenue from Red Hills Road. To my surprise, I was met with an elderly man in a wheelchair travelling in the left lane towards Red Hills Road. The question that came to mind was, 'Why is he not on the sidewalk?'

I quickly surveyed the road environment, and even with an untrained eye, it revealed that the sidewalks were uneven with broken pavement, overgrown by shrubbery and could not be accessed by the vulnerable road user (VRU). He was forced to navigate his way through motorised traffic. Now that is unfortunate!

Incidents like these are common occurrences on Jamaican roads and contribute to the 'Save 300 Lives' target being missed every year. As of July 17, 2018, the NRSC reports that there have been a total of 193 road fatalities since January.

On average, there are 320 road fatalities each year, a corresponding 10,969 road crash victims visiting A&E, with approximately 24 per cent being under 19 years. During the design and upgrade of road sections, Haddon's Matrix for Crash and Injury Prevention is used to guide designers in producing a safe road network. This matrix stipulates that a safe road network should focus on three main factors: road user behaviour, safe vehicle and equipment, and the road environment.

 

Road infrastructure

 

Despite the efforts of various stakeholders, the country has been found wanting with respect to the road infrastructure. Here are a few examples:

1. Travelling from Cross Roads, as a driver approaches the intersection at Oxford Road and Half-Way Tree Road in the vicinity of FLOW, there are three lanes. However, when the driver looks at the traffic signals, there are four lights. This creates confusion for the driver.

2. As a motorist travels on the recently paved road from Goshen into Luana, St Elizabeth, while passing schools, churches, residences, and small commercial zones, the driver would note that on many occasions, the pedestrians are also using the same road pavement with the motorised vehicles. No sidewalks were constructed for VRUs.

Most Jamaicans are happy to see the number of road projects that have been commissioned to improve the quality of the road networks, such as Hagley Park Road, Molynes Road, Washington Boulevard, and Barbican Road to list a few. However, notwithstanding the excitement about the new road surfaces there are many areas for concern. For example, the absence of sidewalks, poor lighting, incorrect road markings, missing road signs, etc. The critical elements with a road network are usually overlooked by designers because of the absence of road safety audits.

 

Design problems

 

A road safety audit identifies design problems or oversights that contribute to road fatalities and injuries. Let us briefly review four findings of the recently reconstructed Barbican main road in St Andrew.

1. Increase in traffic conflict points:

A conflict point is the point along a road network where vehicular traffic paths are interrupted because of crossing, merging, or diverging. Best practice seeks to reduce the need for drivers to switch lanes along a specific road section. The frequency and density of conflict points are commonly associated with the accident potential of a road section. With reference to Figure 2, for drivers who use the Barbican main road in the vicinity of the Texaco service station and Fontana Pharmacy, this provides a vivid example of a road network design creating conflict points for drivers. With the usage of right-only and left-only lanes, drivers are forced to switch lanes twice, creating a swerving motion, within a short road segment.

2. Poor positioning of pedestrian crossings & unsuitable medians

Pedestrian crossings are typically positioned perpendicu-lar to the kerb to allow for the shortest distance for pedestrians to cross. Along the updated Barbican Road, they are diagonal, resulting in the pedestrian having a longer distance to cross.

Second, the updated design of the medians do not provide any break in the travel of pedestrians. Suitably designed refuges are an inexpensive method of improving crossing facilities for pedestrians with rest points.

3. Limited signs and markings: Approaching Jack's Hill Road from Liguanea Avenue, there are no visible road signs to inform the driver of the upcoming restricted lanes.

4. Unregulated road section entering junction: At the intersection of East Kings House Road and Barbican Road, there is an unregulated exit/minor road that enters the junction. This exit poses many challenges, as vehicles are under no regulation and create numerous conflict points.

In concluding, these four points identified through the road safety audit highlight only some of the oversights being repeated by the authorities as they seek to 'improve' our road network.Let us be committed to the WHO Decade of Road Safety and adapt the new Vision Zero (Sweden) mantra as we seek to lose fewer than 300 lives.

- Rachelle McFarlane is a senior lecturer at the University of Technology, Jamaica.

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