Essential: Road safety systems that can make a difference

In his Budget presentation last month, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke announced that $40 billion would be spent on improvement of the road network over a three-year period, starting in the upcoming financial year (RJR News March 9, 2023.)

This announcement by Minister Clarke brings into very sharp focus the importance of having safe roads, as part of a systems approach, ‘Safe Systems’, in pursuit of reducing Jamaica’s second-leading cause of violent death, traffic accidents. This is a public health crisis that accounted for the deaths of 488 people in 2022, the largest number in recorded history. Plus an untold number (the accepted international ratio is about 30:1) of serious injuries.

Up to Thursday, 110 precious lives have been lost in 2023, including “five at one time” in Temple Hall, St. Andrew. Ominously, only 17 below last year’s catastrophic numbers.

As the vice chairman of the National Road Safety Council (NRSC), which has a parliamentary mandate since 1993 to coordinate all efforts to reduce road traffic injuries and to engage in public education, I strongly recommend that we be guided by elements of the UN Action Plan for Road Safety for 2030 as we execute this significant, and very welcome, project of rehabilitating our road network.

ROAD SAFETY MUST BE INTEGRATED INTO VARIOUS POLICIES

First, we must look at the context in which road safety, a major public health problem, is being tackled at the UN level, which is a clarion call for all countries to do more, much more, in this arena of public health policy.

The World Health Organization (WHO) stated, “Tremendous opportunity for progress has been created by a powerful set of factors, including the announcement of a Second Decade of Action for Road Safety by the United Nations General Assembly; renewed political commitment from member states and the strong foundations laid by the last Decade of Action for Road Safety; and the inclusion of road safety in Sustainable Development Goals targets 3.6 and 11.2.

“In addition, three global ministerial conferences, the appointment of a Special Envoy for Road Safety by the United Nations secretary general and the establishment of the United Nations Road Safety Fund indicate clearly the increased importance accorded to road safety and enhanced mechanisms to improve it globally.

“The inclusion of specific road safety targets in Agenda 2030 reflects universal recognition that death and injury from road crashes are now among the most serious threats for countries’ sustainable development. This means that road safety cannot be compromised or traded-off in order to achieve other social needs. In this context, road safety should not be approached as a stand-alone issue, but as an integrated component of many different policy agendas, including child health, climate action, gender, and equity.

“As highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for mobility itself will undoubtedly evolve in the next decade and this will inevitably drive changes to transport systems in ways that are both expected and unexpected. Ensuring that these changes do not result in death or injury will require constant vigilance and adaptation.”

SAFE ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE

Second, as part of the Safe Systems approach, safe speeds, safe roads, safe road-users, safe vehicles and an efficient post-crash response, aspects of WHO’s safe infrastructure are highlighted below:

GENERAL

Safe road infrastructure is essential to reduce road trauma. Road infrastructure must be planned, designed, built and operated to enable multimodal mobility, including shared/public transport, and walking and cycling. It must eliminate or minimise risks for all road-users, not just drivers, starting with the most vulnerable.

Minimum technical infrastructure standards are required, covering the safety of pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, vehicle occupants, public transport-users, freight operators and other mobility-users. These standards must include basic features such as vertical and horizontal marking (signs and painting); sidewalks; safe crossings; cycle paths; motorcycle lanes; bus lanes; safe roadsides; segregation of different modes of traffic; median separation of high-speed traffic; safe intersection design; and speed management suitable for the location, desired amenity and type of traffic.

The physical and digital infrastructure needs for advanced driver assistance technologies and autonomous vehicles also require specification.

Logical and intuitive infrastructure design should be used for speed management to ensure the safety of all road-users (for example, town entry treatments, roadworks). In addition to improving safety, road infrastructure should enhance accessibility, including for people with disabilities, and facilitate transfer from one mode to another. Guidance on appropriate standards for various safety components has been developed at the global and regional level and can be used by countries when developing their own standards.

SPECIFIC

Recommended actions to improve the safety of road infrastructure:

• Review and update legislation and local design standards that consider road function and the needs of all road users, and for specific zones.

• Specify a technical standard and star rating target for all designs linked to each road user, and the desired safety performance standard at that location.

• Implement infrastructure treatments that ensure logical and intuitive compliance with the desired speed environment (e.g. 30 km/h urban centres; ≤ 80 km/h undivided rural roads; 100 km/h expressways).

• Undertake road safety audits on all sections of new roads (pre-feasibility through to detailed design) and complete assessments using independent and accredited experts to ensure a minimum standard of three stars or better for all road-users.

• Undertake crash-risk mapping (where crash data are reliable) and proactive safety assessments and inspections on the target network with a focus on relevant road-user needs as appropriate. Set a performance target for each road-user based on the inspection results with clear measurable metrics at the road-attribute level (e.g. sidewalk provision).

THE USE OF GIS TECHNOLOGY

Further, one of the modern-day requirements needed to properly investigate, collect and analyse data, is the use of GIS technology to carry out mapping of crash sites.

Acquisition by the Ministry of Transport and Mining of such advanced technology was announced in April 2022, but to date, the police are still using the old paper-based method of collecting data, according to https://www.traffictechnologytoday.com/news/data/jamaica-selects-trl-sof...

“Up to now, crash data collection has always been a paper-based exercise, TRL Software’s iMAAP software will provide extensive insight on crashes on our road network, allowing us to make the right improvements in the right places on our roads to prevent fatal road accidents,” said Deidrie Hudson-Sinclair, director, Road Safety Unit for Jamaica’s Ministry of Transport and Mining.

“Our cloud-based solution will provide the Jamaican Ministry of Transport and Mining with the vital information they require to target road safety interventions effectively, and ultimately reduce the number of fatal and serious road traffic accidents across the country,” said Dr Paul Zanelli, director of Strategic Ventures at TRL Software.

TRL Software said that iMAAP has saved more than 25,000 lives around the world to date, according to TrafficTechnology.com.

URGENT ACTION

The challenge we face as a council is that the daily provision of fatality data alone limits the ability of the data experts, on whom we depend heavily, to accurately make the connection between minor crashes and the inevitable occurrence, if no appropriate action is taken, of a serious and sometimes deadly crash. Action is urgently needed on this issue.

This matter then of providing safe roads for the nation – rehabilitating existing ones and building new ones, in St Thomas and the ones planned for Manchester and St. Elizabeth – will require the cooperation between road safety advocates and the technical team lead by the National Works Agency (NWA), which will be aided by the watchful eyes of powerful private and social sector-based organisations like the Private Sector Oganisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), the Church, the media, relevant professional bodies and others.

We, in the NRSC, will continue to play our part in educating the public, and leading the efforts to reduce deaths and injuries on the nation’s roads. Those for whom time is running out – for those who have died we are, sadly, too late – are depending on us (and, yes, personal responsibility is also of paramount importance) to put in place systems that can make a difference.

- Dr. Lucien W.Jones MB.BS. CD, is the vice chairman of the National Road Safety Council. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com