Road Safety Inspection in Austria

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Road Safety Inspectionin Austria

• Thomas Fessl

Best in Europe ConferenceBrussels, February
21-22 2006
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Road Safety InspectionRoad Safety Inspection of
Austrian motor- and expressways
Road Safety Inspection (RSI) is a periodical
controlling instrument of the existing road
network (including roadsides), independently of
number of accidents. RSI allows the
implementation of remedial measures before
accidents occur. source High Level Working
Group on Road Infrastructure Safety, 2003
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Road Safety InspectionRoad Safety Inspection of
Austrian motor- and expressways

• In Austria, Road Safety Inspection of motorways
  and expressways started in July 2003. - 2003
  and 2004 11 inspected sections
• - 2005/2006 10 sections

motorway
expressway
inspected sections 2003,2004,2005
sections under inspection
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Road Safety InspectionRoad Safety Inspection of
Austrian motor- and expressways

• RSI in a team (road safety experts civil
  engineers) including
• accident analysis accident map
• analysis of the traffic conditions
• analysis of the constructional elements
• inspection on-site visit
• meetings and interviews with motorway maintenance
  unit and traffic police
• analysis of road surface (pavement rating - ruts,
  friction, )
• analysis of road maintenance measures
• analysis of road environment

remedial measures (short-, medium-, long term)
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Road Safety InspectionRoad Safety Inspection of
Austrian motor- and expressways
interchange Edlitz
Example section A 2 South motorway -
Wechsel (Lower Austria) Accident map
variable speed limit
Catalogue ofproposed measures
improvement of winter maintenance
lane markings with increased night visibility in
wet road conditions
interchange Krumbach

• structural measures (long term)
• - to broaden the shoulder lane
• corrections of crossfalls

rest areaZöbern
province border
interchange Zöbern
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Road Safety InspectionRoad Safety Inspection of
Austrian motor- and expressways
Section A 2 South motorway - Wechsel
Measures Status Time of implementation/planning Qualitative evaluation
Short term Short term Short term Short term
SectionControl has been implemented February 2005 personal injury accident reduction of 60 damage only accident reduction of 30
Accident investigation in the area of the Section Control currently being carried out results in June 2006 -
Lane markings with increased night visibility in wet road conditions has been implemented 2005 no improvement(according to themotorwaymaintenance unit)
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Road Safety InspectionRoad Safety Inspection of
secondary road networks in Austria

• At present, Road Safety Inspection pilot study
  on
• secondary road networks (contracted by the
  Austrian
• Ministry of Transport, Innovation and
  Technology)
• RSI is carried out at seven selected sections
  in Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland
• rural roads
• municipal roads
• The results of the RSI (sections) will
  be reflected in a draft guideline in May 2006.

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Road Safety Inspectionwithin the 6FP Project
RIPCORD-ISEREST

• RIPCORD-ISEREST (WP5)
• Best Practice Guidelines on Safety Inspection
• Start January 2005
• End September 2007
• Goals
• Standardised approach for RSI in Europe
• Setting up of implementation plan
• Developing of checklists
• Carrying out of practicability tests

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Road Safety Inspectionwithin the 6FP Project
RIPCORD-ISEREST

• Main problems
• in defining a common understanding of RSI
• Existence of great number of RSI approaches
  across Europe
• Lack of a standardised RSI approach within the
  countries
• No legal basis for RSI in most countries
• No standardised RSI reporting in most countries

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Road Safety Inspectionwithin the 6FP Project
RIPCORD-ISEREST

• Common understanding on RSI
• Preventive tool
• Independent of the occurred number of accidents
• Regular inspection
• Covering the whole existing road network
• Carried out by trained traffic expert team

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Road Safety Inspection in Austria

• Current approach in Austria
• Selection of inspection sites depending on the
  actual number of occurred accidents, priority
  given to sections with an accident rate above
  average

Is it RSI at all or another road
infrastructuresafety management tool?
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Road Safety Inspection

• Thomas Fessl
• KfV Road Safety Economics

Tel. [phone] thomas.fessl_at_kfv.at
www.kfv.at www.ripcord-iserest.com