Practical Road Safety Auditing

Practical Road Safety Auditing explores the systematic process for checking the safety of new and improved road schemes for the benefit of future road users.

An effective Road Safety Audit ensures that all highways schemes operate as safely as is practicable by minimising the chance of future collisions and reducing the risk in their severity. The third edition of Practical Road Safety Auditing provides engineers with clear and comprehensive guidance regarding the new Certificate of Competency, launched by the Highways Agency as part of the new Safety Audit Standard in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges.

Not only will a successful Audit help road users such as pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, bus users, equestrians and those with visual and mobility impairments, but an understanding and appreciation of an efficient Road Safety Audit will also improve design and evaluation processes for both new and existing road schemes across the world.

This new edition shares the latest theory and practice from regions such as Europe, South East Asia, Australasia, the Middle East, Canada and the Americas, using real-life examples and case studies of successes and failures to enable the reader to apply best practice to their own road scheme.

Key features include:

• Up-to-date new research and control data from the industry to help readers carry out a successful Road Safety Audit
• New Certificate of Competency requirements for engineers in the UK and a brief discussion of practice in other countries
• Coverage of other types of design audits, including technical, cycle, pedestrian, mobility, Non-Motorised User Audit and Quality Audit
• Current issues and legal implications of the Road Safety Audit process

Written by practising Road Safety Auditors, who between them have carried out over 2,000 Road Safety Audits, this book will teach, inform and guide all practitioners commissioning audits, those carrying them out, and those whose schemes are being audited.

Practical Road Safety Auditing is a book consisting of 208 pages and ten chapters, which lives up to its title admirably by providing the reader with an understanding of the background of, and approaches to, road safety auditing as applied in the real world. After an introductory chapter, there are two chapters that describe audit procedures and processes. Chapter 4 discusses the important issue of road safety auditor competence. The heart of the book, taking up pages 45 99, is a summary presented in Chapter 5, of what are termed control data . These are summaries of outcomes from the analysis of road collision data and research studies that provide a benchmark against which an auditor might be able to judge specific issues within a scheme being audited. This is admirably complemented by Chapter 6, which presents summaries of the main issues that the authors have reported in 622 audits carried out in 2013. The book moves beyond an exposition of the everyday practical needs of a UK-based road safety auditor at this point and addresses the wider legal issues in Chapter 7, before then providing an extensive resume of auditing procedures in countries in the European Union, Australasia, Asia, the Americas (North and South) and the Middle East. Before finishing with a discussion in Chapter 10 on current issues in road safety auditing, Chapter 9 sets road safety auditing in the context of other audits, including the comprehensive quality audit , which may include a road safety audit and others such as cycle and mobility audits. The book draws on the deep well of experience of the auditors and firmly makes the point to the reader that the auditor should assess scheme designs from the point of view of the road user. In addition to sharing their knowledge, the authors touch on a variety of subjects that have been matters of considerable discussion, including, for example, the extent to which regression to mean has been properly addressed in monitoring. Many issues are noted in bullet points in Chapter 5 as requiring further research . It would probably be good for the reader to benefit from the experienced views of the authors on some of these issues, but this would require a synthesis of the material presented in Chapters 5 and 6. While the material presented in Chapter 5 is very clear, it is ordered under sub-titles relating to the publication from which it was derived. It may be the case, however, that a prospective reader might benefit more were the material to be ordered according to subject matter sub-headings. One example might be a sub-heading relating to microprocessor optimised vehicle actuation, rather than information on this subject being under five separate publication headings, albeit on consecutive pages. It is pleasing to see some discussion of a risk-based approach to safety auditing; after all, the basis of most risk assessments is an aggregation of the probability of an incident occurring and the severity of the outcome were an incident to occur. It is disappointing that this subject is introduced only in the final chapter, and then only treated to a limited extent. It is, however, very good to see how Gloucestershire County Council adopts such an approach within the context of current road safety auditing procedures. Overall, the book lives up to its title and provides the reader with a good grounding in procedures and a summary of very valuable road safety data and experience. --Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers Paper 1500035

The book aims to provide a practical hands-on approach to conducting road safety audits. It reviews international road safety audit procedures and processes, helping readers to adopt a relevant strategy and methodology, and then looks at competency, discussing the requisite training and qualifications and the context of EU directives. Other topics covered include safety data requirements associated with road safety reports and the legal implications of road safety audits. To set the UK system into perspective, it presents a summary of the state of the art in six countries and the EU. The book also looks at other types of audit related to road construction and usage to help readers gain better understanding of the context of road safety audits. Finally, it reviews current issues in road safety audits with a range of international case studies. Generally, the book is very straightforward to read and has clear illustrations. It should therefore be a worthy addition to the library of the safety practitioner and student. --David Oloke, UK in Journal Civil Engineering Vol 169 Issue CE2 May 2016