Tshelimnyama Pedestrian side walk.
It is a matter that should be taken seriously by all road users and all agencies involved in road safety.
Road crashes globally kill 1.24-million people every year, more than malaria or tuberculosis. By 2030 they will kill more than the two combined and even more than HIV. Most by far die in poor and middle-income countries, reported The Economist.
The South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) is aware of this man-made “epidemic” and improved road safety is a key objective in realising its core business of providing a superior national road network which promotes mobility and economic development.
This approach falls squarely within the United Nation’s (UN’s) call for a Decade of Action for Road Safety, which boils down to halving road deaths between 2011 and 2020.
It’s a call that countries across the world have heeded. Sanral’s approach is that road safety is a central consideration in every decision about construction, maintenance, operation and management of the road network.
One that has attracted global attention is Sweden’s Vision Zero, which in the first decade of its implementation has resulted in a 40% drop in road fatalities. In 2013 just one Swedish child under seven died in a car crash. It looks at road building primarily from the human perspective. Put simply: drivers are human and humans make mistakes, so roads ought to be designed in a way that minimises the possibilities for those mistakes and their impact.
New York was looking at the same approach that could mean central median barriers to forestall dangerous passing, roundabouts to slow traffic and lower speed limits in high incidence areas.
And to go with this: enforcement of traffic rules. Fundamentally, this is not far off Sanral’s present approach of safer roads, educated road users plus post-crash responses.
The Economist reports that building roads is a highly effective way of boosting growth, but that road deaths have serious negative economic effects. Yet making roads safe is not an unaffordable luxury and makes better economic sense than dangerous ones.
The widely respected magazine then gives examples of what can be done: roads used by pedestrians need footpaths and safe places for pedestrians to cross; roads with fast traffic need well-designed junctions and central barriers to stop head-on collisions.
It also requires a nation-wide campaign to stress that seatbelts and motorcycle helmets save lives and speeding and drunken driving must be swiftly and consistently dealt with.
Obviously, conditions between countries vary — South Africa has long distances between most towns and cities, hugely congested areas around some cities and a high incidence of pedestrian deaths, in fact, upward of 40% of all road fatalities.
All of this is taken into account, but does not fundamentally alter the modern approach to road safety.
Sanral is constantly looking for improved and innovative engineering solutions. It consistently pro-actively evaluates the national road network against a set of standards and norms during project design, construction and maintenance.
Reactively, it identifies and addresses high-incident areas. In many cases solutions require close partnerships with education and traffic law enforcement entities. As part of its community development programme, Sanral promotes pedestrian accessibility and mobility by providing appropriate infrastructure and the focus is on:
– Constructing pedestrian/bicycle paths
– Effective traffic-calming messages at pedestrian-busy locations
– Building pedestrian bridges
– Safe access for communities living close to national roads.
The vast majority of crashes are attributed to poor road user behaviour. Road safety education and awareness programmes are therefore a key Sanral commitment. Its road safety education programme provides holistic solutions, embracing enforcement of road rules, engineering, education and social approaches.
Even with the most efficient and intensive safety campaigns, incidents still happen, so Sanral has systems in place to efficiently and quickly respond to an incident. The entire national road network has incident management systems in place to ensure optimal coordinated responses.
CCTV video surveillance on urban highways detects and notifies emergency authorities of incidents. The incident management systems are being expanded and constantly enhanced.
Sanral focuses on better and safer roads, better educated road users and even more efficient responses when accidents do happen. These are on-going programmes and will have to be intensified. Roads build economies, but they can also bring tragedy into people’s homes. Sanral aims to cut the latter down as much as possible.
Making roads safer
The upgrading of the Western Cape’s N1-N2 Winelands Highway road network is a major infrastructural investment that will result in much safer roads for users.
The project – to incorporate the upgrading and operation of a second bore of the Huguenot Tunnel between Paarl and Worcester – will include a 108km upgrade of the N1 between the Old Oak interchange and Hex River Valley, and the 70.3km upgrade of the N2 between the R300 to Bot River.
Studies have found that many of the relevant road sections of the N1 and N2 are approaching the end of their design life.
The left-hand lane of the N1 and parts of the N2 are showing signs of deterioration with uneven surfaces and road cracking. In addition, current traffic volumes are congesting certain sections of the roads, leading to slower travelling time and greater risks of accidents.
Safety challenges are further compounded as traffic growth forecasts indicate serious congestion along many sections of the roads.
This indicates that the N1 and N2 need rehabilitation and capacity upgrades in places within the near future. Detailed technical and socio-economic studies – undertaken during the 2002 environmental impact assessment process, and revised in 2007 – outline that the South African National Road Agency Limited’s (Sanral’s) proposed road improvements will realise the following important and beneficial safety features:
– The implementation of an incident management system to address accidents and response times;
– The implementation of a freeway management system to reduce congestions; and,
– The provision of road lighting along the N1 (between the Old Oak and Koelenhof interchanges) and N2 (between De Beers Avenue and Firlands Interchange).
Furthermore, increased capacity will reduce congestion, which along with surface upgrades will also enhance safety.
Crucially, the iconic Huguenot Tunnel on the N1 National Road between Paarl and Worcester, now a quarter of a century old, has reached the end of its design life and requires urgent upgrades within three years.
The time has come to upgrade the Huguenot Tunnel by opening a second one, refurbishing the old one, and then letting traffic flow separately in both directions.
Four major issues currently that will be addressed at the tunnel are:
– Traffic capacity management, which includes the current high level of heavy vehicles;
– Ventilation Systems;
– The provision of the fixed fighting fire systems to 100MW capacity; and,
– Compliance to the International Tunnel Safety Standards.
Sanral remains committed to the provision of high safety standards for the road user and thus the proposed upgrades will enhance this objective for the next 30 to 40 years, creating safer roads through infrastructure.
This article has been paid for by, and its contents and photographs provided and signed off by Sanral.