Approach for Quantifying Roadside Hazard Risk on Two-Lane Highways in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Abstract

With the adaptation of a “Safe system” approach and design for “forgiving roads” in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), there is a need to develop new strategies to minimize run-off-road (ROR) crash severity of errant vehicles with potential roadside hazards specially on two-lane highways. While a common practice among highway designers or road safety auditors have always been to rate the roadside condition to prioritize hazardous road segment, the method has mostly been based on subjective judgement rather than systematic investigation. Moreover, the overall roadside environment of a LMIC such as India is different from a developed country, and needs more in-depth quantification. However, in most LMICs, details of roadside hazards are often not available from the crash records. To address this gap, an attempt has been made to develop a hierarchical roadside risk assessment index through a combined reactive–proactive approach for typical two-lane highways in LMICs. The proposed methodology was illustrated and validated on two-lane highways in India. The results obtained from the study indicated that the roadside hazard types in LMICs are almost similar to the developed countries, however their associated risk levels are different. Moreover, the predominant risk factors related to roadside hazard observed on two-lane highways in such countries like India is also very diverse. Thus, the insights obtained from the study can aid organizations and agencies responsible for road safety management, reach more flexible decisions in planning and designing safer roads, especially in context of LMICs.