HIGHWAY SAFTEY ASSESSMENT USING GIS

Abstract

This paper is intended to illustrate applications of Geographic Information System (GIS) in transportation planning for which authors have made an attempt to simplify road safety audit process by integrating it with a GIS based software “Gram ++”. This technique will help the road auditors to differentiate different sites of a road segment having higher accident frequency with sites having low accident frequency which should be potentially improved in a cost effective manner. It will also help road safety audit experts to identify and focus on the real problems at specific site of road segment right from planning stage for which authors have presented the procedure & discussed how it can be applied so that all road features can be considered simultaneously. In India with more than one lakh fatalities per annum accounts for about 10 % of total world's road fatalities. The share of National Highways and State Highways in the total road network is just 6 % but these cater to 70 to 75 % of total road traffic in India. However, the National Highways, which constitute less than 2 % of the total road network, account for 20 % of total road accidents and 25 % of total road traffic fatalities occurring on Indian roads. Further, the severity of road traffic accidents on National Highways is more because of higher speeds as compared to other roads. The road safety situation in India is worsening. Accidents, fatalities and casualties have been increasing dramatically over last 20 years – about 5 % growth rate over last two decades - partly due to exponential growth of vehicles. The death rate per vehicle is 10 to 20 times higher in India as compared to high-income countries like Sweden, Norway, Japan, Australia, UK and USA. It is much higher even when compared to many low-income countries like Brazil, Mexico and Malaysia. Pedestrians, bicyclists and motorized two-wheeler riders are the Vulnerable Road Users (VRU), which constitute 60-80 % of all traffic fatalities in India. This seems logical as this class of road users forms the majority of those on roads. On highways, the proportion of VRU and other motor vehicle occupants are 32 % and 68 % respectively. In addition, they sustain relatively more serious injuries even at low velocity crashes, unlike car occupants who are protected by impact absorbing metallic body of the vehicles.