Urban Road Safety Workshop

ADB Transport Forum 2014

Urban Road Safety Workshop

18-19 September 2014, 14:00-17:30

B. Urban Road Safety

Day 1

The keynote on unique challenges of urban road safety was given by Ben Welle (Senior Associate, Health and Road Safety, World Resources Institute). The challenges mentioned include: (a) very dense and mixed traffic prominent in developing cities, and (b) who is in charge of road safety or the institutional set-up. Recommendations on how to improve urban road safety are: (a) improving basic design of streets; (b) making pedestrians safer; (c) making cyclists safer; (d) reducing and restricting vehicle travel (e.g. Electronic Road Pricing in Singapore); (e) moving people through mass transport; and (f) conducting road safety audits for cities. In conclusion, safety determines the quality of life.

Jaehoon Sul (Senior Research Fellow, Department of Transport Safety and Highway Research, Korea Transport Institute) presented a systematic approach to urban road safety based on Korea’s Transport Safety Action Plan. Their road safety management and transportation safety planning systems were very comprehensive and covered the following safety aspects: road safety policy, safety zone program, school zones and child accidents, drunken driving, speeding, seat-belt wearing, safety education, and emergency rescue.

M.A.N. Siddique (Secretary, Roads Division, Ministry of Communications, Bangladesh) discussed success stories and challenges in urban road safety in Bangladesh.

For the group work, participants were organized into three groups and asked to brainstorm on how to develop the right policy mix in their countries. Concrete priority policies/measures were developed.

Day 2

Road safety audit and how it is done in an urban setting was discussed by Greg Smith. Some examples of urban road safety audits in the PRC and Korea were also presented.

Jae Hoon Sul (KOTI) emphasized the importance of focusing on vulnerable road users – children in Korea. Through research, government policies and initiatives, Korea’s road safety measures for children resulted to 95% reduction of child traffic fatalities.

The initial plan to do a walk-about of the vicinity of ADB was cancelled due to bad weather. Instead, a video clip of road-vehicle-people interaction taken in Indonesia was shown and participants were asked to give recommendations to improve road safety.

Road Asset Management Workshop

ADB Transport Forum 2014

Road Asset Management Workshop

18-19 September 2014, 9:00 to 12:30

Highlights of the Workshop:

Day 1

Theuns Henning (Senior Lecturer, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Auckland) discussed road asset management with subtopics on data collection and the requirements, and monitoring strategy framework. Illustrative examples were presented on bridge prioritization and trend monitoring. Asset management decision making requires balancing the level of service (demand and capacity, functional performance) and the resources (available funds/investment) by managing risks using decision tools and financial analysis. Risk-based decision making was emphasized to create opportunities to save lives and costs.

Day 2

Theuns Henning showed the timeline of significant developments in New Zealand on road asset management. The government’s policy statement established the three key requirements: (a) economic growth and productivity; (b) value for money and; (c) improve safety towards better road asset management. Several ideas such as adapting business models, advanced asset management, and improved procurement process were also presented.

Pyeong Jun Yoo (Highway Research Division, Korea Institute of Construction Technology) presented their locally developed road asset management system in the Republic of Korea.

Nenita Jimenez (Planning Division, Department of Public works and Highway, Philippines) and Peter Knee (Philippines National Road Improvements and Management Program Phase 2 Consulting Team) presented an advanced road asset management in the Philippines wherein asset data are already in the web for deeper appreciation and easy access by engineers assigned in the tasks across the country. Also, issues in implementing road asset management such as sustainability of data collection, and resources for road asset management were discussed. 

What is Eco-driving?

Ecodrive.org states that eco-driving means smarter and more fuel-efficient driving. 

The website further shared "Golden Rules of Eco-driving" as follows:

1. Anticipate Traffic Flow

Read the road as far ahead as possible and anticipate the flow of traffic. Act instead of react – increase your scope of action with an appropriate distance between vehicles to use momentum (an increased safety distance equivalent of about 3 seconds to the car in front optimises the options to balance speed fluctuations in traffic flow – enabling steady driving with constant speed).

 2. Maintain a steady speed at low RPM

Drive smoothly, using the highest possible gear at low RPM.

 3. Shift up early

Shift to higher gear at approximately 2.000 RPM.

Consider the traffic situation, safety needs and vehicle specifics.

 4. Check tyre pressures frequently at least once a month and before driving at high speed

Keep tyres properly inflated as low tyre pressure is a safety risk and wastes fuel. For correct tyre pressure (acc. To loading, highest pressure and speed driven), check with car’s manual. 

 5. Consider any extra energy required costs fuel and money

Use air conditioning and electrical equipment wisely and switch it off if not needed. Electrical energy is converted from extra fuel burnt in a combustion engine, so electrical equipment doesn’t work “for free” – it always costs extra energy and money.

Avoid dead weight and aerodynamic drag.

The benefits from eco-driving are cited as follows:

Safety

• Improve road safety  
• Enhance driving skills

Environmental

• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions (CO2) 
• Fewer local air pollutants
• Noise reduction

Financial

• Save fuel / money (5-15% in the long-term) 
• Lower vehicle maintenance costs
• Reduce costs of accidents

Social

• More responsible driving
• Less stress while driving
• Higher comfort for drivers and passengers

The Department of Energy, together with the University of the Philippines National Engineering Center, have conducted short lecture on eco-driving in UP Diliman this 2013. Wouldn't it be great also if you could practice eco-driving? More articles and tips about this topic will be shared in the next posts.

Reaction to protest actions set vs planned LRT,MRT fare hike

There's a recent article that states that there are protest actions set vs planned LRT, MRT fare hike. This article was from this link:

http://www.interaksyon.com/business/67918/monday-protest-actions-set-vs-planned-mrt-lrt-fare-hike

My response:

I agree with the planned fare increase for MRT/LRT. Rail lines remained 479 route-km since 2008. The Philippines has been lagging compared to other Aisan countries e.g. Vietnam has 2,347km in 2011, Indonesia has 3,370km in 2008 and Thailand has 4,429km in 2008. Our country has only 20% of Vietnam's rail length. Ouch! I feel that every Filipino should understand this plight. Hopefully, gains from the increased fare will be earmarked for further development of the country's rail lines.


Here's the source of data for length of rail lines by country:

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IS.RRS.TOTL.KM