Workshop Recommendations

The International Workshop on Road Safety Investment in India was held in New Delhi on February 18, 2008. This Workshop was organised by the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) and the Commission for Global Road Safety in association with the Department of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India (GOI).

The purpose of this daylong Workshop was to seek input from the government, private sector and public sector policy makers from various parts of India supported by international experts to recommend to the GOI a framework of policy and criteria on initiation of road safety investment.

The thrust of the policy framework is woven around the institutional issues facing road safety management and providing a dedicated source of funding for safety improvements. The aim is to produce better trained drivers, safer and efficient road infrastructure environment, and safer vehicles that will help us in preventing and minimizing road crashes, and resulting injuries and fatalities in India. Better maintenance and design standards should aid in sustaining road safety.

Resolution on Road Safety Investment Framework

The above road safety issues are further discussed under key areas of concerns as expressed by the participants.

Recommendation-1: Declare a Political Priority on Road Safety

Discussion

India lacks the desired road safety vision, which should be developed and incorporated in political and societal philosophy. Transport sector is an enabling service and safer roads play an important role in socio-economic development of India.

Without a political priority no meaningful road safety framework can emerge. Therefore, this conference has strived to draw urgent attention of India’s political process on this issue.

There is a massive effort in India to develop “road capacity” by various GOI agencies. However, road safety and traffic management is not given adequate attention and priority by GOI and States, and often considered a side activity. Whatever little is being done is not coordinated and not at a scale necessary in light of India’s road safety problem (India accounts for more than 10 % of the world’s road fatalities and with higher level motorization this number is likely to go higher). Absence of road users’ culture and lack of scientific traffic management is compounding state of road safety in India.

Developed nations such as Sweden, France, USA and UK have declared a national priority and set targets to improve road safety and lower injuries and fatalities from road crashes. India can learn from their experiences and develop a road safety policy framework to deal with the current epidemic.

Political process must recognize that all of India is essentially a “nation building construction zone” and deserves GOI priority on road safety.

Recommendation

GOI and States should accord a high priority at policy direction, funding allocation levels, and creating awareness among political process and also at government bureaucratic levels, where the primary responsibility to facilitate decisions on road safety and health issues is initiated. A fast track response is warranted.

Recommendation-2: Implement a Road Safety Administration

Discussion

India requires a central body to coordinate and create a knowledgebase on road safety. Government agencies are working in isolation and with minimum consultations and harmony. There is a need for effective coordination among all agencies responsible for road safety management. Planning mechanism to be established to incorporate road safety needs at the planning stage.

Adoption of intelligent traffic management tools, better traffic control devices and regular maintenance of roads with an increased dedicated maintenance budgets will help in improving roads safety. India needs to review successful practices in road traffic management from the developed as well as the developing world and through applied research apply such adaptable practices selectively in the country. Analysis of success should be done on a transparent basis which would help such application across the country.

Road and traffic engineering practices should encourage self enforcing roads; have sufficient speed reduction systems and sufficient capacity to absorb the effects of human error in forgiving manner. Segregating different types of vehicles (different speed vehicles), and removing encroachments on lanes will improve mobility and safety conditions.

Recommendation:

Various agencies involved in road safety should be effectively coordinated under one statutory umbrella organisation. Creating an independent organization responsible for road safety issues (instead of the responsibility lying partly with the local traffic police or local transport agency) will help promoting road safety at all levels.

This step supports the policy direction created by GOI Sunder Committee report. This body will be responsible for creating necessary knowledgebase on road safety standards, good and bad practices, and ensures the uniformity in application without duplication. Generation of data on a transparent and regular basis :on management, accidents, enforcement, legislation, awareness should be the prime responsibility and approach of this organisation.

Recommondation-3: Invest 10 % of Cost of Road Projects Funding for Road Safety

Discussion

India needs a dedicated source of funding for road safety management. There is a void in funding for road safety improvements and implementation in different areas of traffic and transport management..

Several avenues should be considered including congestion fee to be selectively introduced during the peak traffic hours, parking fee, reinvestment of fines collected by the traffic police in addition to the levy of petroleum surcharge. In the United Kingdom fines collected from speed enforcement are fully invested in the purchase and installation of speed cameras.

On BOT or other concessionaire toll roads, certain percentage of such public toll collection should be invested in enhancing road safety by improving traffic engineering, data collection, and road user awareness

Surcharge collected on petroleum products should be provided to states at a higher level of allocation provided that states match the allocation amount and this fund should be used for defined safety implementation parameters and road maintenance. States must also send in annual reports on such utilization and benefits having accrued out of such investment.

States should be made aware of the possible funding options available through World Bank for safety initiatives.

GOI Sundar Committee recommendations on road safety management and funding allocation should be implemented with priority at central and state levels, and funding should be made available.

Recommendation:

The workshop recommends setting aside 10 % of the cost of road infrastructure project budget (making and maintenance) for road safety management.

Fines Collected by Traffic Police and Transport departments must be re invested for similar improvements and interventions as the violations for which fines were collected.

Recommondation-4: Include Road Safety in Transport Policy

Road accidents and fatalities cost India about 3 % of GDP and damage our social fabric and environment, and if safety issues are not addressed, even more cost will incur in the future. Road traffic injuries and safety matters are not receiving the attention it needs in setting the transport policy.

Urban development policy needs to focus on the road safety and must encourage mass public transportation to shift travel mode by motorists from personal vehicles to reduce the traffic congestion, road accidents and fatalities.

Develop a National Road Transport Policy where road safety can be highlighted and such message of road safety can be transmitted to all states chief ministers, and the concerned departments such as Finance, Home, Health, Urban Affairs, Transport and Law.

Recommendation:

A National Road Transport Policy should be developed wherein every transport project at national, state, and local levels should have a road safety component. All urban and rural development projects should consider road safety impacts in their planning process.

Recommondation-5: Institute a Capacity Building Programme

Discussion

There is a void in capacity building process for traffic engineering, traffic enforcement, development for driver training instructors, tools and systems for driver training crash investigation, road safety media development and post crash management.

Conference participants have felt that the frequent movement of experts and key staff from organizations has hurt road safety focus and voids created take a long time to re-address such vital issues. Developed nations have gained on road safety capacity building efforts as discussed by the conference. India should adopt that approach.

Recommendation:

Investment in capacity building is a very important factor and component of road safety investments. Police Academies must invest in the development of curricula in the areas of traffic management, crash investigation and post crash management. A continuous research in these areas must also be initiated at police schools and academies in partnership with Research organizations, universities and institutions dealing in the area of traffic management.

Transport Ministries and Directorates must consider investment in capacity building for development of tools and systems for driver development and assessment. Instructor development is the need of the hour. Transport Departments must support research organisations involved in research of driver development and initiate the courses for Instructor Development.

Initiate a capacity building in the area of Traffic Engineering, Road Safety Audit. Traffic Engineering has not been developed as a National Programme, because the Governments have not set up their own traffic engineering centers and the employment of traffic engineers is nonexistent. Traffic Engineering Centers must be set up by Municipal and Highway Authorities in all urban areas to begin with and the employment of traffic engineers be initiated. GOI must support Universities in capacity building for courses in traffic Engineering.

Recommondation-6: Allow Longer Term Posting for Traffic Police and Transport Officials

Discussion

Tenure of officials in traffic police and transport departments are for short terms sometimes as short as one to two years. Traffic police branch should be treated as a special posting with a minimum tenure of 5 years, allowing local experience, expertise and skills to work in managing traffic.

Recommendation:

Traffic Police & Transport Department Officials especially those who have been holding important responsible administrative positions, should have long term assignments, and prior to their transfers there should be an interim period where at least 15 days of handing over period should be stipulated.

Recommondation-7: Improve Enforcement and Parking Measures

Discussion

Growing number of violations by motorised traffic and encroached lanes by parked vehicles was highlighted by the participants of the workshop as a major issue which was desired to be addressed.

It was felt that Judiciary should be sensitized against road safety offences and that serious offences should lead to imprisonment instead of fines. Offence penalties should be made harsher. Drunken driving checks should be strategized in such a manner that there is a fear amongst motorists of being caught. . Lane discipline should be enforced with physical barriers, and modern enforcement equipment like surveillance cameras and Interceptors should be made available widely across the country.

Highway patrolling must be ensured and opening of Traffic Police stations in villages adjoining the national highways will help reduce fatalities. Installation of weigh bridges along the highways at regular distances, especially on toll gates wherever possible will help in curbing overloading of vehicles. Nongovernmental participation should be encouraged.

Parking of vehicles has become a major problem for civic authorities in urban areas.

Recommendations:

Moving Violations like over speeding, dangerous driving, driving too close (tailgating), wrongful overtaking should be strictly enforced by the authorities. To enforce such violations investment in camera and laser based technology should be made by urban and highway police departments. Similarly tools for enforcing overloading and drunken driving should also be invested into. Data on enforcements should be made available for research organistaions to support the enforcement agencies.

Recording of offences must be made in such a clear and scientific manner so that the gravity of the offence with reference to the legislation is highlighted, which will support the Judicial officers in giving stricter and harsher penalties.

All RTO data to be networked, to ensure history of offenders is available across the country. Investment in smart cards and computerization of all RTO’s, connectivity across the country a must to have record of offenders, authorized vehicles etc.

Parking: Urban authorities must dwell upon in developing Parking Management Policies for respective urban areas. Parking policies must not go against the parking legislation. Police must enforce parking laws very strictly to ensure that major roads and arterial roads promote free movement of traffic. Police must involve Resident Welfare Associations and Market Associations in supporting parking management and enforcement.

Whenever change of land use is permitted Municipal Authorities must insist on internal parking. Major developments along roadside should be restricted. Multilevel parking areas need to be invested into.

Recommondation-8: Improve Intersection Design/Pedestrian Safety

Discussion

Pedestrian movements at intersections are grossly unsafe and crosswalks are not adequately provided where needed. The provision of at grade safe crossing facilities need to be provided with crosswalks, foot over bridges or subways, mechanical escalators , lifts etc. Designing of roads should be done to minimize vulnerable road users and motorist conflicts and make intersections safer.

While designing infrastructure such as roads, highways and flyovers it should be important to take into account the needs of the vulnerable road users under mixed traffic conditions, which will contribute in reduction of accidents and injuries of vulnerable road users.

Improved traffic engineering and highway design standards and practice must include safety aspects in road design especially for pedestrians and bicyclists. Roundabouts should be adopted at intersections, and highways should be access controlled, and terminated properly at grade. NHAI highways and flyovers should be properly designed where they meet intersections.

There should be a safety emphasis during work zone or construction activities, provision for pedestrians crossing and proper handling of road side materials to avoid injuries. Authorities should propagate and encourage public/private partnership model for creating better facilities road users, and transit facilities such as terminals and bus stops.

Recommendation:

Improve intersection design by investing in and instituting better traffic engineering design standards (IRC standards are inadequate) including those for pedestrian ‘crossings’ for orderly and safer movements of pedestrians. All signals should have pedestrian signals and these should support safe movements of pedestrians’ .It is important to install stop line markings and pedestrian crossings on all important intersections where there is pedestrian traffic. Right of way for the pedestrian should be simultaneously enforced. Uncontrolled pedestrian crossings should be prominently marked and visible and be informed by means of signage.

Recommondation-9: Initiate a Road Safety Awareness Campaign & Introduce Road Safety in School Curriculum

Discussion

With increased urbanization and motorization in the country an epidemic of road safety problem has spread all over India. So that the problems are well informed to the general road user it was felt that the support of media campaigns would be most important.

Road safety education through public broadcast and telecast messages on a regular basis would raise public awareness. These campaigns should be properly designed displaying real time hazards and should be applicable to different categories and environment.

Road safety education through the School Conclave programmes which would involve a continuous education to school children through the already existing subjects of the curriculum was recommended.

Recommendation:

Create Road Safety Awareness Materials: Develop effective road safety material like safety films, documentaries etc, to educate road user of potential hazards and means to keep themselves safe. Useful and good training material should be developed and made mandatory as part of the user’s kit with purchase of a new vehicle. The materials should be made available to NGO’s and private sector organisations for free distribution at schools, organizations and roadside and in villages.

Public health Issue: Make road safety a priority public health issue. The message of road safety as a public health issue should be spread on a national scale. Road safety should be treated as a public health problem. Tested and certified programmes should be initiated so that serious injuries and fatalities could be prevented during the golden hour. In this respect seek greater involvement of print and electronic media.

School Curriculum: Road safety should be made part of school curriculum and children should be exposed to road safety at early ages. Many developed nations have gained form such efforts and we can learn from their experiences. The School Conclave programme initiated by the IRTE and recognized by the Government should be taken as the basis of imparting road safety education.

Recommondation-10: Invest in Road Safety Audits (RSAs) and Research Materials

Discussion

Road Safety Audit (RSA) is an independent check performed by a core group of safety experts on planning, design, construction, and operation stage activities of road and highways to ensure the safety needs of road users.

RSA is a proven practice in developed nations and helps to prevent and reduce accidents and severity of injuries and resulting fatalities. RSA considers how road users, vehicles and road environment interact and produce movements of people and vehicles, and roads facilitate them.

India lacks this practice and timing for instituting RSA is here while India is building more roads and highways. (For example, a recent RSA conducted by the World Bank in Mumbai resulted in a large number of measures to improve road safety by actively eliminating road hazards by local agencies working together).

Recommendation:

As a mandatory requirement, Road Safety Audits should be carried out on a regular basis on all roads and should be given an impetus like environmental impact assessment before approval of any transport project. Independent RSAs need to be carried out yearly of randomly selected roads and the results should be published for greater accountability.

Research material on road safety should be available online on the appropriate GOI department websites, free for downloading. These should include the IRC, BIS & AIS Manuals dealing with standards and guidelines.

Recommondation-11: Encourage Greater Role by Private Sector in Road Safety

Discussion

Private sector, as an important stake holder, should be encouraged to actively participate in road safety promotion. As a part of the social corporate responsibility large corporations such as BP Castrol, Reliance, Hyundai Motors, Maruti Udyog Ltd, amongst many others have taken initiatives in the area of driver training, school safety education etc. The Government should encourage and recognize CSR initiatives so that many others join the process.

Recommendation:

Involvement of the Non Government Sector is supporting Road Safety management needs to be recognized. CSR initiatives by private sector should be encouraged by the Government and be streamlined in a manner so that such activity compliments those of the Government. Driver Training and Assessment, Road Safety Media Campaigns, Vehicle certification, Environment protection, Curbing Drunken Driving are some of the areas where Corporate support and participation could be encouraged. Private sector could build and operate rest houses on highways for truck drivers to relieve them of driving under conditions of fatigue and drunkenness.

Recommondation-12: Improve Driver Training/Licensing Process

Discussion

Statistics presented at the Workshop suggest that 80 % of road crashes are caused due to human error. Participants suggested that the licensing system should be tightened and issue of license should be done after stringent testing ..

There is need to invest into development of tools and systems for driver training and assessment. The Government of Rajasthan announced at the Workshop that a two day Workshop was being organised in April concentrating on the subject of ‘driver licensing systems’. It was also felt that there was a need for starting of quality driver training institutions, with role by NGOs to initiate driver training. (Example of IRTE as NGO is emerging in India where large number of public/private sector drivers is being trained). Investment in training of heavy vehicle drivers, those carrying school children and hazardous materials were also voiced

Recommendation:.

There is a need for research as well as development of scientific and practical driver training tools and systems which would be used by driver training schools for training and transport departments for assessment of different categories of drivers.

Government should encourage setting up of improved driving training schools where emphasis is laid on the training of heavy vehicle drivers/bus drivers. There is an immediate need to develop driver simulation systems built on Indian traffic and road conditions and which support the Indian legislation. Such simulation systems would help in testing drivers on hazard perception as well as the Rules of Road Regulation.

Government agencies should under their supervision out source such assessment prior to issuance of licenses. Guidelines and certification of the institutes should be formed on lines of ISO certification.

Training of instructors for driver training should be addressed at regional centers for wider participation.

Recommondation-13: Develop a National Crash Database

Discussion

There is need for an updated national Crash Database, as well as for Vehicle Registration and Driver Licenses, which can be online and accessed by Police & Transport Departments. Accident database would be additionally required by research institutions in order to support the Government with remedial measures.

Many developed nations have established such databases to compile annual statistics and trends of accidents. This national asset is available to all without cost and is constantly updated.

In the absence of information on vehicle registration and driver license identification, enforcement is severely handicapped.

Recommendation:

At present there is a pressing need to invest into an integrated National data bank for vehicle registration, driver licenses, and serious and fatal crashes. This procedure must be initiated at State levels and coordinated at National levels on a priority basis.

Recommondation-14: Improve Traffic Engineering Standards

Discussion

Current national traffic engineering standards are inadequate and need updating. Many IRC standards were issued decades ago and do not correspond to successful international traffic engineering practices as well as vehicle mix on Indian roads. the in the absence of motorization and are not reflecting modern

Recommendations:

All road design, traffic engineering and supporting standards should carry a statutory legal weight and all states must adhere to them. Standards should not be labeled as Guidelines.

Standards should be made available online without cost to the consultants, infrastructure owners and highway builders’ community.

Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices such as traffic signals, signage, and road markings should be developed for India and made with statutory requirements.

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