Road Design

Road design plays a major role in road safety, however, has generally not taken the older road user into consideration. There is therefore a need to take effective action to reduce risk levels to older drivers by designing roads that accommodate their needs and capabilities. Following a review of US recommendations for change in road design and a comprehensive investigation of older driver crash black-spot sites in Australasia (see Fildes et al., 2000), advancements have been made to design a more forgiving road system for older drivers. These include i) the development of a Handbook of suggestions for change to road design, ii) continued liaison with Austroads to include the important findings from this research and advance the various suggestions for consideration in future Australasian standards, and iii) development of training workshops for the engineering road designer. This report, Volume I, provides an overview of these advancements, giving some background of older driver crash and injury risk in Australasia, the impact of age-related changes on driving, and the contribution of road design to older driver crashes. It also provides summaries of the research program, Stages 1 and 2, with associated implications for future research. In addition, the materials required to run workshops are provided as attachments to this report. These include an instructor s handbook of information and materials needed in workshop sessions and a participant s handbook that provides slide presentation notes, case studies and feedback forms. In conjunction with this, the Handbook of suggested changes is also provided as a separate report (Volume II). The Handbook is intended as a guide for road designers and traffic engineers to raise awareness of the difficulties of older drivers face while driving and to provide a range of suggestions for change to road design that can alleviate some of the problems older drivers experience. In summary, while current design features are unlikely to be the only cause of many older driver crashes, design changes to create a more forgiving road environment will have substantial road safety benefits. Moreover, as the population ages and becomes more mobile, it will become increasingly important to design roads that will accommodate the needs as capabilities of older road users. It should also be noted that a safer road environment for older road users also means a safer road environment for all-aged road users