AUDITS PUT EMPHASIS ON SAFETY

Despite some initial setbacks, the potential of safety audits is now being recognised worldwide. This article reports on how audits have entered mainstream engineering practice. Safety audits were made mandatory for trunk road schemes in Scotland in 1990 and in England and Wales in 1991. The Australians and New Zealanders developed their safety auditing in the early 1990s, and jointly published their Austroads Guidelines in 1994. Concerns over legal liability have delayed the introduction of safety audits in the USA. The concept of safety audit has also spread slowly across the rest of Europe. However, Ireland is now making the biggest move in Europe towards the formalised introduction of safety audits like those of the UK and Australasia. In 1996, the Irish Department of the Environment (DoE) issued a Safety Engineering Guidelines document, researched and written by TMS Consultancy. It showed the part that safety checking might play in the future design and implementation of highway schemes in Ireland. For example, audits are needed to ensure the effectiveness of traffic calming. In 1997, the multidisciplinary team of engineers and planners at Dublin Corporation's newly formed Environmental Traffic Planning (ETP) Division became responsible for safety engineering and innovative traffic management in Dublin.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00410683
• Corporate Authors:

  PRINTERHALL LIMITED

  32 VAUXHALL BRIDGE ROAD
  LONDON,   United Kingdom  SW1V 2SS
• Authors:
  • BULPITT, M
• Publication Date: 1999-9

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 422-3
• Serial:
  • Traffic Engineering & Control
  • Volume: 40
  • Issue Number: 9
  • Publisher: Hemming Group, Limited
  • ISSN: 0041-0683
  • Serial URL: http://www.tecmagazine.com/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Arterial highways; Evaluation and assessment; Federal government; International; Legislation; Road construction; Safety; Traffic engineering; Urban areas
• Uncontrolled Terms: Guidance
• Geographic Terms: Australia; Europe; Ireland; New Zealand; United Kingdom; United States
• ITRD Terms: 8006: Australia; 8034: Europe; 9020: Evaluation (assessment); 183: Government (national); 9104: Guidance; 9034: International; 8049: Ireland; 1556: Legislation; 2748: Main road; 8079: New Zealand; 3665: Road construction; 1665: Safety; 655: Traffic engineering; 8119: United Kingdom; 313: Urban area; 8122: USA
• Subject Areas: Highways; Law; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00779169
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD
• Created Date: Dec 7 1999 12:00AM