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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background
1.1 The overall aim of this project is to identify,
collate and review published research and other information
relating to road accidents on rural roads, suggest how it
may be applied to the situation in Scotland and provide
recommendations for action. Specific objectives are:
- To highlight the main contributory factors to rural
road accidents (i.e. speed, road types, fatigue, driver
psychology etc.)
- To suggest which factors are likely to affect
Scotland's rural road network
- To highlight the particular characteristics of
people likely to be involved in rural road
accidents
- To highlight successful interventions that have
been introduced to reduce rural road accidents in the
UK, Europe and further a field (i.e.
enforcement, road engineering, public education
etc)
- To propose short term initiatives that can be taken
to reduce rural road accidents
- To propose long term initiatives that can be taken
to reduce rural road accidents
- To provide recommendations to relevant
organisations in order to reduce rural road
accidents
- To highlight gaps in the literature and areas where
further research is required.
Search strategy
1.2 Two key documents were used as a starting point for
the review. These were The Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development's "Safety Strategies for Rural
Roads" (
OECD, 1999) and The Institution of
Highways and Transportation's "Guidelines for Rural Safety
Management" (
IHT, 1999).
1.3 From these documents, it was clear that the scope of
the topic is huge and therefore a diverse search strategy
was adopted. This included keyword searches on the
International Transport Research Documentation (
ITRD) database supplemented by internet
searches on Google and AltaVista. Abstracts were reviewed
and interesting sources obtained. It should be noted that
due to the large number of sources identified and
limitations of time and resources, only the most important
and relevant literature or that which usefully adds to the
information contained in
OECD (1999) and
IHT (1999) is reported in this
review.
Definition of rural roads
1.4 Many different definitions can be found in the
literature and understanding what is meant by rural is the
key to understanding the risks associated with it. Indeed,
it has been recognised by the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development that the understanding of
rural road safety is hampered because "no formal accepted
international definition exists to classify rural roads" (
OECD, 1999).
1.5 However, the
OECD does give a definition for rural
roads as those which are "outside urban areas that are not
motorways or unpaved roads." (
OECD, 1999).
1.6 In terms of road safety research in the
UK, the concept of a rural road has
usually been operationally defined in terms of speed limit.
A 'built-up' road is defined as a road having a speed limit
of 40 mph or less, and 'non-built up roads' have speed
limits of 50 mph or greater. This is the definition adopted
by the Scottish road accident reporting system but it does
not take account of the area through which the road passes.
In other words a road with a 50 mph limit passing through a
town (such as the A899 through Livingston) would be classed
as non built-up. Non-built up roads encompass a wide range
of road types and it is important to address this
diversity, e.g. Gardner and Gray (1997) noted that 'Many
journeys on rural roads take place on the urban
fringe'.
1.7 The Institution of Highways and Transportation (
IHT) recognised that the definition of
non-built-up roads would not include many small townships
and villages which had lower speed limits but were, in any
accepted sense, rural. Therefore, the
IHT adopted a definition which included
non-built-up roads and roads passing through settlements
with a population of less than 3,000 (
IHT, 1999).
1.8 In their review of tourist accidents in Scotland,
Sharples and Fletcher (2001) plotted accidents and coded
them based on urban and rural definitions where urban was
classed as a settlement with a population over 500. They
found good correspondence between the use of this system
and the use of standard definitions of built-up and non
built-up based on speed limits.
1.9 The DfT's speed review (
DETR, 2000) has attempted to classify
rural roads to reflect the existing anomalies. The review
divides rural areas into three categories: main roads,
villages and country lanes. DfT acknowledges that defining
a rural village is difficult in relation to settlement size
and that achieving a workable definition will require local
consultation, as well as research and discussion at a
national level between departments and local authority
associations.
1.10 In Road Casualties Great Britain 2003 (DfT, 2004a),
rural roads are defined as those outside urban areas or in
small towns having a population of 10,000 or less.
Outline of report structure
1.11
Chapter 2 describes the size
and nature of the problem on Scottish rural roads, and
summarises the published accident data for Scotland by road
type and mode of transport.
Chapter 3 reviews the
literature on contributory factors to rural accidents.
Chapter 4 reviews the
literature on rural road safety interventions.
Chapter 5 gives conclusions and
recommendations, indicates gaps in the literature and
suggests further research required.
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