GUIDELINES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ROAD SAFETY MASTER PLANS

The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality is the administrative capital of the
Republic of South Africa. The city is divided into 76 wards and a political representative
(ward councillor) is elected for each ward. The city has a population of
about two million people and is experiencing an annual population growth that is
substantially higher than the national average for the country as a whole.
Tshwane is a city in transition and has a mix of established and historically disadvantaged
areas. The disadvantaged areas are mainly situated to the north of the
city. Since road safety in these areas was severely neglected in the past, the new
municipality that came into being in 2000 was faced with the tremendous challenge
of improving road safety and providing infrastructure in these areas. Fatality rates
were high and the communities were discontented about the road safety situation.
The City of Tshwane acknowledged the problem and developed road safety master
plans in collaboration with stakeholders and the community. The master plans
mainly focused on the provision of engineering measures such as pedestrian bridges,
walkways, raised pedestrian crossings, speed humps and loading facilities at
schools, but due attention was also paid to education, awareness raising, law enforcement
and evaluation.
The process has been found to be highly successful and has resulted in the City’s
receiving a number of national and international awards. The process has now
been implemented in all previously disadvantaged areas of the city and is being
integrated in the established areas in the city.
Most of the road safety improvements in the City of Tshwane are targeted at areas
with high levels of pedestrian activity. Low-income or disadvantaged communities
are particularly vulnerable to pedestrian accidents. These communities often experience
fatalities that are disproportionately high compared to communities with lower
levels of pedestrian activity. In the past, there has been a tendency to address
only the needs of motorised traffi c; pedestrian needs have often been neglected.
The purpose of these guidelines is to provide an overview of the process of developing,
implementing and maintaining road safety master plans as applied by the
City. The process described in these guidelines has been refi ned through experience
with a number of projects. It is a process that has been found to be highly
acceptable to communities and to have a high level of sustainability. The process
can readily be replicated in new areas and can therefore be applied generally for
the development of road safety master plans.
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Executive Summary vii
It is acknowledged that the identifi cation of hazardous locations should preferably
be based on accident data, but it was realised that accident data are not available in
many of the disadvantaged areas in the city, because not all these areas have been
formalised and street names have either not been allocated or are not displayed.
This is a common phenomenon in many developing countries and economies.
Where accident data were not available, the City took a pragmatic approach and
developed a process for identifying high-frequency accident spots through community
consultation. Input is obtained from the elected ward councillors, ward committees
and other role players such as the Metropolitan Police. The information
obtained is then verifi ed through road safety inspections. Basic data are recorded
through this process, the problem is evaluated according to the conditions on site
and alternative solutions are considered, taking specifi ed guidelines into account.
Road safety projects are identifi ed, mapped and listed for further investigation and
evaluation. Relevant data such as the type of environment (schools, old age homes,
centres for disabled people, high frequency pedestrian areas etc), vehicle volume
and speeds are obtained. Existing measures (or the absence of appropriate measures)
are also recorded to provide a holistic picture of the traffi c and infrastructure
conditions.
This data are then utilised to prioritise the proposed measures in order to ensure
that the measures which would have the biggest impact on improving road safety
are implemented. The preferred method of prioritising road safety treatments would
be the economic appraisal method, where the benefi ts of the measures must exceed
the cost of implementing them. A simplifi ed method of prioritising low-cost
improvements has also been developed. Once the projects have been prioritis