Citation

Fletcher J, Sexton B, Done S. Proc. Annu. Symp. Comput. Appl. Med. Care 2006; 22(CD-ROM).

Affiliation

TRL Ltd

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, American Medical Informatics Association and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Publisher IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers))

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Investment models analyse the costs and benefits of road construction and improvement.  Accidents are a financial and  social cost to countries; minimising accidents through road  improvements can provide significant benefits.  The Highway  Development and Management (HDM-4) model is a commonly  used economic tool for ensuring that roadworks are undertaken  optimally.  Currently HDM-4 has a safety module which predicts  accident rates using national road class data.  However, the  module operates upon only road class and traffic and is time- consuming to calibrate.  Thus this module is infrequently used.   Relationships between accident rates and factors such as  curvature and lane width have been established in several  developed countries.  However, there are few relationships from  developing countries where rates are high and the poor are  particularly vulnerable.  With road and transport authorities and  universities in India and Tanzania, TRL has collected accident,  traffic, pedestrian, inventory and condition data and derived  HDM-4 relationships which enable accident rates to be more  realistically predicted from readily available information and  simple calibration.  These improved relationships allow more  accurate socio-economic, cost-benefit and whole life cost  analysis of road construction and improvement.  They can also  determine if safety improvements such as footpaths or wider  shoulders are justified and should be adopted into national  policies and standards.