In this opinion article, South African national Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) Engineering for Road Safety lead and project manager for Sanral's Eastern region, covering KwaZulu-Natal and Free State, Jason Lowe writes about the agency's Safe System model.

As the December festive season unfolds and traffic volumes hit their peak, there is one thing that all stakeholders in road safety can agree on: it is simply unacceptable that South Africans are being seriously injured or killed on our roads. This is also the premise at the heart of a best-practice approach to road safety that has been adopted by roads agencies across the globe, including Sanral – the Safe System model.

The strength of the Safe System approach lies in its holistic view of the road transport system and its emphasis on our shared responsibility for road safety. We should not be satisfied with reducing road crashes to a ‘manageable’ level – our goal should ultimately be to eliminate deaths and serious injuries altogether. This objective can only be reached if everyone – from road users and policymakers to transport planners, vehicle manufacturers, infrastructure designers and roads agencies like Sanral – plays a part.

South Africa’s dire road crash statistics tell us that we are far from reaching that goal. About 832 000 crashes occur each year – 2 200 a day – and annual road deaths average 14 000. The economic cost of road traffic accidents in 2018 was estimated at a staggering R142-billion. Many thousands of economically active citizens, thought leaders, athletes, cultural contributors, mothers, fathers and children lose their lives on our country’s roads.

The need for action is urgent – and the Safe System approach offers us an effective framework for changing the status quo through data-driven, evidence-based interventions. Its principles are based on a large body of research from fields such as behavioural science, public health and organisational systems safety. By leveraging innovation in infrastructure and our growing understanding of the human factors that influence risky behaviours, we can create a road system that protects lives and prevents injuries.

As the country’s national roads agency, Sanral plays a vital role in designing, constructing and maintaining a road traffic system that works to reduce human error and minimise crashes.

Last year, the International Road Federation (IRF) officially recognised the agency’s road safety engineering efforts and awarded Sanral the 2020 'Find a Way' Global Road Safety Award during its ‘Vision Zero for Africa’ conference (Vision Zero is a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries while increasing safe, healthy and equitable mobility for all). The IRF award is a testament to the Agency’s efforts to reduce severe and fatal crashes in South Africa and across the Southern African Development Community region.

While many crashes on our roads are the result of risky behaviours and traffic violations, others are caused by errors of perception and judgement. A road environment that guides user behaviour, lessens the potential for mistakes and is more forgiving when mistakes are made can vastly improve road safety outcomes.

One important pillar of the Safe System model is ensuring that engineering and design features encourage vehicles to operate at safe and appropriate speeds. Evidence from around the globe shows that using speed deterrents, speed cameras and various traffic-calming measures can have a significant safety impact.

A number of Sanral projects in recent years, such as the upgrades at various major intersections in Kimberley in the Northern Cape and the upgrade of Moloto road that spans Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo, have incorporated speed-calming measures. The installation of roundabouts (also known as traffic circles) in place of traditional intersections with traffic lights, for example, has reduced approach speeds and the potential for high-speed collisions, while still maintaining high levels of mobility. Roundabouts are also less affected by power outages and breakdowns.

Other aspects of road safety engineering that have been prioritised on recent Sanral projects include the widening and realignment of roads to allow for wider recovery areas and safer overtaking opportunities, while eliminating blind rises to improve drivers’ sight distance and reaction times.

But the Safe System approach doesn’t just focus on driver safety – it also places emphasis on vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, who account for between 35% and 40% of all road deaths in South Africa. This problem is especially acute in rural and low-income areas. This is why Sanral prioritises infrastructure that improves accessibility and safety for pedestrians, and increases their visibility, such as pedestrian sidewalks, crossings, bridges and street lighting.

Creating a road environment that takes account of human error and mitigates it through smart design and engineering is not enough, however. To end deaths and serious injuries on our roads, we need interventions that target the ways in which drivers and other road users interact with that environment. For this, we need behavioural change.

Road user behaviour is a key pillar of the Safe System approach. Behavioural challenges such as distraction, substance abuse and failure to comply with the rules of the road – among drivers, pedestrians and other road users – all contribute to our road safety crisis. Behavioural change interventions offer an important and often cost-effective way of addressing these. But in order to seize the opportunities for change, we need to better understand the complex factors underlying individual behaviour – and then design targeted, context-appropriate behavioural solutions.

Gathering data about road user behaviour is critical to this process. Across the country, Sanral’s growing Freeway Management System (FMS) has been playing a role in this area by capturing valuable real-time information that can help us optimise interventions and direct resources where they are most needed. The Agency is also spearheading several research projects to better understand behaviour in specific locations and geographic areas. The outcomes will inform future engineering interventions.

Such an intelligence-led, data-driven approach to road safety is critical, but we can only unlock its full potential through effective partnerships across all sectors of society. For Sanral, collaboration with enforcement agencies is of particular importance.

It’s also vital that we engage with researchers who possess the skills to accurately gather and interpret data that can be used to inform our actions. By coordinating our efforts in this way, we can achieve Sanral’s vision of better, safer roads for all.