A road safety management system for medium-sized towns

Of all the EU countries, Portugal has one of the highest rates of fatalities and injuries per 1000 inhabitants as a result of road accidents. Most (60%) of the accidents involving personal injury occur in urban areas. The main reason for this is the chaotic road environment, resulting in complete confusion for vulnerable road users and vehicles. All users need a road network that they can better understand. A road safety management system has been developed in Coimbra, which is a medium-sized Portuguese town of 200 000 inhabitants. The system is basically a road accidents database that is linked to the road network model, the main piece of the geographical information system used to track road accidents. After identification of accident accumulation spots, infrastructure treatment is prioritised by the use of a ‘risk index’ for each site. Each spot is audited, focusing mainly on road layout and signs. As a result, low-cost countermeasures can be proposed to city councils as a way of reducing road accidents. The paper describes the relevant features of all the procedures and presents results for two spots, with a before/after effectiveness analysis.