The following sections summarize some of the findings of a project a adapted from Asian Development Bank: Regional Technical Assistance in Road Safety,Technical Note No.1 Review of Recent Projects and Research. March 1996,in terms of road safety research. It is hoped, in future, such research projects will help the Asian Governments to make better their ROADS SAFE and ACCIDENT FREE.
ROAD SAFETY RESEARCH
Effective research on road safety issues is an essential pre-requisite to better understanding of the problem and provides the framework against which effective policies and counter-measures should be developed.
Research is usually undertaken in Universities and Research Institutes and is normally financed by the country in which the Research Institute or University is located.
Twenty eight research institutes and universities were identified as being most likely to have carried out road safety research in the Asia/Pacific region. A few of these research institutes and universities have become more seriously involved in road safety research in recent years and they, along with TRL, have provided the majority of background road safety research which has been undertaken in the region in recent years. The most important of these institutions are outlined below.
From the replies received (15 out of 28 at date of writing), the six most active organisations undertaking road safety research in the area appear to be:
1 Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), UK.
2 Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), India.
3 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), India.
4 Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Bangladesh.
5 Traffic Sciences Institute (TSI), (Korean Road Traffic Association), Korea.
6 The Korean Transport Institute (KOTI), Korea.
RESEARCH ACTIVITY BY THE ROAD SAFETY SECTORS
General Studies
Initial inputs to carry out assessments or appraisal where all road safety sectors are briefly evaluated have become common in the countries where further investment is expected. (i.e. long term adviser positions.) They offer an overview and can compare the various sectors efforts and the level of interaction and cooperation between sectors.
The road safety situation in Nepal, for example, was summarised in an initial two month road safety input which also outlined the subsequent work of the road safety component project. In Bangladesh, a similar process has been followed with a four to six month preliminary phase before the long term adviser and safety specialists are provided. A 1995 three month input in Vietnam was able to review the road safety sectors and provide an overview of the road safety situation. All of these foregoing projects have been financed through DFID funding.
Traffic Enforcement and Legislation
While most if not all countries in Asia and Pacific have revised their road regulations in the past 15 years, little bilateral technical assistance seems to have been provided in this sector nor does there seem to have been local research effort in such countries despite many countries sharing the same base for road regulations (The British Motor Vehicle Code 1939). Little exchange of information and experience has occurred and traffic regulations have generally been revised individually by each country. No regional manual has been produced similar to such manuals that exist in Africa and other regions of the world.Traffic Police training programmes have been developed by the CRRI with sponsorship from the Ministry of Surface Transport.
Highway patrolling was quite effective when it was introduced in Pakistan in the early 1980s as it discouraged overtaking and targeted road safety parking, both of which were known to contribute to road accidents in Pakistan.
Driver Training and Testing
Whilst commercial vehicles have frequently been found to have high accident involvement rates, only one commercial driver training programme has been identified so far in the region. As part of the two year input in Pakistan funded by DFID in the early 1980s, a two week bus driver re-training programme was provided. Bus driving standards are observed before and after the course and while bus driving standards showed improvement when drivers knew they were being observed, this improvement did not carry over to other times.Work in this area has continued over the past decade with a few DRTS systems in use in India.
Road Safety Education
IIT has been involved with the development of a road safety education primer for children. It began in 1991 at the International Conference of Road Safety in Delhi, the project is partly funded from the sale of paintings at the Conference. A literature research on children’s psychology in education programmes was undertaken and school teachers interviewed to identify the gaps in children’s traffic safety knowledge.
Motor Vehicle Insurance and Accident Costing
Accident costing research has been conducted in Vietnam and was attempted in Bangladesh where the set of under-reporting, lack of vehicle damage cost and inadequate time prevented any practical accident cost calculation from being developed. Accident costing is currently underway in Nepal and is facing similar problems of accident under-reporting and lack of vehicle damage cost data. The situation helped by the lack of any legal requirements of motor vehicle insurance in many countries.
INTERIM CONCLUSIONS
It is clear that a large amount of research appears to have been undertaken in India and some research has also been undertaken in Korea. The work of the TRL in the UK spans the whole of the region although much of the work has been concentrated in Indonesia, Thailand, Nepal, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
Tags: road safety in asian countries, road safety research in asian countries