Abstract:
This thesis provides a procedure for road safety improvement at identified accident
black spots. Accident rates in Sri Lanka are very high considering the population and
the number of vehicles on the road. Simple safety measures will lead to a significant
reduction of accidents at identified accident black spots. Black spots treatments are
likely to be the most effective and straight forward. Having identified an accident
black spot along a route, it is needed to identify nature of the problems leading to poor
safety.//
Moreover, there is no guideline at present to identify the reasons for the problems in
identified accident locations. The process developed here is further analysis than a
safety audit because in a safety audit, it is expected to treat all identified problems. In
this research it has been identified five major issues and their sub issues which caused
to accidents in Sri Lankan road network. The five issues are Road markings, Signing
and lightening, Layout geometric details and road surface, Pedestrians, Overtaking and
Land use.//
The five safety issues were finalized after following number of check lists which are
used in safety audits to enhance road safety. Moreover road expatriate experience in
Sri Lankan Road Agencies were in cooperated to expand and develop in a local
context when concluding the main issues. Method has been proposed to priotrize the
major issue, as most of our organizations are not in a position to rectify all identified
issues due to restricted funds. When priotrizing the major issue a sensitivity analysis
was done to get the suitable weightings in decision making criteria depending on
location. Then it could be implemented the most relevant safety measures for that
particular location with reference to the given safety measures in this document. An
important conclusion of this study is that implementing the given method it will
enhance the road safety in identified accident black spots with low cost but still very
effective safety measures. Moreover resulting more economic benefits to the society.