An excellent example of road safety engineering. But a slight headache for my Road Safety Audit course planning.
I was in Oakville, Canada this week delivering the Safe System Solutions Pty Ltd x Good Roads Road Safety Audit course, and one of the sites I’d lined up for our practical inspections had already undergone a substantial safety upgrade.
I’d originally identified the site using some basic risk scanning and StreetView. I had raised an eyebrow at the bridge piers. A significant lane departure risk for prospective Road Safety Auditors to identify and recommend safety improvements.
But when I arrived to do my pre-course inspection, I was delighted to discover that someone had already made a significant improvement. (and an excellent job they’d done).
The infrastructure upgrade substantially reduce the lane departure risk at the site. Exactly the sort of engineering intervention that can prevent fatalities and serious injuries.
It was a fairly easy pivot (I always have a few backup sites ready to go), but I liked this one so much that I squeezed it in as a ‘before and after’ field trip as part of our lane departure safety day.
We had a brilliant group of 27 consultants and municipal technical engineers looking to take the next step into Road Safety Auditing. Lots of good discussion, practical site inspections and some excellent thinking about how infrastructure influences crash risk.
And a special thank you to whoever was involved in planning, designing, funding and constructing the upgrade at this site. I don’t know who you are, but you’ve made Oakville a safer place. [You also made me do some quick site juggling, but it was well worth it.]
