Transportation safety is a crucial aspect of civil engineering design, as it affects the well-being of people, the environment, and the economy. How can you invest in transportation safety for a more sustainable future? In this article, you will learn about some of the key principles, methods, and tools that can help you achieve this goal.
One of the first steps in investing in transportation safety is to identify and evaluate the potential hazards and consequences of different transportation modes, systems, and scenarios. Risk assessment is a systematic process that involves collecting and analyzing data, estimating the likelihood and severity of adverse events, and prioritizing the actions to reduce or mitigate them. Risk assessment can help you design safer and more resilient transportation infrastructure, policies, and practices.
A hazard is “something with the potential to cause harm” and a risk is “the likelihood of that potential harm being realised”. Hazards can be identified by using a number of different techniques, such as walking round the workplace or asking your employees.
Another important aspect of investing in transportation safety is to measure and monitor the safety performance of your transportation projects and programs. Safety performance is the degree to which your transportation activities meet the desired safety objectives and standards. Safety performance indicators are quantitative or qualitative measures that reflect the safety outcomes or outputs of your transportation activities. Safety performance indicators can help you evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of your safety interventions, identify the gaps and opportunities for improvement, and communicate the results to stakeholders.
For any state/government authority to boast about having a reliable and safe transportation network, they need to first invest holistically in their transportation infrastructure. One cannot shy away from the negative impact that ailing transportation infrastructure is having on its users (i.e. commuters). For a safe and sustainable transportation system, it's incumbent on any state/government authority to ensure prioritization of their transit network, with a sharp focus on safety.
A third essential element of investing in transportation safety is to foster a positive safety culture among your transportation organization, partners, and users. Safety culture is the shared values, beliefs, and attitudes that influence how people think and behave regarding safety in transportation. Safety culture can affect the level of safety awareness, commitment, and responsibility of your transportation staff, contractors, operators, and customers. Safety culture can help you create a supportive and collaborative environment that encourages learning, innovation, and continuous improvement in transportation safety.
A fourth key factor of investing in transportation safety is to leverage the potential of safety technology to enhance your transportation design, operation, and management. Safety technology is the application of scientific and engineering knowledge and methods to solve transportation safety problems or create new transportation safety solutions. Safety technology can include various types of devices, software, systems, or platforms that can collect, process, analyze, or display safety-related information, or that can control, automate, or optimize safety-related functions or processes. Safety technology can help you improve the safety performance, reliability, and efficiency of your transportation systems and services.
A fifth vital component of investing in transportation safety is to provide and promote safety education for your transportation staff, partners, and users. Safety education is the process of acquiring and transferring knowledge, skills, and attitudes that enable people to recognize, avoid, or cope with transportation safety risks or hazards. Safety education can involve various forms of training, instruction, guidance, or awareness-raising activities that can target different groups or levels of transportation stakeholders. Safety education can help you increase the safety competence, confidence, and behavior of your transportation personnel, collaborators, and clients.
A sixth and final aspect of investing in transportation safety is to pursue and support safety innovation for your transportation projects and programs. Safety innovation is the introduction and adoption of new or improved transportation safety products, services, processes, or practices that can create value for your transportation organization, partners, and users. Safety innovation can result from research, development, testing, or experimentation that can generate new or better transportation safety ideas, methods, or solutions. Safety innovation can help you achieve higher levels of safety performance, quality, and satisfaction for your transportation systems and services.