ROAD SAFETY ACTION INTERNATIONAL PRESENTED ROAD SAFETY RESEARCH AT THE GLOBAL ROAD TO TOMORROW CONFERENCE IN ARIZONA, USA.

Road Safety Action International is a for-impact institution working to make roads safe in Africa, with its first operation opened in Liberia. Our core function is the prevention of road accidents. As a for-impact organization, the need for data and insights to provide evidence-based tools to stakeholders (both road users and decision-makers) decision-making is paramount.

Henceforth, conducting research on road safety, especially within cities and communities in which road accidents are alarming has become one of our primary and immediate focus.

With the above focus, the Executive Director of Road Safety Action International (RSAI), Engr. Eric Gabriel Jenn-Judgges delivered one of RSAI’s research papers titled “Assessment of Pedestrian Risks at Unsignalized Intersections Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) on Tubman Boulevard in Monrovia” at the just-ended International Road Federation Global Road 2 Tomorrow Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.

The conduct of the studies that birthed this research paper was made possible through the financial and technical support of RSAI’s partners, including GIZ Liberia, the World Health Organization, the Global Road Safety Facility of The World Bank Group, the Liberia National Police (LNP), Ministry of Transport (MoT) and Ministry of Justice in Liberia, and Conex Energy.

The project has been centered on the need to observe the behavior of drivers and pedestrians at the selected intersections and identify various pedestrian hazards along Tubman Boulevard (TB), which is the major corridor traversing the city of Monrovia, to develop road safety interventions and policies for pedestrians' safety along the TB.

The project through its local partner – Edana Photography intuitively combined the use of a UAV survey at six intersections along the TB to observe drivers' and pedestrians’ interactions using an in-person pedestrian safety assessment along the 11.2km TB. As part of the in-person pedestrian safety assessment

RSAI recruited and trained senior engineering students from tertiary institutions in road safety audits and assessments. The trained enumerators conducted the in-person survey and identified various hazards along Tubman Boulevard.

The integration of these two methodologies provides RSAI with a comprehensive understanding of the interactions between drivers and pedestrians at the six intersections and the risks that pedestrians face when using the TB. Interestingly, the study found a total of 256 hazards along the 11.2 km corridor which is alarming. Open Storm drains and the absence of pedestrian sidewalks are the common hazards identified.

After the identification of the various hazards, each of them was placed into the Risk Matrix for further analysis. It was discovered that two-thirds of the hazards identified along Tubman Boulevard pose a high-risk impact to pedestrians as shown in the hazard graph and the risk matrix below.

As part of the session titled "TS1.4: Vision Zero, Case Studies, and Strategies" the two major findings under each of the methods give insights into what needs to be done when a corridor of similar nature is assessed. The findings are:

1.?????? UAV Survey

·?????? The constant violation of traffic regulations by drivers, particularly speeding toward pedestrians on crosswalks poses a significant danger to pedestrians and must be regulated by traffic devices.

·?????? The absence of law enforcement officers at some unsignalized intersections compromises pedestrian safety and must be corrected.

?2.?????? In-person Survey

·?????? The open Storm drains and the absence of pedestrian sidewalks are major hazards highlighted along the entire corridor and must be replaced or installed by the authorities responsible.

?·?????? Inadequate road markings and lighting further exacerbate the risks faced by pedestrians using it and must be addressed.

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