TAILORING ROAD SAFETY AUDITS FOR LOCAL US APPLICATIONS

Road Safety Audit (RSA) concept has proven to be highly effective in identifying and reducing the crash potential in the planning and design of roadway projects. It is a tool that is just beginning to be used by some United States departments of transportation, in concert with their existing efforts to emphasize safety in the design of new projects. This paper presents a brief introduction to the RSA concept, and highlights applications tailored for local road agencies. For the over 38,000 local governments, improving existing road safety is of primary importance. A safety program using the RSA concept also has the potential to reduce tort liability.