Abstract:
The rural road network is the lowest level of the physical transport chain, which creates accessibility and mobility for the rural populace connecting to the nearby highway network. Therefore, most of the rural populace can go to their farms, local markets, and social services, potentially increasing their real income and improving their quality of life through rural roads. A minimum level of service of the rural road networks is referred to as basic access, which is considered a fundamental human right, similar to the provision of basic health and education.
The roads belonging to the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) are termed “Rural Roads” and have a length of about 3,72,755 km, of which about 1,56,350 km have been improved by Asphalt Concrete or Reinforced Cement Concrete. However, deaths and injuries from road traffic crashes are considered a major growing public health epidemic in low-income countries like Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, about 4,000 people die and another 5,000 are injured by road traffic crashes each year. Still, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates the number of fatalities in the range of about 25,000. The crash data recording and reporting system in Bangladesh, as well as the studies regarding road safety, concentrates mainly on highways, leaving rural roads uncared. However, the rural road network is larger than the highway network.
However, most rural roads are not capable of carrying the increasing traffic volume due to insufficient pavement widths and non-uniform cross-sections. Different initiatives have been undertaken to improve the road safety of rural roads, such as traffic signs, signals and markings, which are highly inadequate in comparison to the requirements. Therefore, it is now a key concern for the holistic assessment of rural road safety considering the deficiencies of geometric dimensions in particular.
To visualize the real state of safety condition of rural roads in Bangladesh, strategically seven Upazila roads and one Union road are being selected for this research work. One road from one Division represents the maximum similarity and core road networks within the Division, and a total of eight roads cover the topographic and demographic characteristics of the whole country. The selection process also emphasizes the connectivity with potential growth centres, social institutions, sub-urban and exposure of the rural populace. The total length of the selected eight rural roads is 189.50 km which represents about 80% of the similar characteristics of the core road networks within the Divisions.
Available planning and design manuals/guidelines in LGED are thoroughly reviewed and extensive field observations on the selected rural roads are performed to identify the shortcomings in the planning and design process of LGED roads in addressing safety issues. It is found that there is a serious lack of addressing the safety issues in the planning and design process for the application of road safety features on LGED roads. It seems that the main reason behind this is that the rural roads managed by LGED are not yet recognized as high-risk roads in Bangladesh in terms of road safety, even though there exist instances of dangerous overtaking, overloading, and a mix of slow and fast-moving traffic. The situation thus reveals the need for strengthening the institutional capacity of LGED to identify the lack of safety features and take appropriate countermeasures to improve traffic safety.
A road safety inspection checklist for performing Road Safety Inspection (RSI) on rural roads in Bangladesh is developed through an extensive literature review of different online available safety inspection checklists with an emphasis on the practical applicability on selected rural roads that can be used as a guideline for LGED road safety inspection assignments.
The selected roads are also inspected to collect primary data following the developed road safety inspection checklist and relevant photographs along with videos for the vulnerable sections are captured for analyzing traffic safety. After analysing field observations and collected data through the checklist, it was found that about 80% of answers to the setting questions indicate low levels of traffic safety on rural roads. However, rural roads are becoming increasingly risky for motorised vehicles as well as for vulnerable road users. 100% of the selected rural roads are narrower than the existing LGED Standards of 2021 and only 16% of the road length has lane markings and without adequate traffic signs. Moreover, 30% of the road length showed shoulder drops and 24% of the road length is of curved sections without superelevation, and also sight obstructed by greeneries, trees and activities of vendors. 32% of the road surface is damaged and 6% of the length is unusable due to the roadside open drain. 100% of intersections on selected roads are without channelization, even at junctions with highways. There are 750 different roadside obstacles, 580 sight obstructions, 95 schools, 25,520 electric poles, and 36 Hat/Bazars along the alignments without traffic control devices which are creating roadside hazards. Most of the road surfaces are used for drying straws and jute by neighbours which hide the edge lines of the carriageways. Moreover, none of the eight roads have access control, even at intersections. Further, the state of the road traffic safety of the selected rural roads is compared by using VIDA online software of iRAP methodology, calculating the Star Ratings of the roads. The results obtained by the Road Safety Inspection Checklist and the Star Ratings by iRAP methodology reveal a similar characteristic of the state of the traffic safety of the roads.
Therefore, LGED can use the proposed Road Safety Inspection Checklist as a guideline to identify the lack of safety features for rural roads in Bangladesh.