Reliable and accurate data are needed in each stage of road safety management in order to correctly identify problems and risk factors and priority treatments, and to formulate strategy, set targets and monitor performance. Ongoing, data-led diagnosis and management of the leading road safety problems enables appropriate action and resource allocation. Data relevant to road safety are collected every day, but for these data to be useful for informing road safety practice, they must be properly coded and visualized, processed and analysed in a systematic way. With the road system management strategy switching from 3Es to Safe System, there is additional challenges and demand for the integrated use of various types of road safety data. In this paper, the development of an integrated road safety data management system is introduced. The road safety data management system consists of a geospatial database for storing, querying and analysing road safety related data including crash records, road safety deficiency records, carriageway, surfacing, geometry, skid resistance, signs and road marking etc, and a GIS mapping platform for visualizing and integrating different data sets. Data from a State Highway network is used to demonstrate the potential application areas of the information system developed, such as identification of crash hot-spots, development of safety intervention and safety management strategies, planning of minor safety improvement programme, and investigation of severe and fatal crashes.

1. Enhancing road safety management
with geospatial database and GIS
mapping
Dr Wei Liu
GHD

2. Enhancing road safety management with
geospatial database and GIS mapping
Overview of Presentation
• Background
• Development of Integrated Road Safety Data Management
System
• Demonstrations of Potential Applications
• Summary and Conclusions

3. Background – Data is crucial
• Data is the cornerstone of all road
safety activities and is essential for
the diagnosis of road crashes and
for monitoring road safety efforts.
• Without ongoing, data-led
diagnosis and management of the
leading road safety problems, it is
difficult to achieve significant and
sustainable road safety
improvements.
Define
problems
Identify
risk
factors
and
priorities
Formulate
Strategy
Set targets
and monitor
performance

4. Background – Data Use in Safe
System
• Safer Journeys, New Zealand’s Road
Safety Strategy 2010-20, adopts a
safe system approach to road safety
focused on creating safe roads, safe
speeds, safe vehicles and safe road
use.
• This approach represents a
fundamental shift in the way we
think about road safety, as there is
the additional challenge and
demand for integrated and effective
use of various types of data to
achieve our road safety targets

5. Background – Data Management
Issues
• Data Hard to Reach
• Data not in Friendly Format
• Data Rich, Intelligence Poor

6. Development of Integrated Road
Safety Data Management System
• An integrated road safety data
management system, consisting
of a road safety database and a
mapping tool, has been
developed.
• WestWaikato State Highway
Network
GHD
Integrated
Road Safety
Data
Management
System
CAS
Detailed Crash
Information
RAMM
Road Safety
Studies

7. Development of Integrated Road
Safety Data Management System
• RAMM
• Carriageway Section
• Carriageway Surface
• Signs
• Road Markings
• Skid Resistance
• Out-of-Context Curves
• FWP
• …

8. Development of Integrated Road
Safety Data Management System
• Road Safety Studies

9. Spatial-Referenced Road Safety
Database
• Spatial referenced road safety data
• Spatial queries designed to search
within the available road safety
related data to satisfy a given
geometry condition
• Distance
• Overlap
• Contain
• Tools are available to convert data
between a linear referencing system
and a spatial referencing system.

10. Road Safety Data Mapping
• Visualises AllTypes of Road Safety
Data in a Single Platform
• Integrates DifferentType of Road
Safety Data Spatially
• Friendly and Easy-to-Use Interface
• Take Advantage of Functionalities
and Information Layers (such as
Streetview) within Google Earth /
Map
• Convenient to Share Information
with Others

11. Road Safety Data Mapping

12. Potential Applications
• Understanding safety risks in the
network level
• Gathering information for road
safety studies
• Safety improvement project
identification and prioritisation –
hot spot analysis

15. Hot Spot Analysis

16. Summary and Conclusions
• Effective use of data is a challenge in road safety management under the
safe system approach.
• An integrated road safety data management system has been developed by
GHD, and has the potential to make the most of data.
• By applying the system , more informed decisions on road safety
improvements can be achieved.