Road safety audit of Suratgarh bypass link road in Rajasthan, India.

Road safety is a major global concern for today's rapid world that has no time to waste. The concept of Road safety auditing (RSA) is well in implementation in developed nations like USA, Australia, Qatar etc. However it is not in a desired state of implementation in developing nations. RSA is an organized procedure to assess the quality and conditions in terms of Safety standards of the existing roads or proposed road projects. This is a valuable tool to anticipate the occurrences of road crashes or fatalities and it also indicates the approach to rectify the safety issues proactively. With the help of comprehensive amount of data from conducted RSA, the governments can draft and upgrade the protocols for designing and building safer roads for all kinds of road users. The aim of this study is to emphasize the need of RSA at DPR stage or design phase to curb the crashes and fatalities before they occur. A stretch of a link road connecting SH-94/MDR-103 and NH-62 was chosen for this study. This link road acts as a bypass for Suratgarh City and connects the traffic coming from on SH-94 Hanumangarh to NH-62. According to the local residents of Suratgarh City, the said portion of the road reports 3-4 major crashes every month, making it a perfect candidate for the study as the crashes are mostly because of design flaws which are pointed out in the paper. In the later part of the study, customized solutions are provided so as to rectify the fatal issues of the design to enhance the safety for road users. Towards the end, the study suggests some changes that can be incorporated with the concept of the Highway alignment and profiling for the concerned authorities or Governments to boost up the safety of their road users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]