Ms. Irina Golovchenko, Head of ROSDORNII's Department for Traffic Management and Safety, participated online as a speaker in the International Seminar “Road Safety: Current Scenario & Way Forward”. The event was held in the city of Indore by the Indian Roads Congress on October 28-29, 2022.
Ms. Irina Golovchenko told her Indian colleagues about the principles of ensuring pedestrian safety in the Russian Federation. ROSDORNII experts studied traffic accident rates in the country and found out that in 2021 the total number of traffic accidents decreased by 3.1 percent compared to 2020. However, the share of traffic accidents involving pedestrians remains high - 26.8 percent of the total number of such cases.
"A common cause of traffic accidents involving pedestrians is ignorance or disregard of traffic rules. Moreover, about 39.7 percent of such collisions occur precisely at crosswalks, more often in the hours of darkness," the expert noted.
Ms. Irina Golovchenko showcased the draft national standard GOST R (ГОСТ Р) "Roads and streets. Safety of pedestrian traffic. General requirements" which had been developed by FAI "ROSDORNII". While preparing the document the data of traffic accident statistics analysis for the previous five years, domestic and world experience in traffic accident prevention were taken into account. The draft standard has already undergone a number of approvals, including with the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, and has been endorsed by the Technical Committee for Standardization TC 418 (ТК 418).
The provisions of the standard enable the implementation of modern practices of improving the safety of pedestrian traffic. The main set of requirements applies to signalized and unsignalized crosswalks. In addition, there are requirements to ensure safety in residential areas, including the use of traffic calming methods: furnishing elevated intersections and roundabouts, reducing the number of traffic lanes or reducing their width.
The standard also contains requirements for employing illumination for the contour of the Г-shaped traffic lights support, light projection of horizontal road markings, safety islands and means of automatic photo-video capturing at signalized crosswalks of road and street blackspots.
Background Information
FAI "ROSDORNII" is a developer of fundamental standards in the field of road traffic management and safety. The developed standards in the field of road traffic management and safety are main standardization documents that are followed by all designers of integrated road traffic management systems, state control and supervisory authorities operating in the sphere of road traffic safety.
Most of the standards are included in the list of standardization documents whose mandatory application ensures road traffic safety (Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 04.11.2017 No. 2438-p).