Partners

SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research

The Netherlands

SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research (www.swov.nl) was founded in 1962 by the Dutch Ministry of Transport and by organisations representing the private sector. SWOV’s mission is to improve road safety by knowledge from scientific research. Research results are disseminated to policy makers and those whose work involves road traffic and road safety in the Netherlands and abroad. SWOV is a non-profit, interdisciplinary and impartial scientific institute that carries out road safety research. About 50 researchers, plus supporting staff, work on the areas of the road user, vehicles, the road infrastructure, analysis of road safety, and support of decision-making processes in this field. Other areas, which have a relationship with road safety, are also involved in the research. Prominent areas are environment, public health, physical planning, and mobility. Both nationally and internationally, SWOV has an excellent reputation, thanks to its high standard of research and its scientifically founded recommendations.

SWOV has extensive experience in coordinating international consortia and has also participated as a team member in numerous international projects over the past 50 years. Over the years, SWOV has conducted or commissioned numerous studies, published over 1000 papers and organised many meetings and conferences. These include large-scale research and consultancy projects financed by the EU (e.g. SafetyCube; SaferAfrica; PROLOGUE, UDRIVE, SUSTAIN, RIPCORD-Iserest etc.) as well as several projects financed by CEDR (e.g. ERASER, RISMET, EUSight; Esret and the ongoing ISAAC project). SWOV was one of the three participating (i.e. safest) countries in SUNFLOWER and its follow-up SUNFLOWER+6
and is one of the founders of the Safe Systems approach. SWOV is represented in the Board of FERSI: Forum of European Road Safety Research Institutes.

In the area of road design generally and road sides and verges specifically, SWOV was involved in the Ripcord-Iserest project and later in the Eranet_roads Safety at the Heart of Road design programme. In these SWOV was responsible for providing outlines for RSA and RSI, design requirements for cross-sectional elements, developing tools for road safety management and establishing Crash Prediction Modelling and effect estimation as State-of the Art tools. SWOV is actively involved in various CROW working groups responsible for road design and has recently developed procedures and design guidelines for improving the safety of rural 80km/h roads. In addition SWOV recently completed a study on road side safety for the National Roads Authority and developed a decision support framework for safe road side treatments.

Responsible person:
– Govert Schermers

Other persons involved:
– Jan Hendrik van Petegem
– Atze Dijkstra

TRL Transport Research Laboratory

United Kingdom

TRL (the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory) is one of the largest and most comprehensive independent centres working in transport in the world. For over 80 years, TRL has successfully delivered evidence-based technical projects that provide our customers with value for money, competitive advantage and better understanding of their unique transport challenges. TRL’s work covers policy development for governments and international funding institutions, standards setting for highway and vehicle design, specification and assessment of lTS. We work to formulate policies on road safety, improve transport and the environment, and encourage good traffic engineering practice. Our work for companies enables them to gain added value in providing and maintaining transport infrastructure and services, or to minimise the cost of transport on their operations. In particular, TRL works closely with Highways England on an extensive range of issues, from cooperative vehicle systems to smart highways and sustainable mobility. TRL also has a significant track record of successful involvement in CEDR, ERA-NET ROAD and other EC projects.

In the area of roadside safety TRL has been doing pioneering research over the last few decades in national and European level. These include projects such as:

Safer Verges – Part II: Development of Solutions (ongoing)
Safer Verges Scoping Study (2016)
Investigating the Requirement for Median Safety Barriers on Loop Ramps (2016)
Motorcyclists and Barriers on the Highways Agency Road Network (2014)
Development of a Policy for the Provision of ‘Motorcycle Friendly’ Adjuncts to Road Restraint Systems for Transport Scotland (2013)
Update of testing requirements for Lorry Mounted Crash Cushions (2007)
Whole Life Cost-Benefit Analysis for Median safety Barriers (2004), and specifically EU and CEDR funded international projects such as:
ROBUST – Road Barrier Update of Standards (2007)
SAVeRS – Selection of Appropriate Vehicle Restraint Systems (2013), for which we led and delivered majority of Work Package One, which is referenced heavily in this year’s CEDR Call.
TRL was also invloved in CEDR’s Safety at the Heart of road design (Rismet and Eraser) in 2009 and with EUSight and EsREt during 2013/4

Responsible person:
– Ceki Erkinbas

Other persons involved:
– Camilla Fowler

ARUP

Ireland

Arup are an independent firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists offering a broad range of professional services. We comprise over 10,000 staff working in more than 90 offices in 37 countries throughout the world. We have offices in 9 of the 27 CEDR Countries; Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom and these contacts will be explored during the execution of PROGRESS.

Arup, founded by Ove Arup in 1946, is one of Ireland’s largest consulting engineering practices with over 500 personnel. Innovative design solutions and value-engineered projects characterize our work. Arup’s objective is to undertake our work in a commercially, socially, and economically sustainable manner and to provide our clients with ‘added value’, integrated and sustainable design solutions. Arup Dublin has significant experience of highways design, construction and procurement in the last fifteen years allowing us to bring to this project
our technical ability and knowledge of standards and best practice.

What Arup bring to the PROGRESS Project is our unique familiarity with the road design standards across Europe through our work in the updating the NRA DMRB Road Geometry standards. We have already compared geometric parameters in different European standards as part of this work.

Arup Ireland has significant experience of highways design, construction and procurement allowing us to bring our technical ability and knowledge of standards and best practice to this project.

Particularly relevant to PROGRESS is ARUP’s unique familiarity with the road design standards across Europe through our work updating the Transport Infrastructure Ireland Road Geometry standards which included comparisons of geometric standards across Europe as well as further afield.

Responsible person:
– Thomas Connell

Other persons involved:
– Zita Langenbach

LNEC Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil, I.P

Portugal

The National Laboratory for Civil Engineering (LNEC) was founded in 1946. It is a public research institute dedicated to science and technology that develops activity in multiple fields of Civil Engineering and related areas. It has a staff of about 500 members, including 125 research fellows with a PhD or equivalent degree.

The missions of LNEC are to provide technical advice for public policies development and implementation and to provide expert support to the public authorities in Public Administration sectors, particularly in what concerns the quality and safety of works, the protection and re-qualification of both natural and built heritage, as well as the technological upgrading and innovation, namely in the building construction sector. Activity related to regulation, standardization and quality of construction is equally relevant.

LNEC is organized in 8 operative services (departments) that correspond to its major lines of activity, the Transportation Department being dedicated to transport infrastructures (pavements and rail tracks) and their building materials, transport planning and economics, and road traffic characterization and safety modelling,

The Transportation Department is responsible for LNEC’s participation in PROGRESS.

LNEC’s Transportation Department has considerable experience in applied road safety research, carried out on commission to international institutions (EU, ERANET, ITF) and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and include :

  • 2016-… SAFERAFRICA – Innovating Dialogue and Problems Appraisal for a Safer Africa (H2020)
  • 2015 – … A methodology for benchmarking road safety performance in selected Latin American
    countries (ITF)
  • 2007-2011 – SAFESIDE – Roadside Safety, project financed by FCT (PTDC/TRA/74520/2006), with development of extensive set of roadside accident prediction models and of a method for benefit-cost analysis of alternative roadside safety interventions.
  • 2005-2010 – IRUMS – Safer Urban Road Infrastructures, project financed by FCT (
    (POCI/TRA/58259/2004)
  • 2009/2011 – RISMET – Road Infrastructure Safety Management Evaluation Tools (ERANET program)
  • 2004/2008 – RIPCORD-ISEREST – Road Infrastructure Safety Protection (6th RTD Framework
    Programme)
  • 2004/2008 – IN-SAFETY – Infrastructure and Safety Protection (6th RTD Framework Programme)
  • 2004/2009 – SAFETY-NET – The European Road Safety Observatory (6th RTD FP)
  • 2004/2006 – SUNFLOWER+6 – Comparative studies of road safety developments in European countries (EC)

Several technical tools for the application of the EU Directive 2008/96/CE-Road Safety Infrastructure Management were developed at LNEC, on commission to the Transit authority:

  • Bayesian detection of accident black spots and safety interventions
  • Road safety audits manual
  • Road safety inspections procedures and technical manual
  • Manual for road safety impact assessment of infrastructure projects
  • Detection of high risk sections (network safety ranking) and safety interventions (manual in preparation for the road administration)

Regarding road design, several contributions to Portuguese standards and recommendations were developed by LNEC, on commission to the Portuguese National Road Administration and the National Road Safety Authority:

  • Development of the Portuguese guidelines on roadside design for safety
  • Development of the Portuguese recommendations concerning the selection and application of EN1317 compliant safety barriers.
  • Updating of the previous Road design guidelines.

Responsible person:
– Joao Cardoso

Other persons involved:
– Carlos Roque
– Sandra Vieira Gomes

Prof Roland Weber, University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt, Department Civil Engineering

Germany

Leader of the project group of Federal Highway Research Institute ‘Safety of rural roads’.

German Road and Transportation Research Association,

  • Leader of the working group ‘Road Safety Handbook’
  • Member of the ‘Working group Rural Road Design’.

Co-Ordinator of the EU funded project Ripcord-Iserest.

Member of the Program Executive Board of the ERA-NET Road Programs

  • ‘Safety at the hard of road design’
  • ’Effective Asset Management meeting future challenges’
  • ‘Sustainability and Energy Efficient Management of Roads’
  • Member of the working group ‘Speed Management’ of the Joint Transport Research Centre of the OECD

Member of the Consortium of the project ‘EUSight’ of the CEDR- Transnational Road Research Programme, Call 2013