Thread by @RantyHighwayman

Virtually at the 2021 @CIHTUK virtual #SoRSA conference this afterno. Looking forward to dusting off my road safety hat.

*Society of Road Safety Auditors - SoRSA, a specialist branch of CIHT.

TIL horses don't like changes in surface colour. It spooks them. Interesting video here

Interesting session on Stage 1 Road Safety Audits with this hypothetical scheme of a roundabout being plopped on an existing road to create a development access. Great choice as these are being built *badly* everywhere. From a walking and cycling point of view, we keep asking

To cross high speed entrances and exits right by the circulatory area with the speed assisting triangular refuges. We need to Go Dutch with these. Here's a real UK one.

Here's the Dutch version.

Now hearing from @RNIBScotland.

Issues of "shared space" being significant barriers to people with sight loss.

(My quotes as I don't like the term)

Good video on how people with sight loss cross the road.

Discussion on how difficult it has been for people with sight loss dealing with social distancing though the pandemic. Guide dogs don't understand social distancing! Also how temporary street layout changes have made it harder to navigate layouts.

Controlled crossings, kerbs and safe bus stop access are three street designs that help give people confidence. The latter is an ongoing challenge which needs work (my paraphrasing).

Scottish Government is undertaking some kerb height research using on-street layouts.

My own thoughts is we have so many different users with different needs and impacts from how kerbs are used, the more research the better.

Older Drivers Forum (set up in 2013) now. How can we help our aging population drive safer for longer and when should people retire from driving.

Lots of older people likely to carry on driving longer because of concerns about Covid. 20% of crash deaths involve older drivers.

Fatalities for over 70s likely to be 22% by 2040. By mid-70s, crashes aren't speed related, but mainly 'right of way' violations. Older drivers tend to keep away from high speed roads. Drivers over 65 take 22% longer to process what's happening. 2 car lengths at 60mph.

Solutions. Raise awareness to older drivers who become complacent. Offer voluntary driving assessments and eyesight tests. Road design to reduce risks.

Support needed for older drivers when they "retire" from driving.
olderdriversforum.com for more information.

33% of over 40s affected visual deterioration through various conditions. Road design options. Large fonts, longer merges, roundabouts rather than T-junctions, spiral markings. Make roads easy to understand; people should be able to deal with one thing at a time.

Of course, that's also known as Sustainable Safety across the North Sea!

My question is why do we have a transport system which forces people to drive for longer in the first place.

Geek session now debating whether or not things really are safety issues. Quite niche, so back tomorrow afternoon on this thread.

Back for the second part of #SoRSA2021

Presentation on how road safety auditors can better understand active travel schemes. My flippant response is they need to do more walking and cycling (as well designing).

Going through some issues with popup schemes - wand protected cycle lanes starting beyond bends and awkward bus stops with cycle track running through boarding area.

On the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges, discussion around the use of GG142 Walking Cycling and Horse-riding Assessment and Review. Key message is getting this stuff in at the start and not bolted on later down the line. I'm not convinced this happens often enough.

GG142 useful for larger local authority schemes which is highlighted as good practice in LTN1/20.

Good question about whether schemes *should* be cycled. Speaker doesn't see how it could be mandated as such, but audit team needs a wide range of skills. My view is that some schemes will be downright terrifying to cycle! Seriously, nothing stops an audit team bringing in

specialist advice and I'll extend that to paying people with lived experience such as disabled people and even local cycling campaigns.

We should remember that the road safety auditors are there to audit and not redesign the schemes. There's designers for that.

Next up a session about when safety audits go wrong for vulnerable road users (I personally dislike that term; traffic and road design makes people vulnerable).

And it's our very own @bricycle!

Hah. He's taking apart his own talk title. 😂

OK. Some anonymous real life examples.

Brian is saying that how much of the process is concerned with the view through a windscreen. Seems to me this needs to be an #ideaswithbeers special (assuming he hasn't already done that).

CDV @ibikebrighton can take a swig

Interesting point about the potential loss of momentum leading people cycling to do "unsafe" things but because moving under your own steam takes energy and so designs shouldn't mean loss of momentum (my paraphrasing). Yes. This.

***** SIDE ROAD ZEBRA CROSSINGS KLAXON ***** Brian saying auditors should be flagging crossings not on the desire line.

Putting in guardrail is a safety audit recommendation fail

I can't keep up with the slides 😂 final point - kids can't cope with judging speeds over 20mph - big safety risk where people live on roads faster than 20mph.

Hopefully news on the side road zebras soon...

Next talk. John Franklin. The Cyclecraft guy 👀

Scheme which expect people to cycle slowly or have diversions is an issue when it is under people's own steam. Well I agree with that. But here we go. Ride with traffic 😬

in smaller towns. Only safe way of using roundabouts is probably grade separation but the confident may stick to the carriageway if the layout slows them down.

Actually, he's coming at the problem from the other end. If you expect people to ride on poor infrastructure don't be surprised but they don't use it and therefore end up in dangerous conditions.

Cycle facilities along side the road are aimed at the less confident and the more confident will stick to the carriageway but this leads to driver aggression for not using the facilities (my paraphrasing). He says that shared paths should be called out as bad by auditors

I'd say that's a depends. Apparently there's no research to show that cycling off road is safer; also cycle lanes are dangerous unless up to 2m. I think the big problem here is people having lived with poor layouts for years have resorted to the road and now cannot see how we

can do better. Toucans with poles in a shared path and also tight turning radii which are hard to use.

He really doesn't like separate cycling facilities.

Summary slide. I'm not against those points by the way.

He doesn't like roundabouts at all. The Netherlands is obviously a fantasyland.

I asked that isn't the issue poor cycling infrastructure design rather than separating people from traffic. Poll after poll tells us people want to be protected. The answer was something about shared paths. Sorry @CIHTUK, not sure auditors should be taking all of that seriously.

Now Will Haynes from Sustrans on their network review where roads have been taken off because they're too dangerous. I assume Franklin would just take the lane (slaps own wrist).

Will telling us that with LTN1/20 mixing with traffic only works for everyone where we are down to 20mph and is less than 2,500pcu a day.

Discussion around providing decent separation with cycle tracks on busy rural roads. On the other hand, how can we make smaller rural roads safer in terms of design, access control and speed management. Tricky.

Big challenge to provide low speed and low volumes of traffic on rural routes when on-road.

OK. The conference is moving to the wrap up. It's been really interesting @CIHTUK, even the stuff I personally disagree with (I need to push the case harder!). Thanks to try speakers. Hopefully #SoRSA2022 will be in person, although not having to travel hasn't been terrible! /End