KOTI - Korea Transport institute

Road safety improvement projects in local governments are various in Korea including black spot improvement, school zone, pedestrian zone, village zone projects etc. They have contributed to improving road safety in local governments since 1988. However, we have not considered synergy effect which can be promoted by coordinating or integrating various road safety improvement projects. This study aims at showing how to coordinate these projects in a certain urban area to prevent road crashes and to reduce the severity of casualties and damages. The study has classified road safety improvement projects in operation in terms of points, routes, and areas. For the projects in the point scope, it has included black spot improvement and roundabout projects. For those in the route scope, it has included school zone, silver zone, pedestrian priority street, and village zone projects. In terms of area scope, it has included pedestrian priority areas and Safe Speed 5030 projects. It has also identified some advantages of coordinating road safety improvement projects such as reduction of accident migration, identification of area-wide crash characteristics, overall cost reduction and more crash reduction, and better consideration of vulnerable road users such as children, the elderly, and bicyclists.
There are some consideration points to coordinate road safety improvement projects effectively. It should first decide which team is responsible for the coordination work in the local government office. It can be a road safety team preferably. Secondly, the list of road safety improvement projects which can be integrated should be identified. Thirdly the spatial boundary of candidate areas where road safety improvement projects will be coordinated. Fourthly the priority of areas for coordinated project implementation should be decided since the local government cannot deal with all candidate areas at a time. Fifthly detailed coordination plans need to be set up for each candidate areas. Then selected road safety improvement projects to need to be implemented at designated areas as planned. The example coordination plan in a selected area in Sonpa-gu in Seoul shows that the overall road safety in this area will be significantly improved if pedestrian priority street, black spot improvement, Safe Speed 5030 projects can be coordinated in the area.