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                        FHWA Road Safety Audit Guidelines


            
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                1.0 Introduction
Part A: Background to Road Safety Audits

*These guidelines are intended to promote the implementation of RSAs in the United States.*

1.1 Purpose

The primary purpose of this guideline is to provide a foundation for public agencies to draw upon when developing their own Road Safety Audit (RSA) policies and procedures and when conducting RSAs within their jurisdiction. The availability of a consistent guideline is anticipated to lead to a better understanding of the core concepts of RSAs and to promote their use.

1.2 Scope of Guidelines

These guidelines were developed by building upon experiences gained in the United States and in other countries. They are meant to present basic RSA principles, to encourage public agencies to implement RSAs, and to embrace them as part of their everyday
practice. When used they should be tailored to suit local conditions.

1.3 What are Road Safety Audits?

An RSA is a formal safety performance examination of an existing or future road or intersection by an independent audit team. It qualitatively estimates and reports on potential road safety issues and identifies opportunities for improvements in safety for all road users.
RSAs represent an additional tool within the suite of tools that currently make up a multidisciplinary safety management system aimed at improving safety.

As such, RSAs are not a replacement for:

Design quality control or standard compliance checks also known as “safety reviews of design”
	Traffic impact or safety impact studies
	Safety conscious planning
	Road safety inventory programs
	Traffic safety modeling efforts*What are Road Safety Audits.*
Confusing RSAs with the quality control of design is the most common misinterpretation of the role and nature of an RSA. Compliance with design standards, while important, does not necessarily result in an optimally safe road design and, conversely, failure to achieve compliance with standards does not necessarily result in a design that is unacceptable from a safety perspective.

**What are road safety audits?**

RSAs are:

Focused on road safety.
	A formal examination.
	Proactive in nature.
	Conducted by a multidisciplinary team (more than one auditor).
	Conducted by an audit team that is independent of the design team.
	Conducted by an audit team that is adequately qualified, both individually and as a team.
	Broad enough to consider the safety of all road users and road facilities.
	Qualitative in nature.**What road safety audits are NOT!**

RSAs are:

Not a means to evaluate, praise or critique design work.
	Not a check of compliance with standards.
	Not a means of ranking or justifying one project over another.
	Not a means of rating one design option over another.
	Not a redesign of a project.
	Not a crash investigation or crash data analysis (although the crash history of an existing road is reviewed to make sure that previous crash patterns have been addressed).
	Not a safety review.The aim of an RSA is to answer the following questions:

What elements of the road may present a safety concern: to what extent, to which road users, and under what circumstances?
	What opportunities exist to eliminate or mitigate identified safety concerns?
      
  Book traversal links for 1.0 Introduction
      ‹ Preface
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                    2.0 Implementation of Road Safety Audits ›
                
                Book:FHWA Road Safety Audit Guidelines
              Preface
                1.0 Introduction
                2.0 Implementation of Road Safety Audits
                3.0 Overview of Road Safety Audit Process
                4.0 Conducting Road Safety Audits
                5.0 Pre-construction Road Safety Audits
                6.0 Construction Road Safety Audits
                7.0 Post-construction Road Safety Audits
                8.0 Road Safety Audit Prompt Lists
                Prompt List
                Pre-construction Phase: Prompt List 1 – Planning Stage Audit
                Pre-construction Phase: Prompt List 2 – Preliminary Design Stage Audit
                Pre-construction Phase: Prompt List 3 – Final Design Stage Audit
                Construction Phase: Prompt List 4 – Work Zone Traffic Control Plan Audit
                Construction Phase: Prompt List 5 – Pre-Opening Stage Audit
                Post-construction Phase: Prompt List 6 – Existing Road Audit
                Development Projects: Prompt List 7 – Land Use Development Proposals Audit
                Appendix A
                Appendix B U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

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