Under the motto “A world free of high-risk roads,” the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) is a charitable organization dedicated to saving lives by eliminating high-risk roads worldwide through evidence-based interventions.
iRAP works in partnership with governments, road authorities, mobility clubs, development banks, NGOs, and research organizations to:
- Inspect high-risk roads and develop star ratings, risk maps, and investment plans for safer roads.
- Provide training, technology, and support to develop and maintain national, regional, and local capacity.
- Monitor road safety performance so that funding agencies can assess the benefits of their investments.
In road assessment, iRAP considers four phases:
- Creating risk maps based on accident history.
- Coding collected data to develop a star rating.
- Designing investment plans with recommendations and selection of economic indicators.
- Performance monitoring with map tracking and rating development.
Star Rating
It consists of a visual inspection of 60 elements of the road infrastructure that have an impact on the likelihood and severity of a collision, generating a road protection score.
The most important part of obtaining the star rating is the data coding, as it allows cataloging the physical characteristics of the road according to its type. Depending on the score obtained, iRAP assigns 5 classifications or ranges represented by stars (1 being the lowest and 5 stars being the highest that can be obtained).
Furthermore, this evaluation not only grants a rating to vehicle users but also reports conditions for pedestrians, motorcyclists, and cyclists, thus predicting a different scale for each type of user; a 5-star level means that the road is very safe, while a road with one star means that it is very unsafe.
After obtaining the star rating, as well as the investment plans, the implementation of the measures suggested by the evaluation is carried out. Once construction executive projects are carried out, they are audited to ensure that the actions are aligned with iRAP reports.
Consequently, monitoring is carried out to verify the evolution of road infrastructure conditions over a specific period, and there is clarity regarding the actions to be taken to achieve improvement through the suggestions that iRAP elaborates for each evaluated road.
In its Plan for the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety, iRAP has set the goal of saving more than 2,000,000 people from death or injury, making more than 200,000 km of roads safer, and influencing USD$200 billion in road infrastructure investment to save lives over the next 10 years.
iRAP’s plan is aligned with the global plan for the Decade of Action launched in October 2021, of which achieving 3-star or higher trips is one of the 5 key areas of action.
iRAP was formed in 2006 and was granted charitable status in 2011 (registered charity in the UK 1140257). The organization is structured as an umbrella entity for road assessment programs worldwide.
In November 2022, the Aleatica Foundation celebrated the signing of a memorandum of understanding with iRAP. Alongside them, the Aleatica Foundation is promoting tangible changes that involve saving thousands of lives in Mexico, through programs and projects aimed at saving lives and reducing traffic injuries on high-performance roads through three main avenues: capacity development, outreach and communication, and policy advocacy.
