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Evaluation of safety benefits of the road cross section upgrading on the Okahandja Karibib road in Namibia

Globally, road fatalities have reached pandemic proportions. The Decade of Action for Road Safety of the United Nations has the aim to reduce road fatalities (UN, 2017, page 23). This dissertation investigates the Global and Namibian road safety status. The global road fatality rate is 17.7 deaths p...

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Main Author: Hepkema, Watze
Other Authors: Vanderschuren, Marianne
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Civil Engineering 2019
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access_status_str Open Access
author Hepkema, Watze
author2 Vanderschuren, Marianne
author_browse Hepkema, Watze
Vanderschuren, Marianne
author_facet Vanderschuren, Marianne
Hepkema, Watze
author_sort Hepkema, Watze
collection Thesis
description Globally, road fatalities have reached pandemic proportions. The Decade of Action for Road Safety of the United Nations has the aim to reduce road fatalities (UN, 2017, page 23). This dissertation investigates the Global and Namibian road safety status. The global road fatality rate is 17.7 deaths per 100 000 population, and the Africa continent has 26.6 deaths per 100 000 population (WHO, 2015, page 6). Namibia, in 2016, had around 34 deaths per 100 000 population (MVA, 2016, page 5). Namibia, with a small population of 2,2 million people (Census, 2011), is part of the Decade of Action. The crashes in Namibia are reviewed to determine if there are any trends on where and when they occur. The three most frequent crashes in Namibia are roll-over crashes, at 29% of all crashes, collisions at 28% of all crashes, with head-on crashes the most fatal and pedestrian crashes, which account for 22% of all crashes (MVA, 2016, page 5) International reports on mitigation measures for these three types of crashes were reviewed. The trunk road network of Namibia forms the major transport corridor network that connects the major cities and neighbouring countries. Trunk roads are generally 7.0m wide bitumen surfaced roads with 2.0m gravel shoulders. The Okahandja to Karibib road was upgraded with wider lanes, surfaced shoulders and six passing lane sections. The upgrading was completed in 2012 and this dissertation evaluated the road safety improvements due to the geometrical upgrading of the road, by comparing the road with an adjacent section that has not been upgraded. The National Road Safety Council provided crash data of Namibia from 2007 to 2016. Before construction, roll-over crashes were the most frequent fatal crash type. In the post-construction period no fatal roll-over crashes occurred. The number of collisions has not substantially decreased, but there is a decline in the severity of the crashes. The study concluded that Namibia has a high road fatality rate in comparison with the global road fatalities. The road upgrading of the Karibib Okahandja road did improve the road safety of the road, but the road fatalities are still high compared with international fatality rates.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
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license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2019
publishDateRange 2019
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publisher Department of Civil Engineering
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/30053 Evaluation of safety benefits of the road cross section upgrading on the Okahandja Karibib road in Namibia Hepkema, Watze Vanderschuren, Marianne Globally, road fatalities have reached pandemic proportions. The Decade of Action for Road Safety of the United Nations has the aim to reduce road fatalities (UN, 2017, page 23). This dissertation investigates the Global and Namibian road safety status. The global road fatality rate is 17.7 deaths per 100 000 population, and the Africa continent has 26.6 deaths per 100 000 population (WHO, 2015, page 6). Namibia, in 2016, had around 34 deaths per 100 000 population (MVA, 2016, page 5). Namibia, with a small population of 2,2 million people (Census, 2011), is part of the Decade of Action. The crashes in Namibia are reviewed to determine if there are any trends on where and when they occur. The three most frequent crashes in Namibia are roll-over crashes, at 29% of all crashes, collisions at 28% of all crashes, with head-on crashes the most fatal and pedestrian crashes, which account for 22% of all crashes (MVA, 2016, page 5) International reports on mitigation measures for these three types of crashes were reviewed. The trunk road network of Namibia forms the major transport corridor network that connects the major cities and neighbouring countries. Trunk roads are generally 7.0m wide bitumen surfaced roads with 2.0m gravel shoulders. The Okahandja to Karibib road was upgraded with wider lanes, surfaced shoulders and six passing lane sections. The upgrading was completed in 2012 and this dissertation evaluated the road safety improvements due to the geometrical upgrading of the road, by comparing the road with an adjacent section that has not been upgraded. The National Road Safety Council provided crash data of Namibia from 2007 to 2016. Before construction, roll-over crashes were the most frequent fatal crash type. In the post-construction period no fatal roll-over crashes occurred. The number of collisions has not substantially decreased, but there is a decline in the severity of the crashes. The study concluded that Namibia has a high road fatality rate in comparison with the global road fatalities. The road upgrading of the Karibib Okahandja road did improve the road safety of the road, but the road fatalities are still high compared with international fatality rates. 2019-05-10T12:10:14Z 2019-05-10T12:10:14Z 2018 2019-05-07T09:18:47Z Master Thesis Masters MSc (Eng) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30053 eng application/pdf Department of Civil Engineering Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment
spellingShingle Hepkema, Watze
Evaluation of safety benefits of the road cross section upgrading on the Okahandja Karibib road in Namibia
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Evaluation of safety benefits of the road cross section upgrading on the Okahandja Karibib road in Namibia
title_full Evaluation of safety benefits of the road cross section upgrading on the Okahandja Karibib road in Namibia
title_fullStr Evaluation of safety benefits of the road cross section upgrading on the Okahandja Karibib road in Namibia
title_full_unstemmed Evaluation of safety benefits of the road cross section upgrading on the Okahandja Karibib road in Namibia
title_short Evaluation of safety benefits of the road cross section upgrading on the Okahandja Karibib road in Namibia
title_sort evaluation of safety benefits of the road cross section upgrading on the okahandja karibib road in namibia
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30053
work_keys_str_mv AT hepkemawatze evaluationofsafetybenefitsoftheroadcrosssectionupgradingontheokahandjakaribibroadinnamibia