Article Text
Abstract
This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the Thailand Road Assessment Programme (ThaiRAP) initiatives that have been developed over the course of five years since its inauguration during the Safety 2018 Conference held in Bangkok, Thailand. ThaiRAP is one of the regional programs of iRAP, which aims to enhance the safety of Thailand’s road network, from motorways to local streets. All initiatives lie in WHO Global Road Safety Performance Targets 3 and 4, ensuring that all road users achieve a travel of more than 75% on 3-star or better roads by 2030 and that all new roads are built according to the standards by 2030. Given that Thailand has a significantly high fatality rate from road crashes, and over 80 percent of the fatalities are from motorcycle users, urgent actions need to be taken from the road infrastructure perspective. This paper highlights the challenges encountered by ThaiRAP and the activities undertaken in collaboration with local road authorities to implement countermeasures from the policy to implementation levels. After five years, ThaiRAP has assessed and star-rated over 18,000 km of roads, with an addition of more than 40,000 km light-star-rated. However, the assessments reveal that the majority of Thai roads continue to pose safety risks to all road users, including vehicle occupants, motorcyclists, bicyclists, and pedestrians. Specifically, safe infrastructure facilities for vulnerable road users are still lacking. We actively collaborate with local road agencies to assess their road network, propose evidence-based countermeasures, and help them track road safety performance levels. The results of these assessments are analyzed in detail, and their policy implications are discussed, providing insights into the direction that ThaiRAP should take in its future actions. Lessons learned from ThaiRAP can be taken as a guideline for developing similar programs in other countries to make roads safer.