Considering road safety on long-term investment strategic plans. Case study: National Route 27, Costa Rica

Abstract

The work presented here is focused on develop  investment guidelines on road safety, in order to incorporate it into a more comprehensive investment plan for a case study (Route 27 San Jose -Caldera, in Costa Rica).

The element of road safety was incorporated to the investment plan through a detailed accident analysis. The analysis developed included: classification by type of accident, determination of accident concentration sections (TCA, for its acronym in Spanish), corroboration of the existence of deficiencies in road infrastructure in each TCA by road safety assessments and field evaluations of road safety related parameters, generating investment guidelines and determination of effectiveness and cost countermeasures based on the frequency and severity of each type of accident.

For  each TCA was generated a list of deficiencies in infrastructure,  it was able to establish an order of priority of investment and countermeasures intervention for the classification of accidents defined. The results will generate technical for help investment policies and resource allocation of road safety. It will contribute to  take decisions in order to solve  in strategically way the question  like  How ?  and Where ? invest  road safety resources.