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Effects of Road Improvement on Safety: A Case Study of Nairobi-Thika Superhighway

Received: 10 September 2015     Accepted: 4 October 2015     Published: 11 January 2016
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Abstract

Road safety is one of the main transportation problems in developing countries. The major goal of the transportation system is to enhance mobility and road traffic accidents are unwanted by-products which have to be minimized while achieving the primary goal. Road safety engineers are faced with the challenge of addressing safety issues within the three major traffic safety pillars: human, vehicle, and infrastructure.All three aspects must be part of a traffic safety plan and dealt with subject to budget limitations. The project involved redesigns of all intersections and increment in the road lanes to enhance capacity and improve safety. The research study aimed to review the occurrences of crashes on the improved Thika-Nairobi superhighway in three phases; before, during and after construction. This research sought to assess the role of incorporation of different safety measures in road projects in Kenya and is anticipated to improve public awareness on the use of road safety provisions with the aim of reducing road traffic accidents and subsequent casualties. The approach used to realize this study involved gathering data from traffic police stations, conducting interviews to get the opinions of road users on safety and making observations on the turning movements of vehicles and pedestrians. The interactions were explored, analysed and modelled using Chi-squared distribution. These were then used to identify accident black spots and assess the effectiveness of road safety measures installed in the new super highway. This study revealed that the large number of accidents occurred in the years before and at the start of construction, reduced during construction and increased again after completion. The primary type of accidents along the highway is vehicle to pedestrian and vehicle to vehicle. Githurai 45, Safari park and G.S.U were established to be black spots. The most efficient road facility was found to be foot paths, and foot bridges.

Published in American Journal of Civil Engineering (Volume 3, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajce.20150306.11
Page(s) 199-206
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2016. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Black Spots, Nairobi-Thika Superhighway, Road Crash, Road Safety, Traffic Accidents

References
[1] R. Elvik, and T. Vaa. “TheHandbook ofRoad Safety Measures.” Elsevier, Oxford, UK, 2004.
[2] A.T. de Blaeij, M. Koetse, Y. Tseng, P. Rietveld, and E. Verhoef. “Valuation of safety, time, air pollution, climatechange, and noise; Methods andestimates for variouscountries.” Reportfor the EU project ROSEBUD. Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, 2004.
[3] Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. “Kenya: 2009 Population and Housing Census Highlights. Nairobi:” Kenya National Bureau of Statistics; 2009.
[4] E.M. Aligula. “A critical Look at management of Transport Sector for efficiency: The challenges and the way forward.” A paper presented to the 13thICPSK Economic Management Symposium, 27th October 2010 at the Sarova Panafric Hotel, Kenya, 2010.
[5] World Health Organization. “Global Burden of Disease: 2004 Update. Geneva, Switzerland:” World Health Organization, 2008.
[6] J.K.Z. Mwatela. “Application of Geographical Information Systems(GIS) To Analyze Causes of Road Traffic Accidents (RTAS)” – “Case Study of Kenya, Presentation in International Conference on Spatial Information for Sustainable Development Nairobi,” Kenya 2–5th October 2001.
[7] AASHTO. American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials. “Highway Safety Manual,” Washington, DC, 2010.
[8] G.S. Grant, J.T. Daniel, N.O. Andrewand C.R. Shane. “Transportation Safety Data and Analysis;” Volume1: “Analyzing the Effectiveness of Safety Measures using Bayesian Methods.” Report No. UT-10.12a, 2010.
[9] R. P. Roess, E. S. Prassas, and W. W. McShane. “Traffic Engineering,” 3rd Ed., Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2004.
[10] E. Hauer, D. W. Harwood, F.M. Council, and M. S. Griffith. "Estimating safety by the empirical Bayes method: A tutorial." Transportation Research Record. 1784, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, 2002, 126-131.
[11] S. Miaou. “The relationship between truck accidents and geometric design of road sections: Poisson versus negative binomial regressions.” Accident Analysis & Prevention, 26(4), 471-82. 1994.
[12] X. Qin, J. N. Ivan, and N. Ravishanker "Selecting exposure measures in crash rate prediction for two-lane highway segments." Accident Analysis and Prevention, 36(2), 183-191, 2004.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Chelugo Nicholas Chepchieng, Abiero Gariy, Mwatela Josphat K. Z. (2016). Effects of Road Improvement on Safety: A Case Study of Nairobi-Thika Superhighway. American Journal of Civil Engineering, 3(6), 199-206. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20150306.11

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    ACS Style

    Chelugo Nicholas Chepchieng; Abiero Gariy; Mwatela Josphat K. Z. Effects of Road Improvement on Safety: A Case Study of Nairobi-Thika Superhighway. Am. J. Civ. Eng. 2016, 3(6), 199-206. doi: 10.11648/j.ajce.20150306.11

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    AMA Style

    Chelugo Nicholas Chepchieng, Abiero Gariy, Mwatela Josphat K. Z. Effects of Road Improvement on Safety: A Case Study of Nairobi-Thika Superhighway. Am J Civ Eng. 2016;3(6):199-206. doi: 10.11648/j.ajce.20150306.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajce.20150306.11,
      author = {Chelugo Nicholas Chepchieng and Abiero Gariy and Mwatela Josphat K. Z.},
      title = {Effects of Road Improvement on Safety: A Case Study of Nairobi-Thika Superhighway},
      journal = {American Journal of Civil Engineering},
      volume = {3},
      number = {6},
      pages = {199-206},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajce.20150306.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20150306.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajce.20150306.11},
      abstract = {Road safety is one of the main transportation problems in developing countries. The major goal of the transportation system is to enhance mobility and road traffic accidents are unwanted by-products which have to be minimized while achieving the primary goal. Road safety engineers are faced with the challenge of addressing safety issues within the three major traffic safety pillars: human, vehicle, and infrastructure.All three aspects must be part of a traffic safety plan and dealt with subject to budget limitations. The project involved redesigns of all intersections and increment in the road lanes to enhance capacity and improve safety. The research study aimed to review the occurrences of crashes on the improved Thika-Nairobi superhighway in three phases; before, during and after construction. This research sought to assess the role of incorporation of different safety measures in road projects in Kenya and is anticipated to improve public awareness on the use of road safety provisions with the aim of reducing road traffic accidents and subsequent casualties. The approach used to realize this study involved gathering data from traffic police stations, conducting interviews to get the opinions of road users on safety and making observations on the turning movements of vehicles and pedestrians. The interactions were explored, analysed and modelled using Chi-squared distribution. These were then used to identify accident black spots and assess the effectiveness of road safety measures installed in the new super highway. This study revealed that the large number of accidents occurred in the years before and at the start of construction, reduced during construction and increased again after completion. The primary type of accidents along the highway is vehicle to pedestrian and vehicle to vehicle. Githurai 45, Safari park and G.S.U were established to be black spots. The most efficient road facility was found to be foot paths, and foot bridges.},
     year = {2016}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Effects of Road Improvement on Safety: A Case Study of Nairobi-Thika Superhighway
    AU  - Chelugo Nicholas Chepchieng
    AU  - Abiero Gariy
    AU  - Mwatela Josphat K. Z.
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    JO  - American Journal of Civil Engineering
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    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-8737
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    AB  - Road safety is one of the main transportation problems in developing countries. The major goal of the transportation system is to enhance mobility and road traffic accidents are unwanted by-products which have to be minimized while achieving the primary goal. Road safety engineers are faced with the challenge of addressing safety issues within the three major traffic safety pillars: human, vehicle, and infrastructure.All three aspects must be part of a traffic safety plan and dealt with subject to budget limitations. The project involved redesigns of all intersections and increment in the road lanes to enhance capacity and improve safety. The research study aimed to review the occurrences of crashes on the improved Thika-Nairobi superhighway in three phases; before, during and after construction. This research sought to assess the role of incorporation of different safety measures in road projects in Kenya and is anticipated to improve public awareness on the use of road safety provisions with the aim of reducing road traffic accidents and subsequent casualties. The approach used to realize this study involved gathering data from traffic police stations, conducting interviews to get the opinions of road users on safety and making observations on the turning movements of vehicles and pedestrians. The interactions were explored, analysed and modelled using Chi-squared distribution. These were then used to identify accident black spots and assess the effectiveness of road safety measures installed in the new super highway. This study revealed that the large number of accidents occurred in the years before and at the start of construction, reduced during construction and increased again after completion. The primary type of accidents along the highway is vehicle to pedestrian and vehicle to vehicle. Githurai 45, Safari park and G.S.U were established to be black spots. The most efficient road facility was found to be foot paths, and foot bridges.
    VL  - 3
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Author Information
  • Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya

  • Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya

  • Department of Geomatic Engineering and Geospatial Information Systems, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya

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