ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the trends of traffic crashes on Indian highways. Highways can be made safer by adopting appropriate geometric design standards and speed control by design. This chapter presents a summary of various geometric standards including the effect of guard rails, lane width, shoulder width and median designs on speed and traffic safety. The final section presents the principles of road safety audits. Road safety audits should be adopted for all highway projects and road-related urban projects in order to ensure that all identifiable risks to human life have been avoided. Road safety audits should be generalized on existing roads as a planning tool for road safety improvement as well as to provide feedback on current road construction and maintenance practices.
