The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is recommending that its developing member countries, including the Philippines, should use star ratings to ensure road safety.
In an Asian Development Blog, iRAP Strategic Projects Managing Director Greg Smith said star ratings are international benchmarks that are used to gauge the safety of roads for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists.
A road rating of five stars means a road poses the least risk of death and/or injury to people, while a rating of one star means a road poses the highest risk.
“ADB prefers that designs for new roads or to upgrade existing ones have at least a three-star rating standard, and encourages all its developing member-countries to rate their roads for safety,” Smith said.
Smith said data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development road deaths are increasing.
Among 31 countries for which data are consistently available, there was a 3.3-percent increase in road fatalities in 2015 compared to the year before.
In 2016 the number of fatalities increased in 14 countries. Around 10 countries registered more road deaths for two consecutive years in 2015 and 2016.
In the Philippines ADB earlier said more than half or 52.5 percent of road deaths occur involving two to three-wheeled vehicles, while only 25.3 percent die in four-wheeled vehicles.
This was based on 2013 data where there were a total of 10,379 road deaths in the Philippines. This translates to 11 people out of 100,000 dying in road accidents.
ADB said the safest place in Southeast Asia to be a pedestrian is Malaysia, where only 6.6 percent of road deaths involve them. In contrast, Thailand is the most dangerous place for pedestrians where 26.9 of road deaths involve them.
“More and more, governments are using star ratings as an internationally recognized, evidence-based approach to guiding design and investment and for policy setting. Why? Because investing in safer road infrastructure results in safer, happier and more productive communities,” Smith said.
Ensuring road safety will also be part of the Improving Growth Corridors in Mindanao Road Sector Project, which ADB is financing.
ADB will be extending a $380 million-worth loan to the Philippine government to improve 280 kilometers of national primary, secondary and tertiary roads and bridges in Mindanao.
The total project cost is estimated at $503 million, with the Government of the Philippines contributing $123 million.
The project also include improvements, such as paving earth roads, replacing damaged road sections, widening existing roads, adding surface overlays, and replacing and strengthening bridges. The project roads will be designed with features to strengthen resilience to climate change.
“Road safety will be improved by stabilizing unstable sections, installing road-safety barriers, including proper traffic- engineering signs and display boards,” the project documents stated.
Efficient road transport is crucial for the Philippines’s economic growth, but the sector has not kept up with population growth.
About 23 percent of the national road network is in poor condition due to various reasons, including inadequate funding, lack of maintenance and the impact of climate change, such as flooding.
Mindanao’s road network is less developed than the national average, with only 70 percent of the roads paved, compared with 82 percent in Luzon and 89 percent in the Visayas.
Despite its rich natural resources, ADB said Mindanao also has the highest poverty incidence among the Philippines’s three island groups at 32 percent, largely because of civil conflict and low economic growth.