As is well known, road safety in our country needs significant improvement. The scale of the problem has been highlighted even by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
On 22 August this year, as part of the project to introduce the European Road Assessment Programme (EuroRAP) in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the assessment of the first 100 kilometres of city streets in Almaty began under the international Star Rating programme. The client for the project is the Committee for Roads of the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and the loan was provided by the World Bank. The project is being implemented by the Swedish company SweRoad together with the Kazakh Scientific Research Institute for Road Safety.
The assessment covers more than 60 parameters, recorded every 100 metres. An important feature of this type of assessment is that Star Ratings are assigned on a 5-point scale separately for vehicle occupants and for pedestrians, motorcyclists and bicyclists. This approach is inclusive and more effective, as it rules out situations where any category of road users is overlooked. The assessment is carried out using a specially equipped vehicle fitted with software. Once the Star Ratings are obtained, an investment plan to reduce road crashes will be drawn up, under which low-rated sections will need to be improved by remedying their current shortcomings.
In total, the project provides for the assessment of 5,100 km of national roads and 1,100 km of urban roads. The assessment is scheduled for September and October this year.
