ShareSoft thinking™ at the roadside
- Built up verges allow cars which unexpectedly leave the carriageway to run off without hitting anything hard within the safety zone!
- No steel posts above 89 mm within the safety zone and not in pairs!
- Strong restrictions on the use of steel posts with shear off solutions!
Because:
Road systems should be designed based on human prerequisites. It should guard against human errors having fatal consequence and the human body should not be exposed to greater collision forces than it can tolerate. That is soft thinking.
Genuine pliant masts
In Norway, and as time passes a growing number of countries, road authorities ARE ISSUING DIRECTIVES requiring the use of forgiving masts and restricting the uses of slip bases.
Laws, regulations and standards
Americans got the ball rolling with their NCHRP Report 350: “Recommended Procedures for the Safety Performance Evaluation of Highway Features”. That was in 1993. In March 2000 Europe followed suit with the standards EN 12767.
Forgiving roadsides
“Forgiving roadsides” feature soft shoulders and gently sloped ditches that restrain a car in a controlled way. Moreover, all the installations on or alongside the road must be pliant and light. This is the modern way of thinking road design and traffic safety.
Slip base trap
Every year numerous of fatal accidents occur on roads around the world when cars crash into traffic masts. Nearly all of these involve heavy and hard traditional traffic masts, with or without slip bases.
There are many reasons why this type of construction poses a sizeable risk.