Road Safety Audit on A-4 Transmontana and A-23 Beira Interior in Portugal

CPS is carrying out the road safety audit on the A-4 Transmontana highway between Vila Real and Quintanilha (133km and 25 interchanges) and the A-23 Beira Interior highway between Abrantes and Guarda (177.8 km long, 28 interchanges and 15.6 km of accesses).

Road safety audits of roads in operation are aimed at reviewing the safety conditions of the infrastructure and road equipment, i.e., signage, beacons, fenders, lighting, etc. These audits are carried out from the perspective of user behavior with special attention to vulnerable users, i.e. pedestrians and users of bicycles and motorcycles.

For this purpose, a series of conflict points are detected after the analysis of information on accident rates and traffic intensity, and then the road under study is traveled under different traffic, light and weather conditions in order to reproduce the same conditions that any road user may encounter. With the information gathered, a road safety diagnosis is prepared and improvement measures are proposed. This project is carried out in accordance with Portuguese recommendations on the subject.