Road Traffic Safety Development Trends in Latvia

The main focus of this article is on the road traffic safety development trends in Latvia. Soon after the regain of independence at the beginning of the 1990s, road traffic safety characteristics in Latvia were the worst in the Latvian history. The increase of car availability and affordability made the car a major road vehicle. The implementation of road safety programmes contributed to essential improvement of road traffic safety in Latvia. The number of road accident fatalities in 2020 compared to 1991 decreased more than sevenfold. Nevertheless, the current Latvian road traffic safety statistics is well below the average level of the EU member states and even the pandemics did not cause similar reduction as in most member states. This indicates that great improvement is still needed. The article shows the Latvian experience in road traffic safety enhancements and discusses the measures to improve road traffic safety

High Modulus Asphalt Concrete with Dolomite Aggregates

AbstractDolomite is one of the most widely available sedimentary rocks in the territory of Latvia. Dolomite quarries contain about 1,000 million tons of this material. However, according to Latvian Road Specifications, this dolomite cannot be used for average and high intensity roads because of its low quality, mainly, its LA index (The Los Angeles abrasion test). Therefore, mostly the imported magmatic rocks (granite, diabase, gabbro, basalt) or imported dolomite are used, which makes asphalt expensive. However, practical experience shows that even with these high quality materials roads exhibit rutting, fatigue, and thermal cracks. The aim of the research is to develop a high performance asphalt concrete for base and binder courses using only locally available aggregates. In order to achieve resistance against deformations at a high ambient temperature, a hard grade binder was used. Workability, fatigue and thermal cracking resistance, as well as sufficient water resistance is achieved by low porosity (3-5%) and higher binder content compared to traditional asphalt mixtures. The design of the asphalt includes a combination of empirical and performance based tests, which in laboratory circumstances allow simulating traffic and environmental loads. High performance AC 16 base asphalt concrete was created using local dolomite aggregate with polymer modified (PMB 10/40-65) and hard grade (B20/30) bitumen. The mixtures were specified based on fundamental properties in accordance with EN 13108-1 standard

Policy Instruments for Managing EU Road Safety Targets: Road Safety Impact Assessment

The Directive 2008/96/EC of European Parliament and of the Council requires the establishment and implementation of procedures relating to road safety impact assessments, road safety audits, the management of road network safety and safety inspections by the Member States. Directive aims to develop procedures with the aim of increasing safety of road infrastructures. Road Safety Impact Assessment (RSIA) is an initial part of road infrastructure safety management systems. This article describes the scope of RSIA procedures, provides detailed recommendations on qualification of auditors, implementation and execution of procedures for the EU Member States. Road safety should play an important role when routes are being selected and safety awareness should be included in the decision making during the designing/planning stage. RSIA is a very beneficial tool that could increase transparency and availability of information, consequently, it leads all parties concerned to well-informed decisions