Driving on the hard shoulder a safety assessment

Abstract

Paper presented at the 33rd Annual Southern African Transport Conference 7-10 July 2014 "Leading Transport into the Future", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.

This paper assesses the risks associated with driving on the hard shoulder, in the context of the Western Cape. Driving on the hard shoulder is an activity legitimized by SA legislation, yet is exceptional internationally. It is a potentially dangerous activity, particularly when the shoulder is also used by non-motorized (NMT) road users. The aim of the research was to investigate the laws, safety aspects of hard shoulder driving and the identification of potential risks, focusing on single carriageways with paved hard shoulders. Observations were carried out on two specific sites in the Cape Winelands District of South Africa. These enabled the patterns of driver, pedestrian and cyclist behavior to be monitored on the hard shoulder of the roadway, and to quantify and document their interactions. Crash data was examined to quantify the risks associated with hard shoulder use to road users of all three categories. Questionnaires were distributed to drivers, pedestrians and cyclists to determine the extent of their knowledge about hard shoulder driving laws, how the drivers use the hard shoulder, and how the NMT road users use the hard shoulder - in particular what the experiences of many of the NMT drivers have been. The results confirmed that drivers do not fully understand the laws on hard shoulder driving, yet they regularly and indeed sometimes unlawfully utilise this area of the roadway for driving. Pedestrians and drivers both report regular experiences with dangerous situations. Pedestrians were overwhelmingly unaware of the benefits of maximizing their visibility and few cyclists were seen taking measures to increase their visibility to drivers. The research concluded that there is an urgent need for better education around hard shoulder use by drivers, pedestrians and cyclists, and that the benefits of hard shoulder driving need to be reassessed in terms of the risks posed by this activity to more vulnerable road users.