Preparatory documents for the International Seminar

• First seminar announcement 
• Second seminar announcement 
• Flyer of the Seminar

Summary of the Seminar

The objective of the Seminar was to promote the latest knowledge on current issues and facilitate technical discussions and debate among industry stakeholders.

The Seminar began with welcoming remarks to the participants and plenary session highlighting road safety issues in ASEAN by Dr. Siti Zaharah Ishak, Director General of the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS).In turn, Prof. Dr. Wong Shaw Voon, as the PIARC Chairman of TC C2, welcomed and presented the roadmap for road safety being followed by PIARC and promotes the Road Safety Manual and other latest publications of PIARC to be a part of references used in Malaysia. Part of the presentation also highlights the program schedule of the Abu Dhabi World Road Congress to be held October 6-10, 2019. The officiation of the seminar was delivered by Deputy Ministry of Transport, Dato' Haji Kamarudin bin Jaffar. Speakers were from all over the world including Australia, USA, Mexico, Japan, Italy and Malaysia.

Six themes were discussed during the two-day seminar including safer design for better road safety, designing for better two-wheeler's lane, road maintenance, vulnerable road users, road safety audit and speed and traffic management. For each theme, three technical presentations were presented by subject matter experts, both from Malaysia and PIARC committees. A 15-minute questions and answers were provided to allow discussion among participants and speakers. The first theme was on safer design for better road safety hosted by three prominent speakers from PIARC committee, who delivered a topic on designing road with human limitations, Safe System Approach- an Australian experience and a presentation on AASHTO point of view and knowledge about human factors in design.

A special theme of designing safer two-wheelers lane were dedicated for ASEAN countries (Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Philippines, Singapore, Brunei and Timor Leste) as the number of motorcyclists always outnumbered other vehicles, and hence the need for motorcycle lane is undeniable. In the session, manuals and guidelines on exclusive and non-exclusive motorcycle lane were discussed. The third theme on road maintenance had a mix speaker from expressway operator (PLUS Berhad), iRAP Malaysia and also 3M who highlighted a key point that small improvement would make huge difference to road users.

Vulnerable road users theme shared pedestrian safety and low-lying fruits for motorcyclists that could be tackled for better road safety. A session on pedestrian safety elaborated on what, how, when and why pedestrian involved in crashes and pedestrian improvement initiatives in the United States were highlighted. Subsequently, road safety audit theme showcased various road safety audits and inspections conducted in Malaysia. PIARC's representative also presented on conducting road safety audits in low- and middle-income countries as part of knowledge dissemination to audience.

The last theme on speed and traffic management brought together issues on managing speed limits, distraction of mobile phones and countermeasures for pedestrian in residential areas. Our keynote speaker mentioned about distraction from mobile phones used by gig-technology worker, especially those who works with apps, and ignores speed limit, red lights, and illegally park their vehicle to ensure that their service were on time. REAAA's speaker shared traffic management plan during road constructions, which include differences of speed limit due to road surroundings. For example, during road construction, lower speed limit should be visible for road users, especially during night time to avoid crashes. A sharing from Japan's representative explained a lot on pedestrian safety countermeasures and how technology was used to reduce crashes at residential areas in Japan.

A closing remarks forum were chaired by Datuk Suret Singh, Chairman of MIROS, with two distinguished panels namely Ir. Haji Abdul Rahman from Ministry of Works and Associate Prof. Dr Kulanthayan KC Mani, from Safe Kids Malaysia. Main issues discussed were funding for road infrastructure improvement, especially for vulnerable road users and safety of road users in Malaysia.

Two workshops were conducted on the third day of the event. Dr. Sibylle Birth and Prof. Dr. Lorenzo Domenichini shared their expertise in human factors and road design, with local participants. Interestingly, a local context was added by examining one of the worst crashes in Malaysia which happened in Genting. Road deficiencies relating to human factors were discussed in groups, together with PIARC and MIROS representatives as facilitators. The other workshop was on Intelligent Transport System (ITS) for Road Safety delivered by Dr Fadhlan Hafizhelmi Kamaru Zaman (UiTM) and his colleague, Dr Azlee Zabidi (UMP), showcased their expertise in development of automotive vehicle and programming language used for the sensors. A technical visit to 3M Innovation Centre was arranged on the same day.

Apart from the Seminar, exhibition booths were provided for sponsors to showcase their products and services. A total of ten exhibitors took part in the exhibition, including PLUS Malaysia Berhad, 3M Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., ASEAN NCAP, UEM Edgenta Berhad, Geoinfo Services Sdn. Bhd., Safetyverse Sdn. Bhd., Public Works Department Malaysia and MIROS.

The Seminar convened around 200 attendees per day.

Day 1 - 23 April 2019

09:00-10:00 Plenary Session

• Plenary 1 : ASEAN Road Safety Highlights - Dr Siti Zaharah Ishak (MIROS)
• Plenary 2 : Addressing Human Factors in Road Design - A Long Time Challenge for PIARC - Prof. Dr. Wong Shaw Voon PIARC TC C.2 Chairman

11:00-12:30 Technical Session 1 : Road Design for Better Road Safety

• Road Design for Better Safety - Ir. Hj. Abdul Rahman Baharuddin - Public Works Department (Malaysia)
• Safe System Principles into Practice - An Austroads And Vicroads Journey - Evan Coulson, PIARC
• AASHTO Point of View and Knowledge about Human Factors in Road Design - John Milton, PIARC

14:00-15:30 Technical Session 2 : Designing for Safer Two-Wheelers' Lane

• Guidelines for the Provision of Two-Wheelers' Facilities in Malaysia - Ir. Razhiah Wahab, Public Works Department (Malaysia)
• Developing Speed-Flow-Density Relationships for the Segregated Motorcycle Lane - Assoc. Prof. Dr. Law Teik Hua, Universiti Putra (Malaysia)
• A Safety Review of Exclusive Motorcycle Lane in Malaysia - Puan Norfaizah Mohamad Khaidir - MIROS

15:30-17:00 Technical Session 3 : Road Maintenance - impact on road safety

• Achieving Road Safety through Various Improvement Initiatives - PLUS' Perspective - Puan Awariah Idris, PLUS Berhad
• Asia Region Traffic Fatality Trend, and Safety from Highway Maintenance - Ir. Muhamad Syakir Mahi Din, 3M (Malaysia)
• A Regular'Wear and Tear' Road Environment with Extraordinary Impact on Road Safety - Mr. Alvin Poi Wai Hoong, iRAP (Malaysia)

Day 2 - 24 April 2019

09:00-11:00 Technical Session 4: Vulnerable Road User

• Vulnerable Road Users (VRU) and the Vulnerability of Road Safety Performance - Prof. Dr. Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah, Universiti Sains (Malaysia)
• On foot, at risk - Dr. Rizati Hamidun, MIROS
• Improving Safety for Those Who Walk: Combining State and National Perspectives in the United States - John Milton, PIARC

11:00-14:00 Technical Session 5: Road Safety Audit

• Road Safety Audit practice in Malaysia - Ir. Richard Wong Chuen Fun, Institution of Engineers (Malaysia)
• Towards Implementing Road Safety Inspection in Malaysia - Ir. Dr. Muhammad Marizwan Abd Manan, MIROS
• RSI for Low-and-Middle Income Countries - Dr. Alberto Mendoza Díaz, PIARC

14:00-17:00 Technical Session 6: Traffic and Speed Management

• Speed Management and Road Traffic Accidents - Where are We Heading - Ir.Lee Choy Hin, Intelligent Transport System Association of Malaysia
• Traffic Safety Countermeasures on the Roads in Residential Areas in Japan - Mr. Yoshiyasu Murashige, PIARC
• Traffic and Speed Management for Construction Works in Malaysia - Ir. Md. Shafii Hj. Mustafa, REAAA

17:00 Concluding Remarks : Way Forward for Safer Roads

(Forum with VIP speakers)
Chairperson - Chairman of MIROS, Datuk Suret Singh

• Panel 1- Universiti Putra Malaysia, Assoc. Prof. Dr Kulanthayan KC Mani
• Panel 2- Public Works Department Malaysia, Ir. Hj. Abdul Rahman Baharuddin

Day 3 - 25 April 2019

Summary of the Workshop

Workshop 1: Human Factors and Safer Design

Human factors can be described as people's contributions to damaging events. It is the generic term for the psychological and physiological patterns that contribute to operational errors in handling machines and vehicles. This concept is now recognised by the road safety profession as an important factor in road safety. Major highlight of the workshop is The Human Factors (HF) Guideline developed by the World Road Association (PIARC). The aim is to provide road safety engineers involved in all aspects of road operations (planning, design, construction and maintenance) a guideline to improve the identification of human factor design mistakes. The report of Human Factors Guideline for safer road infrastructure is introduced by comparing the two distinct approaches to accident research. The post-accident approach assesses the safety of a design by reviewing the consequences of an accident. The pre-accident approach on the other hand, through the human factors concept, takes into consideration the triggers of the driver's reaction and patterns of behaviour which may lead to an accident. Among the case study that will be discussed is a 2015 study on crash spots of severe single-vehicle crashes on Dutch motorways. PIARC's guideline provides extra background knowledge on top of the knowledge provided in the design standards and guidelines for RSI and RSA.

Workshop 2: Intelligent Transport System (ITS) for Safer Road

In computer science, artificial intelligence (AI), or sometimes called machine intelligence, is intelligence demonstrated by machines. These intelligent machines and systems are defining human's life in many aspects, including transportation systems. Using recent AI technologies, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) aims to provide innovative services relating to different modes of transport and traffic management and enable users to be better informed and make safer, more coordinated, and'smarter' use of transport networks. ITS make use of AI in various applications but not limited to interconnected vehicles, smart sensors, automatic road enforcement, traffic management and monitoring, vehicle control systems and collision avoidance systems. In this workshop, participants will understand the concept of AI and its applications in ITS. Participant can learn about sensors used on driverless vehicles, and Deep Learning implementations for automatic visual understanding through demonstrations of these technologies using MATLAB software. Participants will also be guided to implement Deep Learning using open-source framework such as TensorFlow and Python programming.

Requirement: Laptop and Phyton 3.7

Final Seminar Proceedings

• Download Final Seminar Proceedings in PDF!