The Application of Roadside Fencing to Increase Road Safety

The existence of a proper and expanded transportation network and using modern transportation systems to ensure a fast and safe passenger and freight transport is one of the most important infrastructural problems in developing a country. The developed countries have enjoyed the proper infrastructure and safe passage of traffic on their roads. Unfortunately, before cars were imported into Iran, the proper standard infrastructures for appropriate use were not predicted. The high rate of casualties and physical injuries shows the importance of road safety and transportation network. Increasing roads safety through controlling effective environmental factors and limiting access to them is among the approaches to be considered to achieve this goal, one of which is roadside fences. Roadside fences are road facilities set up in roadside and median and have two main functions: 1) to keep items away from entering the road, and 2) to protect residents on road margins. The standards of safety systems have improved over the years and are constantly changing due to new technologies and the changes in road designing. So, available safety systems should be observed and improved. In recent years, the installation and maintenance of road fences in Iran has mostly been done on the experience and trial and error, but the lack of a comprehensive manual was felt in order to stop the engineering, so engineers and designers could apply the manual to design safer roads. The present study was carried out with the aim of producing a guideline for fencing. To do so, various countrie's manuals were studied in order to come up with a suitable guideline for Iran considering various conditions.