A “forgiving road” is a concept that gives driver plenty of opportunity to recover from mistakes so as to avoid a crash, the road ensures that when a mistake is made, a fatal or serious injury crash outcome doesn’t result.
The concept is not new, it’s been around for some time.
In Costa Rica there are no forgiving roads. Some will argue that the design and construction of the roads in the country are a leading causing in traffic accidents and fatalities.
Expetts at the Costa Rica’s Laboratorio Nacional de Materiales y Modelos Estructurales (Lanamme) are urging transport authorities to adopt the concept of forgiving roads.
The argument is simple, a forgiving road would have saved the lives of the four young men in Jacó this past week.
Although no matter how many measures are develop, factors such as driver error, mean that road crashes will still occur. However, the creation of ‘forgiving roads and roadsides’ provide the safest possible environment for vehicles in the event that they leave the road.
Guillermo Loría, Lanamme engineer, agrees that a forgiving road would have prevented the Jacó tragedy, as long as drivers play their part, like not driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and stay within the speed limits.
It is hard to argue against this article, mainly because the author doesn’t explain what he is talking about. The term “forgiving road” is used several times but never defined. Is such a road one with ample shoulders and wide lanes? That would be my guess, but I don’t know. Certainly, such roads would permit safer passage and result in less damage to cars. The roads in my area have neither shoulders nor sufficient width for two large vehicles to pass. I have destroyed many more tires in my few years here than in the 35+ years of driving in the US.
Of course, I don’t think that anyone would argue that the roads here are safe.
I have added a link to an explanation of a “forgiving road” – http://www.nzta.govt.nz/network/operating/safely/safer-roads/roadsides.html
Thanks for the link, but it really doesn’t provide much, but apparently “forgiving roads and roadsides” are roads with what people in the US would call good shoulders, ample space to pull over in emergencies or to swerve off the road without going into a ditch. I have never seen the shoulder of a road called a “roadside.” The term “roadside” in the US has another meaning, that being those things (e.g., restaurants, motels, strip malls) along the course of the road. Ironically the picture of a dream road in the “lighter side” section has plenty of lanes but does not have any shoulders for the principal road. I guess that the idea is so foreign here that the artist didn’t think to include shoulders, or “roadsides.”