The Black Spot programme aims to target locations with high incidents of traffic accidents and makes use of road engineering schemes to reduce the number of accidents and severities with the appropriate treatments.

When a location is identified as a black spot, it does not mean that the location is not safe for road users; the Black Spot Programme is a road safety tool to prioritize and identify engineering measures that make the roads even safer.

Since the scheme was introduced in 2005, LTA has successfully ?treated? and removed five to 10 locations per year from its list of black spots.

Black Spots are identified through a customized accident analysis software, the Traffic Accident Analysis Module, which makes use of the Geographical Information System Technology to analyse accident patterns.

From a map of marked accident locations, the system analyses the accident patterns using various parameters such as accident type, location and type of road users.

After the analysis is done, site investigation is conducted to relate the accident data with other details such as road geometry, surrounding land use and characteristics of road users to determine possible ways to improve the site.

Following site investigation, potential treatments are explored and evaluated on the selected site based on thorough analysis. These treatments are usually customized and targeted based on the identified accident sites.

At Junctions:
Example 1: Bedok Reservoir Road / Tampines Avenue 1 / Tampines Avenue 4
Monitoring period: 36 months
Number of accidents: 20 (before treatment); 8 (after treatment)

Example 2: Controlled right turn at Upper Serangoon Road / Upper Paya Lebar Road / Boundary Road
Scheme: Red-Amber-Green Arrows
Monitoring period: 35 months
Number of accidents: 31 (before treatment); 7 (after treatment)

Example 3: Woodlands Avenue 7 / Gambas Avenue
Monitoring period: 27 months
Number of accidents: 14 (before treatment); 4 (after treatment)

Expressway-Expressway Interchange:
Example: SLE/BKE
Scheme: Resurfacing of road, lengthening speed regulating strips, narrowing of lane width
Monitoring period: 36 months
Number of accidents: 30 (before treatment); 9 (after treatment)

Following implementation, the area will be monitored to ascertain the effectiveness of treatments.

It usually takes at least three years to measure the effectiveness of the schemes implemented under the Black Spot Programme. If the location shows a statistically significant reduction in accident occurrences, it will be taken off the black spot list.

The Black Spot Programme is one of LTA's road safety initiatives, and is a recommended best practice in Road Safety Engineering. It has been carried out overseas such as United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, with positive results.

LTA's efforts in road safety have garnered it the Edmund R. Ricker Transportation Safety Council Award (Organization) by the US-based Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) in August 2011.

Last Updated: 25 April 2012