Advancing Safer Infrastructure
and Urban Design
Roads that lack sidewalks, lighting, speed calming, or clear signage are not just inconvenient—they are dangerous, particularly for pedestrians, children, people with disabilities, and cyclists.
At SafeRoutes4x, we believe roads must be safe, forgiving, and predictable by design. That means designing environments where:
- Mistakes do not result in fatalities
- Hazards are minimized or engineered out
- Road users clearly understand what is expected of them
As Rwanda continues to urbanize and develop, our mission is to ensure safety is not an afterthought but a fundamental design principle.
Infrastructure shapes human behavior and defines the level of risk on every road.
Our programs & initiatives
We conduct comprehensive road safety audits—technical, evidence-based evaluations of road segments and intersections that assess risks and recommend improvements. These audits are shared with road authorities, construction firms, and local governments.
By 2027, we aim to submit at least 10 detailed audits, targeting high-risk zones across Rwanda.
Audits assess:
- Visibility and signage
- Intersection safety
- Pedestrian accessibility
- Roadside hazards
- Compliance with national and international safety standards
We are proud to be an iRAP-accredited Star Rating organization. Through this global methodology, we assess the infrastructure safety level of roads, using a standardized 1–5 star system.
- 5-star roads are the safest; 1-star roads are the most dangerous
- We provide objective, data-backed assessments that influence design, budget allocation, and policy
These ratings help prioritize high-risk roads for improvement, guide investment, and align Rwanda’s infrastructure with global safety benchmarks.
As Rwanda’s urban areas grow, new developments bring new risks. A TIA ensures that commercial or residential growth doesn’t compromise road safety.
We conduct technical TIAs for proposed developments, assessing:
- Traffic volume growth and peak-hour congestion
- Vehicle, pedestrian, and cyclist flow patterns
- Design flaws and dangerous junctions
- Risk to vulnerable road users
- Access to public transportation and emergency services
We provide actionable recommendations, such as:
- Traffic calming design
- Improved road geometry
- New pedestrian crossings
- Turning lane adjustments and signal timing
Safety for all means leaving no one behind in road design. We work to ensure:
- Children, elderly, and people with disabilities are accounted for in road plans
- Roads and public spaces feature ramps, curb drops, audible signals, and tactile paving
- Municipal and national plans reflect the principle of equity in mobility
We lobby decision-makers, support inclusive road standards, and ensure that universal access becomes non-negotiable in infrastructure projects.
We bring together urban planners, architects, engineers, road authorities, and policymakers for regular design forums and stakeholder dialogues. These platforms promote:
- Best practices in urban safety engineering
- Peer learning and collaboration
- Early-stage integration of safety into infrastructure planning
We focus on cross-disciplinary collaboration, ensuring road design is not isolated from housing, transport, or economic development.
We ground all our infrastructure interventions in scientific evidence and local data. Our research team:
- Gathers and analyzes traffic injury data and road use patterns
- Evaluates the effectiveness of implemented road safety measures
- Conducts before-and-after studies of redesigned road segments
- Publishes policy briefs and infrastructure safety reports for decision-makers
We believe in evidence-based advocacy—because when safety investments are data-driven, they save more lives.
- Safer, more predictable road environments that reduce crash risk for all users
- Increased use of iRAP Star Rating to guide national and local road investments
- Greater alignment between road planning and human-centered design
- Policy momentum and technical guidance supporting inclusive and forgiving infrastructure
- Integrated safety metrics to measure the impact of design on crash prevention