Course Description
The course provides an in-depth understanding of municipalities’ exposure to liability due to their legal obligation to provide safe road facilities to the public, and how to avoid that costly exposure. The course explains the legal principle of “joint and several liability” in Canadian courts, and practical steps that municipalities can take to fulfill their legal obligations through proper design, inspection, maintenance, and documentation of road facilities. Several real-life examples will be discussed to explain how municipalities were found legally liable.

Course Content

• Liability in designing roadways and Intersections
• Liability in implementing traffic control devices
• Liability in designing roadway/intersection lighting
• Liability in routine road patrol and maintenance
• Liability in winter patrol and maintenance
• Liability in planning and designing road facilities dedicated to vulnerable road users
• The importance of conducting routine traffic safety studies
• Identifying and documenting design/maintenance flaws
• Practical methods to address design/maintenance flaws
• The benefits of using emerging technologies

Who Should Attend?
The primary target audience of this course are transportation professionals and risk managers involved with road design, inspection, and maintenance. Participants do not need to have formal engineering education. Example municipal positions that would be interested in taking the course include:

• Transportation manager.
• Transportation planning manager.
• Transportation operations supervisor.
• Transportation engineer.
• Transportation planner.
• Transportation technician.
• Transportation technologist.
• Traffic technician.
• Road superintendent.
• Any position involved with traffic/road safety.
• Any managerial position involved with public works, transportation services, risk management, or design and construction.

Prerequisites
Course participants are encouraged to make themselves familiar with the level-of-service standards adopted by their respective municipalities regarding the design, inspection, and maintenance of road facilities. Participants are encouraged to bring a scientific calculator that may be needed to answer the quizzes and the final exam.

What to bring:

1. Pen and Pencil.
2. Scientific calculator or a scientific calculator app on your smartphone.
3. An Internet-connected device (e.g., a smartphone, laptop) for the daily quizzes and to participate in the course polls.
4. The course polls will be done using Slido. To participate in the polls, you may download the Slido app (from Apple App Store or Google Play Store) or access the polls from any browser.

Evaluation Process
Your grade will be calculated as follows:

A final grade of 60% is required to pass the course.