A conceptual framework for road traffic safety considering differences in traffic culture through international comparison

Many countries and international organizations have put a significant amount of effort into improving road traffic safety by setting their own road traffic safety goals and strategies. This study aims to provide a conceptual framework for road traffic safety through an international comparison of traffic safety goals and strategies. Such a comparison can help improve mutual understanding and communication among stakeholders in different countries and international organizations. Based on a review of previous traffic safety literature and comparing traffic safety strategies of several different countries and international organizations, this study proposes a conceptual framework for road traffic safety consisting of a common vision, traffic safety indicators, a safe system including the 3Es and some additional Es, and a traffic safety culture, which is the basis of the framework.     

Education influence in traffic safety: A case study in Vietnam

It is well known that traffic accidents are of high importance to the public health spectrum around the world. Moreover, in developing countries such as Vietnam, the mortality rate from road traffic accidents is rather high in comparison with other Southeast Asian countries. Not only do the majority of the people killed and seriously injured significantly affect the quality of life of the citizens, but traffic accidents also negatively impact a nation's economic and social development. Statistics show that far more people are injured or die in traffic accidents than are afflicted by any of the most serious diseases. The very high occurrence of traffic accidents in Vietnam has become one of the country's major social issues. The importance of human factors in transport policy discussion is growing. There is a realization that policy options that appear beneficial in principle have to be checked for their feasibility of implementation. Understanding and describing driver behavior become a challenge when one tries to identify driver errors in determining accident/conflict causal factors and countermeasures.In recent years, having understood the serious effects of traffic accidents on society at large, scientific researchers, traffic engineers and policy makers in Vietnam have developed many projects and conducted research in the field of traffic safety. The human factor is also considered to be the central element in the whole system. The final goal is to organize a traffic environment that is convenient and safe for road users.This article explains the application of the risk analysis approach in evaluating influences of education and enforcement in traffic safety.     

Education influence in traffic safety: A case study in Vietnam

It is well known that traffic accidents are of high importance to the public health spectrum around the world. Moreover, in developing countries such as Vietnam, the mortality rate from road traffic accidents is rather high in comparison with other Southeast Asian countries. Not only do the majority of the people killed and seriously injured significantly affect the quality of life of the citizens, but traffic accidents also negatively impact a nation's economic and social development. Statistics show that far more people are injured or die in traffic accidents than are afflicted by any of the most serious diseases. The very high occurrence of traffic accidents in Vietnam has become one of the country's major social issues. The importance of human factors in transport policy discussion is growing. There is a realization that policy options that appear beneficial in principle have to be checked for their feasibility of implementation. Understanding and describing driver behavior become a challenge when one tries to identify driver errors in determining accident/conflict causal factors and countermeasures.In recent years, having understood the serious effects of traffic accidents on society at large, scientific researchers, traffic engineers and policy makers in Vietnam have developed many projects and conducted research in the field of traffic safety. The human factor is also considered to be the central element in the whole system. The final goal is to organize a traffic environment that is convenient and safe for road users.This article explains the application of the risk analysis approach in evaluating influences of education and enforcement in traffic safety.     

Meeting the management challenges of the Decade of Action for Road Safety

In low- and middle-income countries, the high price paid for mobility in terms of human loss and suffering is forecast to rise to unprecedented levels. More than 50 million deaths and 500 million serious injuries on the world's roads can be projected with some certainty over the first 50 years of the 21st century, unless sustained new initiatives are taken. This paper addresses the emergence of road safety as a development priority over the last decade and the management challenges facing the planned global response aimed at bringing road safety outcomes in developing countries under control. It outlines the decade of advocacy that created the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020 and related Global Plan, and highlights the concern that over the coming decade low and middle income countries will face considerable management challenges in successfully implementing related measures and sustaining their delivery. The paper discusses new road safety management tools that have been developed by the World Bank and ISO to provide assistance to countries and organizations within an integrated framework that ensures that measures taken are properly sequenced and adjusted to their absorptive and learning capacities. It concludes that strengthened institutions and the accelerated knowledge creation and transfer central to this, plus scaled-up investment and increased international cooperation and development aid are critical to the successful achievement of the Global Plan's ambitious goal.     

Traffic problems in Southeast Asia featuring the case of Cambodia's traffic accidents involving motorcycles

This article provides the background to the special issue by reviewing the status of traffic problems in South East Asian countries, and in particular, the case of Cambodia. The “Make Roads Safe” report by the Commission for Global Road Safety (2011) confirms traffic accidents as the primary cause of youth mortality worldwide. Thus, the United Nations declared the decade from 2011 to 2020 as the “UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020”, promoting road safety and to reduce the number of deaths in road accidents by 2020. Furthermore, the “Sustainable Development Goals” adopted in 2015 highlight the important role of sustainable transport in tackling the exclusion of vulnerable groups. On the other hand, the World Health Organization in 2015 indicate an increase in the death rate due to traffic accidents in low-income countries since 2000. Traffic accidents were already recognized as a social problem before the 2000s in countries such as Thailand and the Philippines. At the same time, other ASEAN member states such as Vietnam and Cambodia which have experienced rapid economic growth since the 2000s are now experiencing the seriousness of traffic problems. It is said that 70% of road accidents in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos involve motorcycles and three-wheelers, but despite this situation, the regulatory framework for motorcycles remains undeveloped. In the case of Cambodia, speeding by young people remains the major cause of road deaths and this can be explained by the fact that people can now travel at a higher speed because of road developments but remaining challenges related to underdeveloped traffic legislation, and limited public awareness and knowledge of road safety are overlooked. In 2010, the Cambodian National Road Safety Action Plan 2010–2020 was drafted, aiming to halve the number of deaths in traffic accidents in 2020. However, in reality, the number of road deaths did not decrease to the level anticipated in the action plan until 2016. In this article, the authors emphasize the importance of implementing the “three Es” namely Engineering, Enforcement and Education in developing countries such as Cambodia. In particular, the authors claim that the role of education to increase people's road safety awareness is neglected compared to the other two dimensions and thus, it is highly important to raise people's road safety awareness through education among the young people.     

The future of road safety: A worldwide perspective

Estimates by the World Health Organization suggest that, on a yearly basis, road crashes kill 1.25 million people—nearly 3400 road fatalities per day—and injure up to 50 million. Traffic injuries are not equally spread over the world, however; some countries are hit harder than others, and the chance of being killed in a road crash depends on where one lives. Almost 90% of all traffic casualties occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Globally, the number of fatalities per 100,000 population (mortality rate) ranges from less than 3 to almost 40. The rate is less than 9 in high-income countries (HIC) but averages around 20 in LMIC, with the African region demonstrating the highest rate (26.6). While road safety trends have been positive in HIC over the last few decades, trends in LMIC are not telling a positive story: road fatalities are expected to increase to almost 2 million road fatalities per year by 2020.The United Nations has adopted several resolutions on road safety and proposes actions to tackle the global road safety crisis. Considering the current level of road safety to be unacceptable, the UN has taken several initiatives. One effort, the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020, has generated substantial activity around the world over the last couple of years. Furthermore, it is very encouraging that the UN included road safety in the Sustainable Development Goals that it laid out in September 2015. Road safety is part of the public health agenda and the urban development agenda. Measured in “real actions,” however, the responses so far from the overall global community and individual countries do not suggest that we are already on the right track to bringing down the death toll on roads.The future of road safety is uncertain and definitely not the same for all regions of the world. Countries with a mature road safety approach and an ambition to make further progress are expected to move in the direction of a pro-active approach: a Safe System approach. It is reported that many LMIC, meanwhile, are on the brink of designing road safety strategies and implementing action plans. The international community is willing to support LMIC, but LMIC cannot simply copy successful HIC strategies because local circumstances differ. The principles of successful HIC strategies are applicable, but the priorities and action plans should take root in and align with local conditions.     

道路交通安全研究的现状与热点分析

道路交通事故的产生对民众的生命安全和财产损失影响巨大,国内外学者在该方面进行了大量的研究。为了整体把握道路交通事故研究热点及发展趋势,从中国知网(CNKI)核心期刊数据库和Web of Science核心合集数据库选取了2000—2020年与道路交通事故相关的3 943篇文献为数据源,借助CiteSpace和VOSviewer文献计量软件平台从文献分布特征、关键词共现、关键词聚类、关键词突现等方面进行分析,并在此基础上从事故黑点鉴别与影响因素分析、事故安全评价与事故预测、事故伤害(RTI)的流行病学研究和预防、事故处理与安全管理、事故仿真与驾驶行为分析这5个研究方向分析道路交通安全的研究趋势与热点问题。研究表明:①从作者合作方面分析发现道路交通事故研究具有多学科交叉性质;②对关键词共现分析发现国内外期刊关键词共现类别基本一致,说明国内外对道路交通事故方面的研究具有较强的一致性;③数据分析发现当前研究还存在实时交通事故评价手段欠缺、道路交通伤害数据结构不统一、事故仿真模型的通用性与有效性有待于进一步提高等问题;④从研究趋势的演进来看,未来的研究趋势主要集中在道路交通事故侵权责任研究、道路交通事故对道路通行能力的影响等方面。      

基于驾驶员信息处理的道路安全性评价模型

在车辆行驶过程中,道路条件包含了大量的信息,驾驶员需要及时对这些信息进行处理,以保障行车安全。本文基于驾驶员信息处理,建立了一种新的道路安全性评价模型,并结合相邻路段运行速度差,给出评价指标。     

Future of road safety and SDG 3.6 goals in six Indian cities

In this paper, we use estimates of the effectiveness of existing road safety technologies and interventions to estimate the reduction in road safety deaths in six Indian cities over the next decade, in order to achieve the SDG 3.6 goal of a 50% reduction by 2030. Only the existing interventions are considered and technologies that might be available in the future are not accounted for. The results show that similar policies for all cities will not produce the same results, and that achieving the SDG 3.6 goal does not automatically reduce fatality rates in cities with high fatality rates. The introduction of safer cars with currently available safety technologies, although necessary, will have much less effect than the combined effect of motorcycle safety technologies, speed control and traffic calming. This study suggests that while SDG 3.6 targets may be satisfied by 2030 with great effort in India, the presently available safety interventions may not be adequate to bring about death rates below 2.0 per hundred thousand persons. Since the situation differs significantly between cities, it will be important to evolve city-specific policies for safety intervention priorities and changes in travel behavior. The desired reduction in road traffic injuries in India will not be possible without much greater investment in road safety research and road design for safer travel.     

Effectiveness evaluation on cross-sector collaborative education programs for traffic safety toward sustainable motorcycle culture in Vietnam

Motorcycle injuries have caused serious implications for public health and national economies in many ASEAN countries. Drivers' lack of road safety awareness and low level of voluntary compliance hinder the promotion of traffic safety. Against this background, the Vietnamese government cooperated with motorcycle manufacturers in a wide range of educational activities. This study evaluates the effectiveness of cross-sector collaborative education programs implemented in Vietnam through a series of statistical analyses. Utilizing a sample of 600 respondents, we focus on the educational effects on riders' attitudes, behaviors, accident prevention, and riders' psychological changes after participating in safety activities. The results show that the effectiveness of rider training differed depending on riders' experience. Motorcyclists' improvement in risk awareness mainly results from the enhancement of safety awareness. The structural model revealed that safety activities have positive effects on motorcyclists' riding confidence, safety awareness, joy and comfort while riding, independence and freedom in daily life, and perspective-taking abilities. Altruistic motivation is suggested as the key factor to encourage motorcyclists' safe riding, highlighting the importance of building up traffic moral and expanding traffic safety culture across the country. With an attempt to find out the insufficient and missing content from the present training programs, this study seeks to inform policy decisions on accident prevention as well as promote motorcyclists' well-being based on the sustainable motorcycle culture in ASEAN countries.     

Using a surrogate safety approach to prioritize hazardous segments in a rural highway in a developing country

Road safety is a global concern particularly in developing countries where some road sections are disproportionately more vulnerable in terms of the frequency and severity of crashes. Other than using historical crash data based reactive approaches, those sections need to be identified proactively, so that mitigation measures can be applied. Moreover, those approaches are sometimes questioned mainly due to data reliability issues in developing countries. The study reported here is aimed at highlighting the applicability of traffic conflict techniques as surrogate safety measures to identify those sections of a rural highway in a developing country, which are most likely at risk. An adapted framework is demonstrated to identify traffic conflicts using combined surrogate indicators acknowledging the limited resources and facilities in developing countries. A new model is put forwarded using a count data modelling approach. Both fixed and random parameters model derivatives have been explored as an alternative methodological approach to relate the factors affecting the number and probability of conflicts. The partial effects of individual independent variables were estimated to gain a better insight of their impact. The results show that the model can predict high risk segments in terms of probability of conflicts as well as safety risk, as well as prioritize road sections according to the likelihood of their safety level. The model provides a less expensive alternative to the collection of historical crash data in order to identify hazardous road locations or black spots on two-lane highways in developing countries.¹     

Socio-economic costs of road crashes in middle-income countries: Applying a hybrid approach to Kazakhstan

Information about road crash costs is a valuable input for road safety policy making and it is essential for conducting cost-benefit analysis of road safety interventions. This paper presents a methodology for assessing the socio-economic costs of road crashes as well as an estimate of the volume of these costs in Kazakhstan. Five costs components have been taken into account: medical costs, production loss, human costs, vehicle damage and administrative costs. A hybrid methodological approach has been used, which implies that three different types of methods have been applied to capture all costs: the human capital method (production loss), willingness to pay (human costs) and restitution costs method (other components). Input data were retrieved from existing databases from a variety of road safety stakeholders and other organizations. A household survey was conducted to collect additional information, including the willingness to pay for fatal crash risk reductions. Remaining data gaps have been bridged by using data from other countries. The socio-economic costs of road crashes in Kazakhstan are estimated at $6.8 billion in 2012, which corresponds to 3.3% of GDP. Human costs account for 81% of the total costs, vehicle damage for 11% and production loss for 6%. Administrative and medical costs are relatively very small cost components. More than half of the costs is related to injuries, while fatalities account for about a third of the total costs and property damage only accounts for approximately 10%.     

Réflexions sur le transfert méthodologique de l’analyse qualitative d’accidents de la circulation routière issue de l’étude détaillée des accidents (EDA) fran?aise aux procédures d’accidents colombiennes

Nearly 90% of the traffic accidents that occur worldwide happen in developing countries. Yet road safety remains a little-studied subject in these countries, and notably accidentology studies, which provide a wealth of information. One of the major problems in studying road accidents in developing countries lies in the lack of reliable accident data. Indeed, while the comprehensive accident analysis methodologies used in developed countries provide an understanding of the origin of accidents and accident processes, as well as making it possible to define suitable, effective actions, they require reliable and relatively detailed accident data. These methodologies are notably based on detailed accident studies (DASs) and their adaptation to the analysis of accident reports. Colombia has an infrastructure for gathering and storing traffic accident data that can be used to perform comprehensive accident analyses. This article defines the feasibility of a technology transfer (clinical accident analysis) to the Colombian equivalent of accident reports. These observations are part of a doctoral thesis prepared jointly by the IFSTTAR Accident Mechanisms Research Unit and the University of the Andes in Bogotá.     

A multi-country survey for collecting and analyzing facts related to road traffic safety: Legislation,enforcement, and education for safer drivers

Road traffic safety is a crucial global objective. It is important for every country to review and improve road safety policies and strategies, based on an objective understanding of its own road traffic safety situation in the world. With the aim of contributing to such a review and understanding, this study conducted a multi-country survey to gather information about various facts related to legislation, enforcement, and education, which are designed to achieve safer drivers in nine countries, by using a common format. This paper introduces the results of the survey with a particular focus on legislation and enforcement regarding speed limit violations and red-light-running as well as on education within the driving licensing systems. It highlights variations, in terms of penalty settings and enforcement levels, in different countries; it also examines the training durations necessary for acquiring a driving license and license renewal procedures. In this way, it demonstrates the potential and significance of understanding the relative position of each country in terms of road traffic safety through an international comparison despite its limited information.     

Modelling traffic safety at uncontrolled median openings: A case study in India

Assessment of traffic safety is an essential study in transportation engineering. In a developing country like India, around 150,000 people die in road crashes every year. Furthermore, at uncontrolled median openings, the severity of road crashes is higher due to the presence of impatient U-turning road users who don't obey the rule of priority. Traditionally, road crash data have been used since long to analyze traffic safety. However, in developing countries, the main drawback of this conventional method is limited availability of accident data as very few accidents get reported. Moreover, the accuracy of these reported data is questionable. Therefore, now-a-days, various surrogate traffic safety measures like Post Encroachment Time (PET), and Time to Collision (TTC) are being used to examine the safety of road users. Among them, PET is regarded as the most consistent, and most widely used safety indicator. Therefore, in the present study, PET across different traffic volume levels has been determined. Videography data has been collected from selected median openings located on six-lane divided urban roads. PET values for different traffic volumes, and different category of vehicles have been analysed in detail. Further, the distribution of PET values across the full width of road has also been studied. Concept of critical speed is introduced which is compared with conflicting speed to assess unsafe conflicts and determine a critical PET. Finally, regression models have also been proposed with good levels of accuracy to determine the PET values for various category of vehicles travelling at different conflicting speeds.     

Developing a safer road user behaviour index

Road user behaviour is an essential factor of increasing the rate of traffic accidents worldwide. Road safety experts and scientists consider aspects of road users' behaviour to be the main risk factors for road fatalities. These factors include drinking alcohol, speeding, not wearing seat belts, not wearing helmets when riding two-wheeled vehicles, not using child restraints, consuming illegal drugs, and being distracted by mobile phone use. This paper aims to investigate the role of these factors in assessing the road user behaviour through aggregating them and build a composite indicator that can be used in countries benchmarking and cross countries comparison, then identifying most successful practises. To achieve this aim, data related to the selected indicators, life-saving rate, and real crash data were collected. The indicators were weighted using simple and theoretical methods. The weighted indicators were aggregated using simple additive method. The developed index was applied to 12 European countries to test the validation of the index through investigation the correlation between index’ ranking of countries with the ranking according to the rate of fatalities. It is concluded that the developed composite indicator can be used to assess the role of using the protection system and speeding in the severity of the road crashes. However, the role of the remaining factors in the likelihood of crashes occurrence needs more investigation. It can be concluded also that the road users' behaviour is not the only factor of reducing the road fatalities in some countries. This enhances the multidimensional system approach of defining the road safety. Based on this, it is recommended to consider other factors in conducting research, developing indices of road safety, and in recommending solutions. The results show also that the UK, Sweden, Ireland and Ireland have the most successful strategies to improve the road user behaviour among the selected countries; therefore, it is recommended to take lessons from these practices.     

安全评价技术在老路改建中的应用研究

结合沪宁高速公路南京连接线改造工程,在已有交通事故统计资料、全线几何设计参数和大量实测数据的基础上,运用事故统计分析、人机工程学理论和运行速度理念等新的安全评价技术对该路段的安全状况进行分析与评价。通过对所得数据的评价分析找出事故隐患路段和事故黑点并提出具体的安全整改措施,为安全评价技术在老路改建中的应用作了有益的尝试。     

基于CiteSpace知识图谱的新能源汽车研究热点与发展趋势分析

基于科学知识图谱方法和可视化工具CiteSpace,以1991~2020年CNKI和WOS收录的新能源汽车期刊文献作为样本,从时间和空间上展示该领域中各国科研实力、学者合作情况及研究主题等,分析核心科研力量、前沿热点以及演变趋势。研究表明,中美科研实力强劲,但中国的整体科研力量分散;该领域的研究在政策重视度和资金支持度方面存在依赖性;未来的研究仍聚焦整车集成控制、电池研究、驱动系统和智能化等技术方向,以及政府政策、消费偏好、市场渗透等发展方向。     

Defining suitable Safe System projects: The experience of the SaferAfrica project in five African countries

When dealing with road safety in Africa, one should bear in mind that road safety problems need to be seen in their context as the solutions proposed to address them. While it is relevant to consider international good practices, African stakeholders should become owners of the interventions addressing their problems and take the responsibility for developing and implementing the appropriate solutions, taking advantage of suitable technical assistance, if needed. Based on these considerations, in this paper, a presentation is made of the process used in the European research project SaferAfrica to define suitable Safe System projects in Africa. This project aims at supporting policymakers and stakeholders with evidence on critical risk factors, related actions, and good practices drawn from high-quality data and knowledge. In the project, road safety and traffic management capacity reviews at the country level were carried out in five countries (Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Kenya, and South Africa), following the World Bank guidelines. After conducting such a capacity review, these guidelines recommend the preparation and implementation of Safe System projects, “stand-alone, multisector initiatives targeting high-risk corridors and areas, with outcomes large enough to be reliably measured.” In SaferAfrica, this approach aims at facilitating the implementation of Safe System projects in the considered countries, by identifying detailed short-term improvement plans and producing contextualized terms of reference for some interventions per selected country. These interventions are remedial, they address high-priority concerns and demonstrate the viability of high potential gains within current administrative and legislative frameworks. To design interventions suitable to the existing context, the transferability audit tool was adopted within a “participative” process, involving all possible interested parties, from the institutions to NGOs. Results from the process are presented and discussed.     

The impact of road improvements on road safety and related characteristics

This paper presents the historical and cultural background relating to road improvement and road safety characteristics in Kenya, a developing country in East Africa. Some who come from low-developed areas of developing countries often take time to comprehend the modern transportation infrastructure, especially roads, and have difficulty assimilating and customizing the same to their culturally tailored modes.This paper discusses two case studies: one on the socio-economic impact following improvements to a 50-km, high-class, high-traffic-volume road and the other on the monitoring and evaluation of road safety aspects along the Northern Corridor in Kenya also following major road improvements.The road improvements to the Nairobi-Thika Highway (a trunk road) have attracted many investors along the highway corridor. The high-speed road has also brought with it the unfortunate consequence of speeding vehicles colliding with pedestrians crossing the road at undesignated locations.The Northern Corridor, the transportation corridor that links the Great Lakes Countries of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda from the port of Mombasa in Kenya, has had high accident rates for a considerable amount of time. The results of monitoring and evaluation exercises on the Northern Corridor have shown that drivers are the major contributors in causing accidents, with a component ratio of 49.4%; pedestrians are next at 21.7%. Data also shows that 24% of the accidents along the Northern Corridor are fatal, which is of major concern. The study additionally indicated that the majority of road users have not been exposed to education or training on road safety.This paper presents a number of recommendations arising from the road safety study regarding possible improvements in aspects of road safety along the corridor and potential applications of those changes to other roads in general. For example, there are recommendations related to the geometric design of the road, driver training and behavior, vehicle maintenance, and the need to enhance road safety through the utilization of road safety parks where road users can undergo training and drills on road safety aspects.In conclusion, we argue that the rehabilitation of the Northern Corridor from Mombasa on the Kenyan coast to the border with Uganda has led to significant road safety improvement.