Road safety

Road safety refers to the measures and methods used to prevent road users from being killed or seriously injured. Typical road users include pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, vehicle passengers, horse riders, and passengers of on-road public transport (mainly buses and trams). Best practices in modern road safety strategies focus on preventing serious injury and death crashes in spite of human fallibility (which is contrasted with the old road safety paradigm of simply reducing crashes assuming road user compliance with traffic regulations). Road traffic safety more broadly includes roadway design.

One of the first formal academic studies into improving vehicle safety was by Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory of Buffalo, New York. The main conclusion of their extensive report is the crucial importance of seat belts and padded dashboards. Improvements in road and vehicle designs have steadily reduced injury and death rates around the world. Nevertheless, auto collisions are still a leading cause of injury-related deaths, an estimated total of 1.2 million in 2004, or 25% of the total from all causes. Risk compensation theory has been used in arguments against safety devices, regulations, and modifications of vehicles despite the efficacy of saving lives.

Causes

The majority of road crashes are caused by human error. Research has shown that careful design and maintenance, with well-designed intersections, road surfaces, visibility, and traffic control devices, can result in significant improvements in accident rates.

Interventions

Interventions aimed at improving road safety can be either proactive or reactive. Proactive measures include improving roadway infrastructure (such as installing guardrails), implementing road safety education campaigns, and enforcing traffic law through the use of police and speed cameras. Reactive measures include improving emergency response to accidents, and post-accident audits. Today, the use of technologies such as GPS and telematics are becoming more common in road safety management.

Road Safety Management

Road safety management practices can involve the planning, design, operation, and use of the road network. The goal of road safety management is to reduce the number of road traffic injuries and deaths.

Legislation

Many jurisdictions have enacted laws requiring road safety features. For example, seat belts, motorcycle helmets, and child safety seats are mandated in many countries. Laws and regulations concerning driving under the influence and not using mobile phones are also common.

See also

• Traffic collision
• Vehicle safety
• Pedestrian safety
• Cycling safety

Categories

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