Transport Planning and Traffic Safety

Book excerpt: In recognition of the importance of road safety as a major health issue, the World Health Organization has declared 2011-2021 the Decade of Safety Action. Several countries in Europe, North America, and Asia have been successful in reducing fatalities and injuries due to road traffic crashes. However, many low-income countries continue to experience high rates of traffic fatalities and injuries. Transport Planning and Traffic Safety: Making Cities, Roads, and Vehicles Safer offers a source book for road safety training courses as well as an introductory textbook for graduate-level courses on road safety taught in engineering institutes. It brings together the international experiences and lessons learned from countries which have been successful in reducing traffic crashes and their applicability in low-income countries. The content is based on lectures delivered during an international course on transportation planning and traffic safety, sponsored annually by the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme (TRIPP) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. The book is interdisciplinary and aimed at professionals—traffic and road engineers, vehicle designers, law enforcers, and transport planners. The authors examine trends in performance of OECD countries and highlight the public health and systems approach of traffic safety with the vulnerable road user in focus. Topics include land use (transportation planning, mobility, and safety), safety education and legislation, accident analysis, road safety research, human tolerance to injury, vehicle design, safety in construction zones, safety in urban areas, traffic calming, public transportation, safety laws and policies, and pre-hospital care of the injured.