Pedestrian safety - Global Road Safety Partnership

Implementing pedestrian safety interventions
Continued from previous page
• Publishing a monthly ‘name and shame’ list of
individuals and their home towns, for all drinking
and driving convictions, in local and provincial
newspapers.
• Conducting public awareness (“Crash Witness”)
campaigns using footage of serious crashes on
YouTube.
• Using closed-circuit television images as evidence
to strengthen enforcement at railway level crossings,
which are sites for pedestrian fatalities in
the province.
• Encouraging the public to report reckless driving,
especially by public transport operators, using
social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter
and Mxit.
• Providing pedestrian overpasses at two high-incidence
locations.
• Conducting random inspection of vehicles and
drivers.
The initial efforts have led to a 29% reduction in road
fatalities in about three years (35). While availability
of data has been identified as a major limitation for
the evaluation of trends in road traffic fatalities in
the province, it is hoped that the existing database
systems and those that have been recommended for
improvement or development will be useful for evaluating
this initiative as implementation progresses.
The initiative shows how pedestrian safety can be
prioritized within an overall road safety programme.
© M. Khayesi
Traffic law enforcement
Traffic laws affecting pedestrian safety are largely aimed at controlling pedestrian and
driver behaviour at intersections, crossings and other locations (28). Comprehensive
legislation is a key element of pedestrian safety, but legislation alone is not likely
to facilitate behaviour change in the absence of law enforcement and adequate
penalties. Driver and pedestrian compliance with laws critical to pedestrian safety –
such as legal vehicle speed limits, drinking and driving regulations, red-light signal
compliance and pedestrian traffic control signals – are motivated in part by the
perceived risk of detection, i.e. law enforcement, and in part by the perceived severity
of the penalties (1).
Failure of motorists to obey posted speed regulations contributes substantially to
pedestrian collisions and injuries. High pedestrian use areas may be identified and
associated with a lower speed limit. In addition to enforcement of speed limits by
the police, there are also physical measures related to the road and the vehicle that
need to be implemented, for example speed bumps, which contribute to compliance
with maximum posted speed limits (see Section 4.2.2). Consistent and highly visible
law enforcement operations through a mix of visible patrols and fixed cameras are
therefore essential (18). Similarly, pedestrians should also follow regulations such
stopping when the traffic light is red for vehicles to move on.
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