Road Safety

d sRoad traffic safety
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Sidewalks, curbs and traffic signals in Maryland, United States

Speed limits in different areas, unusually with only a "recommended" limit (130 km/h) for the Autobahn
Road traffic safety refers to methods and measures for reducing the risk of a person using the road network being killed or seriously injured. The users of a road include pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, their passengers, and passengers of on-road public transport, mainly buses and trams. Best-practice road safety strategies focus upon the prevention of serious injury and death crashes in spite of human fallibility[1] (which is contrasted with the old road safety paradigm of simply reducing crashes assuming road user compliance with traffic regulations). Safe road design is now about providing a road environment which ensures vehicle speeds will be within the human tolerances for serious injury and death wherever conflict points exist.
The basic strategy of a Safe System approach is to ensure that in the event of a crash, the impact energies remain below the threshold likely to produce either death or serious injury. This threshold will vary from crash scenario to crash scenario, depending upon the level of protection offered to the road users involved. For example, the chances of survival for an unprotected pedestrian hit by a vehicle diminish rapidly at speeds greater than 30 km/h, whereas for a properly restrained motor vehicle occupant the critical impact speed is 50 km/h (for side impact crashes) and 70 km/h (for head-on crashes).
—International Transport Forum, Towards Zero, Ambitious Road Safety Targets and the Safe System Approach,

References: 5. ^ "UN raises child accidents alarm". BBC News. 2008-12-10. Retrieved 2010-05-22. 10. ^ Department for Transport (2008), p. 121 table 12 'Reported accidents, vehicles and casualties: casualties by severity: by road class, built-up and non built-up roads: 2008 ' 11 18. ^ a b NEUMAN, TIMOTHY R., et al (2003). NCHRP REPORT 500 Volume 5: A Guide for Addressing Unsignalized Intersection Collisions. WASHINGTON, D.C.: TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD. 20. ^ Staplin, L., et al. (2001). Highway Design Handbook for Older Drivers and Pedestrians. Washington D.C.: Federal Highway Administration. 24. ^ Matthias Schulz (2006-11-16). "European Cities Do Away with Traffic Signs". Spiegel Online. Retrieved 2008-02-27. 25. ^ Ted White (September 2007). "Signing Off: Visionary traffic planners". Urbanite Baltimore. Retrieved 2008-02-27. 26. ^ Gray, Sadie (2008-01-11). "Obituaries: Hans Monderman". The Times (London: Times Newspapers Ltd). Retrieved 2008-02-27. 27. ^ a b Andrew Gilligan (2008-02-07). "It 's hell on the roads, and I know who 's to blame". The Evening Standard (Associated Newspapers Limited). Retrieved 2008-02-27. 28. ^ Professor John Adams (2007-09-02). "Shared Space – would it work in Los Angeles?" (PDF). John Adams. Retrieved 2008-02-27. 34. ^ "Star rating roads for safety: UK trials 2006-07". EuroRAP. 2007-12-03. (Note: see country maps here [2]) 35 38. ^ "page 147 Transport statistics 2009 edition". Dft.gov.uk. 2012-03-31. Retrieved 2012-04-09. 43. ^ Nader v. General Motors Corp. Court of Appeals of New York, 1970 44 47. ^ Mike Gill, Michael J Goldacre, David G R Yeates (2006-06-23) (PDF). Changes in safety on England’s roads: analysis of hospital statistics. BMJ. 48. ^ Heather Ward, Ronan Lyons, Roselle Thoreau (June 2006) (PDF). Road Safety Research Report No. 69: Under-reporting of Road Casualties – Phase 1. UK Department for Transport. Sources * Department for Transport (2008) * Mayer Hillman, John Adams, John Whitelegg (1991, 2000). One False Move: a study of children 's independent mobility. Policy Studies Institute. ISBN 0-85374-494-7. * Robert Davis (1993). Death on the Streets: Cars and the mythology of road safety. Leading Edge Press. ISBN 0-948135-46-8. * John Adams (1995). Risk. UCL Press. ISBN 1-85728-068-7. * Leonard Evans (2004). Traffic Safety. Science Serving Society. ISBN 0-9754871-0-8.