A few pondering points to safeguard Vulnerable Road users from accidents on Road
As per World Health Organisation report 2023, every year, approximately 1.19 million deaths occur on road as a result of road accidents and vulnerable road users including pedestrians and riders of two wheelers constitutes more than half of such unfortunate deaths on the road. Besides these, a large number of people suffer non-fatal injuries including permanent disability due to road accidents. The report further said that due to hitting by car front, there is death risks and it is more if car is moving at higher speed. Speed more than 50 kmph are disastrous in case of frontal impact. The occupants of car moving at more than 65 kmph are prone to higher risk of fatal injuries if there are side impacts on the car by another car.
Road crashes are inevitable but it can be minimised and fatal & grievous injury may be prevented by the use of a systematic approach for proactive intervention. The road environment & its geometry can be effectively improved by a making systematic review of evidence-based needs. Flawless data collection and its competent analysis may help in the proper assessment of safety management of a road network.
Proper visualisation by competent person will certainly lead to indication that the various elements of the road including road surface condition have direct relationship with the road safety. Road friction is very much essential for safety of for all road users especially for motorcyclists using the road. This road friction can be termed as skid resistance also and is primarily dependent on the pavement construction materials, roughness of pavement & weather conditions. The surface macro texture and micro texture indicates the efficacy of skid resistance property of a particular pavement. If skid resistance of the road is lower, then braking efficiency of moving vehicle will also decrease and vice versa. The skid resistance features will be poor in case of wearing due to aging, due to bitumen bleeding and due to poor repair & maintenance pavement work. Motorcyclists are severely prone to road accidents due to poor skid resistance. As per a report by FEMA (Federation of European Motorcyclists Association), about 30 percent of crashes in case of single two-wheeled vehicle happen due to poor skid resistance of road and the crash occur due to sliding of these vehicles. NCHRP says that one of their research reports reveals that crash rate can be significantly reduced by increasing the pavement friction. It is noteworthy to mention here that the cumulative traffic volume and AADT have a great impact on the pavement friction and as these two parameters increase, there is a fast decrease in the tire pavement friction and safety risks increases rapidly specially on the horizontal curve. Decrease in the lateral friction coefficient on the horizontal curve leads to more severe accidents.
It is pertinent to mention here that there exists relation between road surface friction and force applied by the driver on the vehicle tires. If the road surface is slippery, then it adversely affects the vehicle ability to steer or in its manoeuvring action during application of effective brakes. Varying road friction if ignored, may cause inefficient traffic operation particularly on slippery road. Researches are going on and now it is possible by machine learning models to predict the road friction values in advance (real time estimation of the road surface) i.e. before the vehicle movement on the stretch and this information can be used for dynamic improvement in the road safety by helping in enhancement of the behavioural performance of moving vehicles.
When the skid resistance is low i.e. when the coefficient of friction decreases, then crashes and roadway departures may occur which may be fatal also. Rear end collision or side-wise impact at intersections may also occur due to low road friction. This decrease in friction may be due to aging of aggregates; due to polishing in case of large AADT or very large number of cumulative traffic volume, wet weather or bitumen bleeding in hot climate. After thorough assessment of the pavement condition, renewal bituminous layer at the top may be considered which can improve the safe riding quality and it also helps in further disintegration of the existing pavement. High Friction Surface Treatment as envisaged by FHWA, may help in the drastic reduction of crashes, injuries & fatalities (reduction may be up to the extent of more than 30 percent).
As per the overview of Road crash statistics in India, the percentage of fatalities of two wheelers riders due to road crashes in 2022, were about 44.5 out of the total crash fatalities in the year.
Pedestrians are particularly vulnerable to accidents on the roads as compared to other users. As per a report by European commission (European Road Safety Observatory- facts 7 Figures-pedestrians 2023) pedestrian fatalities were estimated to be almost 20 percent of all road fatalities across EU.
Fatalities among pedestrian road user were found to increase in India and it was 19.5 percent of the total fatalities in the year 2022.
As per an estimate of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, USA, 7314 numbers of pedestrians died in traffic crashes in 2023 while using public roads. It was estimated by them that at intersections only, pedestrian fatalities were 24 percent. As per a report analysis by CDC, in USA there are various contributors in increase in the numbers of pedestrian fatalities. They opined that these may be due to changing mix of vehicles with a changing dimension on US highways. The report added that proportions of Heavier & taller vehicles, SUVs and pickup trucks are increasing and crashes incurred by these vehicles leads only to deaths on the road. High speed & multilane roadways which have little considerations for VRUs (vulnerable Road Users) in their geometric design are also responsible for a large number of pedestrian deaths. Like other traffic accidents, pedestrian fatalities & injuries have socio-economic and health costs and there is loss in terms of GDP also.
It is an established fact that more than 70 percent of all pedestrian fatalities occur in the urban areas of developed countries like USA and countries of European nation.
It has been seen that the Road DPR are formed keeping in view the need of motorised traffic only. There are little considerations for the safe mobility of pedestrians in the DPR and most DPRs lack the adequate provisions of facilities such as sidewalks and efficient signalised crossings. Most of the roads & road network in urban areas did not include approaches on roads to bus/auto junction/stops and continuous footpath or separate lanes for slow moving vehicle e.g. for two wheelers are missing. Hon’ble Supreme court of India has observed and opined that the right to use footpath without obstruction is fundamental aspect of the right to Life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
It is pertinent to mention here that in case of pedestrians sharing with high-speed vehicles on the road have a risk of severe injuries in crash accidents. Road widening with more lanes to facilitate higher speed for motorised vehicles will lead to increment in the pedestrian risk to crash injuries. Higher vehicle front ends or vehicles with taller ends are more likely to increase the severity of pedestrian injuries in case of crashes. Accordingly, if the vehicles ergonomic designs are revised with respect to front end design and if these vehicles are fitted with emergency ABS features, then pedestrian crashes can be minimised to a large extent. Speed at which the risk injury to a person is less than 10 percent is called Safe Crash Speed and as per a study, this speed was found to be 15 kmph.
Limiting velocity models have been developed by the world Bank. As per this model, influencing factors such as curvature, gradient, roughness of the road & its other geometric features, braking efficiency of vehicles, signalling system to control the traffic, traffic congestion and manoeuvring behaviour of multi axle vehicles on vertical & horizontal curves are to studied by a competent person before prediction of vehicle speed.
Traffic calming measures and other geometric improvements such as sidewalks, raised crossings and narrowing of road at places will help in enhancing the safety of pedestrians. Reducing the legal speed of the vehicles at such stretches will do the needful.
Pedestrians are most vulnerable to accidents at the intersections while crossing the road. Additional safety measures are required to be installed at such locations and these may be raised median refuge islands or pedestrian beacons.
Road design which are friendly to pedestrians are the demand of the alarming situation, but this only will not suffice. Road user behaviour is also to be studied and accordingly geometric improvements & enforcement measures as discussed above are to be implemented.
Pedestrian bridges are built over the roads to facilitate safe movement of the pedestrians. But their design does not make it easy to crossing as most of the times their length including span is much more than the average road crossing. These bridges are built with stairways or ramps which are felt strenuous to use by elderly people or by anyone carrying goods. Persons with disability also are not inclined to use it. A study has shown that only 35 percent of pedestrian use pedestrian overpass i.e. overbridge with staircase. Interesting part of the study is that prevalence of use is lower among the male adults. But the bridges having escalators is preferred and here the number of users increases. Underpass is a preferable choice in comparison to overpass.
Pedestrians prefer crossing at places where there is space available between medians for crossing or at places having facility of mid-block crossing.
Before consideration of providing any such facilities for the pedestrians, Land use mix, population density in the area and city structure including its habitation pattern are some of the factors to be considered at the time of planning to alleviate the injury risks.
Road Safety Audit (RSA) is an important tool which can be used to identify the safety issue faced or expected to be faced by pedestrians & motorcyclists while using the road. As per FHWA- RSA is a formal safety performance examination of existing or future roads or intersection by an independent audit team comprising competent professionals from multidisciplinary field. This RSA can be done at any stages i.e. at planning /DPR stage; during the construction stage to see work zone safety and before COD; in the post construction stage to examine the shortcomings of the earlier stages with respect to safety of users. An RSA can be fruitful for the vulnerable road users only if it concentrates on identifying the safety issues that are not earlier perceived so as to enhance the safety for pedestrians & motorcyclists on road. RSA should evaluate the safety of these vulnerable road users by making specific recommendations conducive to safe movement of these users. Already standard guidelines are there for pedestrian & two wheeler’s safety and the recommendations made by RSA should conform to these guidelines. Such recommendations by RSA, needs to be complied by the concerned agencies in charge of execution.
Approach needed for road safety should be Safe System approach instead of conventional type (wherein road users, vehicles and road environment are considered separately to analyse the traffic accidents) should be adopted. In safe system approach, all the three i.e. road users, vehicles & road environment are considered in an integrated manner to assess the risk factors. The inherent principle of the safe system approach is to make the road travel safe for all users in their mobility & when they are interacting with the road & vehicles during their movement. This system recognises the importance of road user behaviour, human physical vulnerability in case of injuries and it stresses the need for sharing of traffic responsibility between the users and the road designers & developers. Social values are given prime importance in this approach
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