Traffic safety and urban living

Abstract

Traffic accidents are certainly not limited to urban life but the bulk of them occur in and around cities. Intersections are most hazardous for automobile drivers. Pedestrians are most likely to be struck down in mid-block. Freeways are most safe of all, even though some drivers find them frightening.

Younger (under 25), inexperienced drivers of both sexes and older (over 60) drivers tend to have more than their share of driving accidents. Pedestrians struck by autos are most likely to be children or senior citizens. Recently, bicycles have emerged as a viable alternative automobile use, and the accident rate soared. Clearly two groups, school children and young adults, are having quite different types of collisions with automobiles. Some bike to bike fatal crashes have occurred.

For all urban traffic accidents, nighttime is more hazardous than day but since most traffic is daytime traffic, the raw numbers of accidents are about equal. Remedial measures such as improved street lighting have proved effective and so have pedestrian overpasses but pedestrian underpasses have generally proven to be a dismal disappointment.

Traffic signal timing synchronization and special purpose traffic lanes (bus lanes, car pool lanes, etc.) both have traffic safety implications that are not clearly good or bad.