Right urban design can cut traffic accidents – report

Building and retrofitting urban environments and reducing vehicle speeds are the key to creating safer streets and cutting traffic fatalities, a new report says. Cities Safer by Design, by the World Resources Institute (WRI) Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, offers practical guidance for urban planners and policymakers, and includes more than 30 specific urban design recommendations.
August 28, 2015 Read time: 2 mins

Building and retrofitting urban environments and reducing vehicle speeds are the key to creating safer streets and cutting traffic fatalities, a new report says.

Cities Safer by Design, by the 4722 World Resources Institute (WRI) Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, offers practical guidance for urban planners and policymakers, and includes more than 30 specific urban design recommendations.

The report focuses on improving infrastructure for pedestrians, cycling and mass transport, and outlines two ways to improve traffic safety in cities.
First, by building and retrofitting urban environments to reduce the need for individual vehicle trips; and second, by reducing vehicle speeds in areas where cars, pedestrians and cyclists mix.

'It’s often children, the elderly and the poor who are most at risk for traffic accidents,’ said Ben Welle, senior associate at WRI and one of the report’s co-authors.

‘As cities around the world rapidly expand, there’s an urgent need to design communities that are compact and connected, with calm traffic and streets that promote walking, cycling and access to transit,’ he added.

The report includes examples from specific cities and provides examples from Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul, New York, Paris and more.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Pedestrians still walking a tightrope in US
    August 23, 2024
    Although the Governors Highway Safety Association says annual US pedestrian traffic deaths fell for first time since Covid, they remain above pre-pandemic levels, finds David Arminas
    Read More
  • UK traffic congestion getting worse says new report
    June 4, 2014
    Traffic congestion in cities across the UK has got significantly worse over the past year, according to a new report from TomTom. The fourth annual Traffic Index from TomTom shows average journeys in 2013 took 27 per cent longer than they would in free-flowing traffic – up from a 26 per cent delay in 2012.
    Read More
  • TRL answer key questions on urban traffic control
    March 21, 2014
    PC-based urban traffic control (UTC) continues to grow. Gavin Jackman, Head of Traffic and Software at TRL, looks forward. 1. PC-based urban traffic control is now very well established throughout the world. What have been the most significant developments or new features that have become available over the last two years? That’s a really interesting question because, from a software perspective, a few things are noticeable. Firstly, there are more players on the market – TRL’s Transyt Online, Imtech’s Imf
    Read More
  • Machine vision - cameras for intelligent traffic management
    January 25, 2012
    For some, machine vision is the coming technology. For others, it’s already here. Although it remains a relative newcomer to the ITS sector, its effects look set to be profound and far-reaching. Encapsulating in just a few short words the distinguishing features of complex technologies and their operating concepts can sometimes be difficult. Often, it is the most subtle of nuances which are both the most important and yet also the most easily lost. Happily, in the case of machine vision this isn’t the case:
    Read More

Highlighted Content