Skip to main content

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.

Related Content

  • May 8, 2015
    Data holds the key to combating VRU casualties
    Accident analysis software can help authorities identify common causes and make best use of their budgets, as Will Baron explains. More than 1.2 million people die on the world’s roads each year and according to the World Health Organisation, half of these are pedestrians and vulnerable road users (those whose vehicle does not have a protective shell, such as motorcyclists and cyclists). While much has been done to improve road safety and cut the number of deaths and serious injuries on our roads, a great d
  • April 9, 2014
    ITS homes in on cycling safety
    A new generation of ITS equipment is helping road authorities get to grips with cycle safety – and not a moment too soon as Colin Sowman discovers. Cyclists - remember them? Apparently not. At least not according to the OECD 2013 report Cycling, Health and Safety which contains the statement: ‘Cyclists are often forgotten in the design of the road traffic system’. Looking through the statistics that exist (each country appears to compile them differently) it is not difficult to see how such a conclusion cou
  • April 29, 2019
    Cost benefit: just $25 boosts pedestrian safety in Florida
    A relatively straightforward change to the way that pedestrians cross the street in a Florida city has made a significant safety improvement. And what’s more, it was cheap, finds David Crawford Installing a lead pedestrian interval (LPI) system at 25 central business district signalised intersections in the Florida city of Lakeland has cut numbers of incidents involving pedestrians by some 60% - at a cost of US$25 for 30 minutes' work, according to traffic operations manager Angelo Rao.
  • June 11, 2019
    AVs in the Netherlands? Don't forget the bikes
    The Netherlands’ famous love of bicycles could be a problem when it comes to the deployment of autonomous vehicles there. And there might be other obstacles, finds Ben Spencer Of all the countries on the planet, the Netherlands is most ready to start deploying autonomous vehicles (AVs), according to a survey by KPMG earlier this year. On the face of it, this is good news: coming first out of 25 countries listed in the Autonomous Vehicles Readiness Index (AVRI) for the second consecutive year puts the Du