In recent years there has been an increased focus on "special needs" road users who make up a relatively small proportion of the road toll. They include older road users, school children, international visitors and the disabled. A major policy issue is that the costs of addressing the needs of these groups seem disproportionately high. However, the problems experienced by special needs road users can be viewed as "the tip of the iceberg", with less obvious but similar problems being experienced by large numbers of other road users. This paper reports preliminary estimates based on older driver problems at intersections which indicate that there may be substantial knock-on benefits to a range of younger road users when countermeasures are introduced to address a relatively small problem. The knock-on effects of focusing on locations with school age pedestrian crashes are also examined. The implications for road safety planning and strategy are discussed. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see IRRD abstract no. E202589.
Abstract