This paper describes a theoretical and empirical research project concerning the subjective appraisal of traffic safety in residential areas. The aim was to develop an instrument for measuring the subjective experiencing of traffic safety and to establish the relationships between the traffic environment, the subjective appraisal of this environment and behaviour. The project was carried out in 48 residential streets in 3 cities. Twenty five residents were asked to fill in a questionnaire, in which they marked on a map the areas in their neighbourhood which they considered dangerous. A number of environmental and traffic characteristics of these streets were also recorded, such as accident rate, traffic flow and road user behaviour. Traffic participants were also filmed at certain points on the road network. This gave an indication of, for example, how many people cross the road without looking etc. The results show that there isn't a good correlation between accident rate and resident's opinions about which are the most dangerous streets.
Abstract