Pedestrian safety has been a major preoccupation in most industrialized countries in the 70's. Since then, a lot of efforts have been made to reverse the balance, with some success as the yearly proportion of pedestrians killed in traffic accidents has significantly decreased in most European countries over the last twenty years. Some pedestrian fatality figures still remain unacceptably high. It is also found that, while pedestrian safety problems in uran areas can be partly tackled through a new vision of traffic priorities and of space sharing (pedestrianization schemes, traffic calming, 30 km/h zones, etc), these approaches do not solve all the problems and research is still needed on the more difficult safety situations (pedestrian accidents on rural roads, on through-traffic routes in small towns, etc) or on the less often analysed ones (pedestrians accidents in relation to intermodal changes, drunken pedestrians, etc). In Eastern Europe as well as in the poorer Third World countries, pedestrians are still nowadays the group of road users most at risk in the population. Some of the knowledge developed in industralized countries may help solve part of their problems, but some adaptation is necessary. The need has therefore been felt by ICTCT (International Cooperation on Theories and Concepts in Traffic safety) researchers to review experience and propose avenues for new research in the field of pedestrian safety. Extra-vulnerable groups of road-users such as children, elderly pedestrians, permanently or temporarily disabled people have been given particular attention. Methodologies for research, using both traditional approaches based on accident data and observational tools, have been discussed in depth. (A)
Abstract