This article questions whether the improved accident rate statistics actually reflect a safer environment for all road users, or just car drivers. Much effort has been made to make motor vehicles safer to drive, and roads safer to drive along. However it is argued that other road users may suffer inconvenience, especially the pedestrian. Traffic engineering methods aimed at the pedestrian are said to almost invariably entail longer and more circuitous journeys. Furthermore, roads may not be any safer for road users other than car drivers than they were before. Advice to pedestrians about safety almost always involves encouraging them to alter their behaviour. Evidence is provided to support the view that any decrease in pedestrian or cyclist fatalities is due not to improvements in road safety, but to changes in behaviour which decreases the numbers of trips made by walking or cycling. This argument is illustrated by falls in the numbers of child fatalities since the 1970s. New indicators for measuring road safety are suggested, including: a) changes over time in traffic volumes on selected classes of road; b) the degree of viligance that has to be exercised in crossing roads; and c) changes in the proportion of children of selected ages who are allowed to cross roads or to come home on their own.
Abstract