In Western Germany federal governmental institutions are conducting experiments upon the effects of area-wide traffic calming measures in six cities (Berlin-Charlottenburg, Berlin-Moabit, Buxtehude, Esslingen, Ingolstadt, and Borgentreich). One of the issues being studied is traffic safety improvement. Up to now, studies have been finished for three of the towns under investigation. For the other towns preliminary results can be presented. The results show that the incidence of heavy accidents especially can be decreased by traffic calming. The number of severe personal injuries could be cut down to 60 per cent of the before-accident-figures. No comparable accident reduction could be could be experienced in the control areas without traffic calming. Those groups who earn the greatest benefit from traffic calming are pedestrians, children or two-wheel-drivers. Also a classification by type of accident, by type of street and junction is presented in the paper. (A)
Abstract