Addressing lifestyles of lower income groups as contributing factors to high incidence of pedestrian fatalities on South African roads.

The carnage on South African roads, where thousands of South African pedestrians are killed annually, is unacceptably high. The lack of money, education, experience and knowledge in lower income groups often results in an abnormally high consumption of alcohol and the usage of less expensive drugs in some communities. The illegal construction of unplanned informal settlements alongside freeways and highways, where vehicles travel at very high speeds, often results in pedestrian fatalities. The movement of intoxicated pedestrians on freeways contributes to the problems of traffic and transport authorities. They are hampered, on a daily basis, by irresponsible pedestrian behaviour in their attempts to solve this problem through traffic engineering. Parents in less affluent communities do not reflect sufficient understanding of their own social problems well enough to educate their children in terms of responsible road usage. Overpasses or underpasses as well as concrete and other barriers are seen by pedestrians as stumbling blocks that merely impair the individual's freedom of movement. Although various road engineering projects have been completed with reasonable degree of success, emphasis should also be placed on the education of pedestrians and the introduction of law enforcement measures to curb the illegal crossing of freeways and highways. The introduction of traffic education in schools and communities has already contributed to a better understanding of the danger of crossing roads, but irresponsible behaviour in terms of jaywalking and crossing high-speed roads in an intoxicated state is still a matter of grave concern. Continuous research to find solutions is imperative. Historically, role players from the various disciplines and functional areas in traffic safety are specialists who tend to act in a fragmented manner. Fragmentation can be overcome by multi-disciplinary teams, whose activities should be managed in a coordinated and holistic manner. For this reason, an approach is adopted to ensure that traffic safety managers manage traffic safety holistically. For the covering abstract see ITRD E122795.