Pedestrians are unprotected road users. Since between 37 and 45 per cent of all road collision fatalities in South Africa are pedestrians, special attention needs to be given to control and/or regulate pedestrians as road users. Up to 40% of all pedestrian fatalities occur on rural roads. Although statistics in respect of pedestrian fatalities in the rest of Africa is not readily available the same tendency exists. Pedestrians are regarded as a vital target group in the traffic management system. The National Department of Transport focuses on the promotion of road safety on a national basis. Provincial governments play a more prominent role to promote road safety in general, but also to initiate pedestrian safety programmes. Pedestrian management plans and strategies also include tools and policies from all the disciplines and supportive functional areas, namely engineering, education, enforcement and logistical support, especially electronics. Role players from the various disciplines and functional areas are specialists. Historically, role players tend to act in a fragmented manner. Since the National Department of Transport in South Africa has adopted a holistic integrated traffic management approach, fragmentation can be overcome by involving multi disciplinary teams to attain information by means of various audits. With data obtained a situation analyses could be done and management plans could be developed. Plans could be implemented and finally be evaluated and revised on a continuous basis. The activities of the various teams need to be managed effectively in a co-ordinated integrated manner. Plans could include sub management plans and strategies for pedestrian units. A number of the specific actions have already been implemented in some jurisdictions in South Africa and others are still envisaged to be implemented. These plans could also be developed and be implemented in the other countries in Africa. The co-operation agreement between a number of countries in Southern Africa provides for capacity building in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes of role players in the traffic environment. This paper addresses the approach to pedestrian management plans, the development of such plans and the strategies for the implementation thereof. For the covering abstract see ITRD E136183.
Samenvatting