Accident risk for and accident factors regarding non-motorized road - - PDF document

Niels Agerholm – Camilla Sloth Andersen – Traffic Research Group – Aalborg University No. 1 of ICTCT Ribeirão Preto 2014

Accident risk for and accident factors regarding non-motorized road users in Denmark – a central road safety challenge with deficient

data

Niels Agerholm Associate Professor Aalborg University Camilla Sloth Andersen PhD Candidate Aalborg University

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Agenda

• International perspective
• The Danish situation
• The data problem
• Safety improvements
• Summary

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An international perspective

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Fatalities in an international perspective

• 1.3 million fatalities each year (2011)
• Vulnerable Road Users (VRU) have a high share of

these

• 22% were pedestrians
• 5% were cyclists
• 19% were unspecified (most were reasonable pedestrians)
• Significant variations around the world
• ~500,000 pedestrian fatalities/year

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Pedestrian fatalities: who and how?

• Majority +40 years old
• Males are 2.5 times more exposed
• Clear socio-economic skewness
• Rural-Urban distribution is unclear
• About 70% when crossing the road

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Main reasons

• Inappropriate speed causes the fatalities
• High BAC among (grown-up) pedestrian fatalities
• Poor pedestrian facilities
• Inadequate visibility

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Why is speeding crucial?

Road safety and speed are close connected

• Too high speed increase the risk

substantial

• Braking distance increase by the

square of the speed increase

• The energy in a collision increases

similar

• The reaction time is unchanged
• Speed variation increases a lot

Rosen, Stigson, Sander, 2011

Pedestrian fatalities

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Injured in an international perspective

• +50 million injured each year (2011)
• Highly uncertain number
• VRU have reasonable a very high share of these
• Dark figures are considerable

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The Danish situation

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The Danish road infrastructure

• 5.6 million inhabitants
• 43,000 km2
• Road network:
• State: 3,800 km (1,022 km with freeway)
• Municipalities: 68,600 km
• Personal transportation:
• 0.4 personal car/inhabitant
• 2nd highest cyclist share in the world

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3 statistically approaches – 3 different results

• Police-reported injured (official accident statistics)
• Injured healthcare-reported
• Injured pedestrians without counterpart

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Police-reported injured and fatalities

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What show the official statistics in Denmark?

• The fatality rate (all fatalities) has decreased significant

the last 5 years

• 407 (2008) to 167 (2012) (212 in 2013)
• 29% of the fatalities were non-motorised road users

(NMRU) : pedestrian: 17% ; cyclists: 12% (2010-2012)

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What show the official statistics in Denmark?

• Undoubtedly a significant reduction in the number of

fatalities ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺

• NMRU increase their share
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ICTCT Ribeirão Preto 2014

What shows the official statistics in Denmark?

• Injured NMRU seems to be a declining problem?

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Healthcare-reported injured

• A pedestrian is only an injury

regarding traffic accident if there is a counterpart!

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Injured cyclists

• Significant dark figures (95.2% in total)
• 77% are single accidents (dark figure: 99.4%)

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Injured pedestrians – the real story?

• 1,400 injured pedestrians with counterpart
• Pedestrian in single accidents:
• ~11,000 injured on the road network in 2011
• Skid and fall accidents
• Bumpy surfaces
• Lack of marked kerbs
• Insufficient lighting
• (alcohol?)

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Solutions?

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Solutions can be divided into 3 types

• NMRU injured due to counterparts
• Single cyclist accidents
• Single pedestrian accidents

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NMRU injured due to counterparts

• Traditional engineering solutions
• Reduced speeding
• Focus on alcohol
• More visibility:
• Day time running light on bikes
• All time use of reflectors
• Better street light
• ITS
• Loss-reducing measures:
• Mandatory bicycle helmets
• Speed calming (for cars and bikes!)

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Single cyclist accidents

• Traditional engineering solutions
• Better street light
• Focus on alcohol use
• Loss-reducing measures:
• Bicycle helmets
• Focus on electrical bikes

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Single pedestrian accidents

• Traditional engineering solutions
• Keep the surface on an acceptable level
• Better street light

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Summary

Number of injured Development in the last decade Sufficient tools NMRU injured due to counterparts Moderate (although still serious) Slightly decreasing Yes Single cyclist accidents Very high Unchanged Partly Single pedestrian accidents High Unknown No

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Summary

• Official accident reports are (more or less) useless regarding

NMRU

• We have many tools to cope with injured with counterparts
• We have few tools to cope with single cyclist accidents
• We have virtually no tools (or we cannot afford) to cope with

single pedestrian accidents

• NMRU in single accidents need more attention in the

future!

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Thank You☺

Niels Agerholm

Traffic Research Group

Aalborg University

+45 61 78 04 55 na@civil.aau.dk