sustainability Article A Critical Review of Policies on Pedestrian Safety and a Case Study of New Zealand Ajjima Soathong , Douglas Wilson, Prakash Ranjitkar * and Subeh Chowdhury Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand;
[email protected] (A.S.);
[email protected] (D.W.);
[email protected] (S.C.) * Correspondence:
[email protected] Received: 30 August 2019; Accepted: 18 September 2019; Published: 25 September 2019 Abstract: Vulnerable road users contribute to nearly half of road deaths globally. In New Zealand, this group accounts for 26% of road deaths, which includes 8% of pedestrian crashes. This paper provides a critical review of the road safety policies from the pedestrian’s viewpoint for some of the best performing countries and discusses their effectiveness for the future. A case study is conducted for New Zealand to identify factors contributing to the pedestrian crashes and investigate the impact of the road safety policies on pedestrian crash trends. The policies are predominantly well informed by evidence-based approaches contributing to an overall reduction in the number of road crashes. However, little attention has been paid on pedestrian behaviour related to crashes. Finally, the paper makes recommendations for improving pedestrian safety to enable better safety outcomes that are closer to vision zero. Keywords: traffic safety; vulnerable road users; pedestrian safety; policies; Vision Zero; Safe System 1. Introduction With economic growth and increased urbanisation, many countries are experiencing transport-related problems as inherited transport infrastructure is unable to cope with increasing travel demand.