To make streets safer requires a combined effort from all users, as well as those looking on and trying to solve issues within the networks.

From an engineering and technology point of view, Professor Nicola Christie – who is responsible for transport safety at University College London – believes that having more core data on incidents such as near misses and collisions could yield improvements faster.

“I am more concerned around the issue of lead indicators for road safety than lag indicators. At the moment, a lot of interventions are based on the actual casualties that have occurred, rather than what the cause has been.

“If we have lead indicators, we can use computer vision and algorithms to establish what is a potential near miss that could have been a collision,” she explains. “All that technology will help support the safety of vulnerable road users and I think we need this for cyclists but, even more importantly, for motorcyclists.

“If they’ve got cameras on helmets, we can get an idea of [the] kind of near misses they’re experiencing and then can analyse and predict circumstances related to the individual rider.”

An ongoing project led by Christie is in relation to cyclist near misses, and she is calling for more collaboration, and more data, to ultimately get the answers that will improve road safety.

“The more data you collect, the more you can understand how things change and whether near misses are related to a particular infrastructure, characteristic, time of day, or involving a particular type of rider,” she says. “We know that a classic scenario of a cyclist fatality in London is a left-turning truck with a female cyclist on the left-hand side.

“Are we seeing near-misses related to that scenario and, if so, can we look at education or engineering to make a difference? Can you change the junction design or adopt a classic engineering approach such as the Direct Vision Standard (DVS) in trucks, which has made sure vulnerable road users can be better seen by truck drivers.”

Autonomous cars: Engineering a problem?

One engineering innovation that will lead to a greater focus on vulnerable road users is the autonomous vehicle. Although Christie doesn’t expect them to appear on UK roads anytime soon, she is wary of the impact on pedestrians.

“The new hierarchy of road users in the Highway Code says motorists should yield to pedestrians when they're waiting on a side road. But how is anyone going to police that in an autonomous vehicle?” she reasons. “I don't think there will be any environmental nudges to say that’s how people should behave so industry would need to look at ways of communicating, maybe via a technology that connects pedestrians and vehicle users, to remind them of the rules of the road.”

Christie also maintains behavioural change can be led and influenced by infrastructure and engineering approaches. “If you think about a road hump, it’s very clear that if you drive too fast over one, you’re going to damage your vehicle,” she says. “As a psychologist, I think engineering is one of the most powerful ways to change behaviour.

“When it comes to pedestrians, we should think about whether our pavements are fit for purpose and support safe mobility, particularly as an ageing society.

“We know that the number of older pedestrians that fall far outweighs the other pedestrians that are killed or seriously injured on our streets. Maybe there needs to be more effort in looking at different pavement materials or designs, but there are also questions over whether or not we’re prepared to invest in these measures. There are ethical issues about who we design the roads for, and whose safe mobility we want to support.”

Outside of the industry, more collaboration with local communities would yield results, believes Christie.

“Involving people in the decisions that affect them is really important,” she says. “We’ve seen low traffic neighbourhoods being removed because they are perceived to be restricting people’s mobility, even though the people often living in these environments say they reduce antisocial behaviour and they feel safer.

“Any technology that supports the evidence and decision-making for politicians – linking data with people's views – would be quite innovative and very welcomed.”

Image: Car coming out of blind spot on country road; credit: Shutterstock