The number of pedestrian injuries has decreased since the mid-1960s in Denmark. Danish travel surveys show that Danes walk fewer and fewer kilometers; hence, the injury rate for pedestrians has remained almost unchanged since 1980. Results are presented from a comparison study on road safety, modal split, demography, and so forth in 47 Danish cities. A result from the study is that modal choice of the urban population does not correlate with the number of urban road injuries per inhabitant. Combining travel surveys and crash figures points out high-risk road users. New studies are presented on the safety effect for pedestrians of audible warning devices, road lighting, and speed of motorized transport. Lastly, a literature study reviews the effect for pedestrians of 19 safety measures.
A before–after crash study of converting intersections to roundabouts was carried out in Denmark. Correction factors were estimated on the basis of 32 general comparison groups in this nonexperimental observational study. The correction factors were used to account for general crash trends and regression-to-the-mean effects. The study included 332 converted sites, 57 fatalities, 1,271 other injuries, and 2,497 crashes. Conversions resulted in decreases in the numbers of crashes and injuries of 27% and 60%, respectively. Crashes became less severe—fatalities decreased by 87% and property damage–only crashes decreased by 16%. Safety effects varied between sites. The safety effects were better when the speed limit on the roundabout arms was higher. As the share of left-turn and angle crashes at intersections increased, the safety effects improved. As the share of bicycle crashes at intersections decreased, the safety effects improved. Central islands more than 6.6 ft (2 m) high produced better safety effects compared with lower central islands. Triangle or trumpet splitter islands produced better effects than no or parallel splitter islands. The numbers of bicycle crashes and injured cyclists increased by 65% and 40%, respectively, because of the conversions. Cycle lanes next to the circulating lane produced the worst safety effects for cyclists, whereas cycle paths without priority to cyclists resulted in the best effects. Colored cycle lanes and blue cycle crossings produced worse safety effects for cyclists than comparable bicycle facilities in lanes without color.
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