ROAD PLANNING AND ENGINEERING FOR PROMOTING PEDESTRIAN SAFETY IN BANGLADESH

Abstract

Currently road accidents are around the ninth biggest cause of premature death in the world, estimated to be responsible for around 700,000 deaths and around 15 million injuries. Together with the social impact in terms of pain, grief and suffering, there is an economic impact: an estimated cost to developing societies of US$100 billion, about the level of all international aid. By 2020 road accidents could well move from ninth place to third place in the league table of major causes of death and disability in the world, well ahead of war, HIV and other infectious diseases. Over 70 percent of the global road accident casualties are in developing and emerging countries. While accidents in the developed world have reduced, despite increasing vehicle usage, traffic accidents in the developing world are increasing. Cost-effective action is necessary to counter-act this trend. Pedestrians are a large part of traffic accident fatalities, up to 70 percent in some developing countries. Pedestrian accidents are thus an urgent issue for safety improvement, particularly for less motorized counties like Bangladesh. The objectives of this paper are to discuss the importance of pedestrians as a mode of transport in Bangladesh with particular reference to metropolitan Dhaka, to highlight the safety issues and needs of pedestrians and more specifically to discuss pedestrian safety improvements through road planning and engineering measures with due regard to good practices and new approaches. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E204151.