Poor most vulnerable to being killed on the roads

APARTHEID urban design is a direct contributor to the many pedestrian deaths on the country’s roads.

A recent doctoral graduate in civil engineering at Stellenbosch University, Pascal Nteziyaremye, who is also a transport engineer at GoMetro, investigated the link between the built environment, land use, urban design, transport systems and patterns of human activity that are the causes of pedestrian accidents in Cape Town.

According to Nteziyaremye, pedestrian accidents happened in socio-economically disadvantaged areas because the built environment had been shaped by policies of racially segregated human settlements which had affected the way people travelled and the extent to which pedestrian safety had been prioritised.

Nteziyaremye found that more pedestrian crashes were likely to occur in suburbs with more people, a greater mix of land use, intersections controlled by traffic signals, roundabouts and mini-circles, a greater intensity of industrial use such as restaurants, service stations, motor repair garages, scrap yards, intersections with at least four approaches, and more freeways and arterial roads.

Transport Department 2017 statistics showed that pedestrians accounted for 38% of all traffic deaths. Nteziyaremye said pedestrians remained the most vulnerable road users.

“The average daily frequency of pedestrian casualties peaked on Fridays and Saturdays, with the lowest average daily frequency observed on Wednesdays. The frequency of pedestrian casualties was highest during the pay week followed by the second week afterward,” Nteziyaremye said.

“Fewer people own cars in poorer communities. Residents rely on walking and public transport, which are the most unsafe transport modes.”

A total of 610 pedestrians were killed in the Western Cape last year.