SAFE SYSTEM COUNTERMEASURES FOR VULNERABLE ROAD USERS IN DHAKA CITY

Abstract

With immense concentration on traffic safety for major motorized vehicles the road traffic fatalities including such motorized vehicles have shown declining trends in recent years. However, the vulnerable road users (VRUs) such as pedestrians, bicyclists, motor cyclist, pedal rickshaws and users of various informal motorized and non-motorized modes are victims of massive injury due to heterogeneous traffic practice. In most of the cases, vulnerable road users are ignored from the planning of urban road network system. Nearly 45 percent of road traffic fatalities in Bangladesh are attributed to vulnerable road users (WHO,2015).The share of vulnerable road users(VRUs) deaths in urban areas, particularly in Dhaka is much more staggering nearly 60 percent in 2014. Transportation by walking is mostly seen in Bangladesh and is highly vulnerable. Cycle rickshaws too cater quite significant proportion of trips (25% to 40%) in cities. Safe system is required to prevent these deaths and serious injuries occurring which has the objective of eliminating deaths and serious injuries, with the guiding principle that everyone, including planners, share responsibility for creating a safe road system. This paper also focuses to present VRUs crash factors in Dhaka city to which extent safe system can be effective

Full text

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4th International Conference on
Civil Engineering for Sustainable Development
ICCESD 2018
Khulna, Bangladesh
SAFE SYSTEM COUNTERMEASURES FOR VULNERABLE ROAD USERS IN DHAKA CITY
1M. R. Alam, 2M. M. Hoque
1 Department of Civil Engineering, BUET, Dhaka, Bangladesh, rakibul.buet.bd@gmail.com
2 Professor,Department of Civil Engineering, BUET, Dhaka, Bangladesh, mazharul@ce.buet.ac.bd
ABSTRACT
With immense concentration on traffic safety for major motorized vehicles the road traffic fatalities
including such motorized vehicles have shown declining trends in recent years. However, the vulnerable
road users (VRUs) such as pedestrians, bicyclists, motor cyclist, pedal rickshaws and users of various
informal motorized and non-motorized modes are victims of massive injury due to heterogeneous traffic
practice. In most of the cases, vulnerable road users are ignored from the planning of urban road network
system. Nearly 45 percent of road traffic fatalities in Bangladesh are attributed to vulnerable road users
(WHO,2015).The share of vulnerable road users(VRUs) deaths in urban areas, particularly in Dhaka is
much more staggering nearly 60 percent in 2014. Transportation by walking is mostly seen in Bangladesh
and is highly vulnerable. Cycle rickshaws too cater quite significant proportion of trips (25% to 40%) in
cities. Safe system is required to prevent these deaths and serious injuries occurring which has the
objective of eliminating deaths and serious injuries, with the guiding principle that everyone, including
planners, share responsibility for creating a safe road system. This paper also focuses to present VRUs
crash factors in Dhaka city to which extent safe system can be effective.
KEY WORDS: Safe system, Vulnerable road user, VRU, crash, Dhaka, countermeasure, road safety
INTRODUCTION
Road crash is common in every nation of the world. Each year more than 1.2 million people died in road
crashes around the world. About 90 percent of fatalities takes place in low and middle income countries,
and while these countries occupy 82% of entire people of the world (WHO, 2015).More than 50% of
injuries of vulnerable road users claim lives in Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe. As a result, road traffic
safety becomes a crucial topic in transportation engineering. The number of crash, in which the major
victims are pedestrians, bicyclists, motor bicyclists etc., was not possible to be reduced significantly in
past years. The vulnerable road users (VRUs), who are pedestrians, bicyclists, cycle rickshaw occupants
and motorcyclists, incorporate the biggest portion (around 80%) of urban trip and they are victim of about
80 percent of road crashes in urban zone of Bangladesh (Hoque et al.). Therefore, it is urgent to introduce
safe system to ensure the road safety of VRUs in Dhaka city. This paper focuses to present how safe
system could be a proper countermeasure to the magnitude of alarming problem considering significant
risk factors of crashes in Dhaka city.

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South East Asia Africa Europe
Figure 1: Fatalities of different types of road users around the world (Source: WHO, 2015)
.
SAFE SYSTEM APPROACH
The Safe System concept has the objective of eliminating deaths and serious injuries, with the guiding
principle that everyone, including planners, share responsibility for creating a safe road system. Good
planning and design sets the foundation for a safe road environment. This approach recognizes that road
users inevitably make mistakes that may lead to a crash. In addition, the human body can only withstand
certain impact forces before death or serious injury results. Safe system is required to prevent these deaths
and serious injuries occurring.
According to the National Road Safety Strategy 2011–2020 (Australian Transport Council 2011),safe
system is a road safety approach which holds that people will continue to make mistakes and that roads,
vehicles and speeds should be designed to reduce the risk of crashes and to protect people in the event of
a crash.
The Safe System comprises five essential components or pillars:
 safe roads and roadsides
 safe speeds
 safe vehicles
 alert and compliant road users (safe road use)
 post-crash care (according to WHO 2011)
Safe roads and road sides that minimize the risk of crashes occurring, and, when crashes do occur, ensure
that death or serious injury are minimized. Roads should be predictable, self-explaining and encourage
safe travel speeds. Safe speeds that suit the function and environment of the road, so that crash impact
forces are managed within human tolerances. All road users should obey limits and drive to conditions.
Safe vehicles that incorporate design features and technology that minimize the likelihood of crashes and
protect road users (vehicle occupants and other road users, including pedestrians and cyclists) when

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crashes do occur. Safe road users should be alert, comply with road rules and engage in safe behavior.
They are supported through education and information, enforcement of road rules and admittance to the
system (e.g. through licensing).
Figure 2: Fundamental elements of Safe system Approach
In order to ensure that safe system elements are considered, or to measure how well a given project (e.g.
an intersection, road length, area, treatment type etc.) aligns with safe system principles, a safe system
matrix has been produced. The purpose of the matrix is to assess different major vulnerable road users
crash considering road users exposure, crash likelihood of it occurring and the severity of the crash should
it occur.
Table 1: Safe system assessment matrix for vulnerable road users
Pedestrian Cyclist Motor cyclist
Road users
exposure
AADT; pedestrian
numbers; crossing
width; length of road
segments
AADT; cyclist
numbers;
pedestrians
AADT; motorcycle
numbers; length of road
segment
Crash
likelihood
Design of facilities;
separation; number of
conflicting directions;
speed
Design of
facilities;
separation;
speed
Design of facilities;
separation; speed
Crash
severity Speed Speed Speed

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METHODOLOGY
To find out the situation of vulnerable road users in Dhaka city on the context of their crash problems,
some field investigations were performed at various critical areas of intense VRUs movements in Dhaka
city. In field investigations photographs, videos and interviews of pedestrian, motor cyclist, pedal cyclist
and rickshaw drivers were performed .The historical data from 2001 to 2014 was collected from MAAP
(Modular Accident Analysis Program) database of Accident Research Institution (ARI),Bangladesh.From
MAAP database, the data was taken in Microsoft excel spread sheet from where different analysis were
piled on the research to get risk factors. Moreover, a star rating of iRAP is also executed. Finally,safe
system countermeasures are suggested based on crash factors.
VRU CRASH DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
Figure 3: Fatalities of various road users in Bangladesh
Figure 3 shows that the percentage of vulnerable road user fatalities is just above 60% of road crash
fatalities from 2009 to 2014 in Bangladesh. The right line graph of figure 3 depicts percentage of fatalities
for each significant member of vulnerable road users. As it is illustrated that in Bangladesh, percentage of
pedestrian fatalities (70%) is predominantly higher than rest of the VRUs while motorcyclists about 20%.

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From the left top graph of figure 4,it is obvious that VRUs crash percentage is more than half of total
percentage of crashes in Dhaka city of which pedestrian crashes always remain between 40% to
50%,which is the highest one followed by buses and cars as illustrated in the right-top graph .Tejgaon
Thana of Dhaka city had experienced peak number of VRUs fatalities. However locational distribution
for individual vulnerable road users crashes during 2001-2014 are as follows
 Nearly 65% of VRUs crashes occurred on the links (not junction) which is dominated by 83% of
pedestrian affected with crashes on the links.
 Well above 45% motorcycle crashes occurred at crossing and remaining 22% occurred at straight
road and 13% at T-junction.
 Most of the pedal cycle crashes (48%) occurred where there is no junction.
 Nearly 60% pedal rickshaw fatalities occurred at links or mid-blocks and remaining 40%
occurred at intersections(T-junction 19%;crossing 10% and others 11% )
Distribution of fatalities for individual vulnerable road users during 2001-2014 based on crash type are as
follows
 Head on collision is the predominant type of motorcycle crashes (30%) whereas hit pedestrians
28% ;rear end 25 %; side swipe 10%
 Among pedal rickshaw crash type, rear-end crash (83%) was the most critical.
 Rear end (58%) and head on (21%) was predominant crashes for pedal cyclists.
RISK FACTORS FOR VULNERABLE ROAD USERS
Many crash factors are reasonable to the occurrence of VRUs crashes. These factors are specified in the
following section.
Figure 4: Condition of VRUs fatalities in Dhaka city (2001-2014)

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Pedestrian concern
 Incompatible mix of vehicles and pedestrian
 Pedestrians are often exposed to danger during construction work
 Pedestrian facilities are occupied by hawkers and illegal shops
 Inoperative traffic signal and practice of avoiding signal
A star rating score is assigned to pedestrians based on crash likelihood, severity, operating speed, external
flow influence and median travers ability using different equations following the iRAP methodology fact
sheet #7: Star Rating Bands.
Table 2: iRAP star rating of roads of Dhaka city for pedestrian
Star Rating Pedestrian Star Rating Score
Total Along Crossing
5 0 to <5 0 to <0.2 0 to <4.8
4 5 to <15 0.2 to <1 4.8 to <14
3 15 to <40 1 to <7.5 14 to <32.5
2 40 to <90 7.5 to <15 32.5 to <75
1 90+ 15+ 75+
Pedal Rickshaw and bicycle concern:
 Improper use of segregated lane
 Poor design of road junction and road section
Figure 5: Heterogeneous traffic flow in Mirpur
road near bolaka cinema hall.
Figure 6: Foot over bridge occupied by floating
shops in Dhaka
Figure 7: Open drains on footpath in Dhaka city

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Motor cycle concern:
 Lack of obey stop sign/cross walk/intersection etc.
 Poor monitoring and law enforcement of helmet use
 Wrong perception of vehicle driver in right turn
SAFE SYSYTEM COUNTERMEASURES FOR VULNERABLE ROAD USERS
To produce effective road safety for VRUs, good management in all aspects of safety system in roads of
Dhaka city is required.
SAFE ROADS AND ROADSIDES ELEMENTS:
Footway facilities:In Dhaka city hawker-free and attractive footpaths should be provided properly with
efficient monitoring. Footway facilities show importance to separate the pedestrians away from the main
traffic stream which will ultimately reduce the hit-pedestrian type of accident
Crossing facilities:About 53% pedestrian casualties occurred while crossing the road in Dhaka city in
2010.So it is very important to provide crossing facilities.Median guard rail, shoulder etc. should be
provided properly at midblock or link. Zebra crossing with high visibility should be applied in right place
on the road. For school-goers of young ages pedestrian flag facilities can be applied.
Speed hump and pelican crossing facility:At low volume of traffic zone i.e. residential zone, speed
hump and pelican crossing facility need to be applied.
Refuge island, dropped kerb, tactile surface:Refuge Island for pedestrian safe crossing the wide road,
dropped kerb for road user with physical impairment and tactile surfaces for blind road user should be
provided in city areas.
Segregated Lanes:Bicyclists, motor cyclists and pedal rickshaws are legal road users and have the right
to use the roadway. Segregated lanes are wished to be used all over the world by such road users. Physical
separation for bicyclists, rickshaws and motor cyclists by segregated lanes need to provide in Dhaka city
to decrease fatalities of such road users.
SAFE SPEED
Table 3 depicts that roads with vulnerable road users and motorized vehicle is crash prone when impact
speed exceeds 30km/hr. If roadside hazards are protected (with barriers) and intersections are treated to
reduce speeds to 50 km/h the travel speeds on the road can be 70 km/h. The addition of median barriers
would enable higher operating speeds to be considered as well.
Figure 8: No head protection while motor
cycle riding

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Table 3: Survivable impact speeds source: Tingvall & Haworth 1999
Impact speeds above which chances of survival or avoiding serious injury decrease rapidly
Crash Type Impact
Speed Example
Car/Pedestrian or Cyclist 30
km/h
Where there is a mix of vulnerable
road users and motor vehicle traffic
Car/motorcyclist
Car/Car (Side impact) 50
km/h
Where there is a likelihood of side
impact crashes (e.g. intersections
or access points).
Car/Car (Head-on) 70
km/h
Where there is no separation
between opposing traffic streams
Where motorcycles are a large proportion of the traffic, lower speed limits, perhaps 40 km/h, may be
necessary. Speed management is at the centre of developing a safe road system. Where infrastructure
safety cannot be improved in the foreseeable future and a road has a high crash risk, then reviews of
speed limits, supported by appropriate and competent enforcement to support compliance, are a critically
important option. Support through targeted infrastructure measures to achieve lower speeds should be
considered. The scientific and evidence-based research shows that this will deliver a reduction of up to
some 20% in the fatalities occurring on these lengths of roads (e.g. (Sliogeris, 1992). This of course
assumes some enforcement support.
SAFER VEHICLES
Especially in developed economies, the introduction of modern vehicle safety technologies has made a
significant contribution to improved road safety. Modern bicycle,motor cycle and pedal rickshaw can be
built with the ‘safe system’ concept central to their design, provided that they are driven within the limits
of the environment (road, weather, traffic conditions etc) they are designed to withstand a crash.
The most significant improvements in crashworthiness have been active safety systems such as stability
control. Now autonomous emergency braking and other advanced driver assistance systems are further
reducing the vulnerability of vehicle occupants and other road users
SAFE ROAD USER
Safety edge policy can be useful to prevent fatalities of road users, even protecting the pedestrians. It
deals some precautionary rules and customs that are essential to avoid vulnerable road users’ crashes.
Here 10 tips are suggested for cyclists and motorcyclists.

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Figure 9: 10 tips for pedal cyclist and motor cyclist safety in city road
POST CRASH CAR
Increased responsiveness to post-crash emergencies and improvements in the ability of health and other
systems to provide appropriate emergency treatment and longer term rehabilitation for crash victims is
also an important contribution to the Safe System. With improved bicycle, rickshaw and motorcycle
safety and road design the number of deaths is likely to reduce but the long-term care of injured victims is
an important social and public health consideration.
DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
Clearly the fatalities involving VRUs in road crashes are a serious problem. Crash studies and field
investigations showed that indiscriminate driving on road, deficiencies associated with road infrastructure
and lack of safe system are major contributors to VRUs fatalities and injuries. It is possible to provide
safety for them by ensuring proper measures .Proper safe system and safety infrastructure can resolve the
crash problems of pedestrians, bicyclists, pedal rickshaws and motor cyclists in Dhaka city .Pedestrians
and cyclists need to be fully separated at all times with good line marking and delineation along with wide
sealed shoulders. Wide clear median should be introduced while there is no median barriers present.
Moreover, well managed crossing points need to be implemented for all VRUs ,particularly for motor
cyclists. In order to reduce crash severity ,speed limit should not be exceeded 30 km/hr in heterogeneous
road users system.The general drink-drive blood alcohol should be limited to 50mg /100ml. Security and
aesthetics also are important factors to motivate road users to let VRUs engage with successful safe
system.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The work presented in this paper is a part of the research work carried out at the Department of Civil
engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). The support and assistance

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of ARI, BUET is also greatly acknowledged. The opinion and views expressed in this paper are those of
the authors.
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