Survey Based Road Safety Analysis to Understand the Perspective of the General Public

Abstract

The number of road traffic deaths continues to climb, reaching 1.35 million deaths globally in 2016 and road traffic injury is now the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5–29 years (WHO, 2018). Road safety is officially recognized as a global safety issue and it is also included in the Sustainable Development Goals. This is a questionnaire based analysis, which aims to understand the outlook of the general public regarding the current road safety system and to understand the level of awareness regarding the same. It also aims to compare the perspective of drivers and non-drivers towards traffic rules. Majority of the participants were from the age group of 15-30 years as they are most directly affected by road accidents. Our objective is to understand the shortcomings in the current road safety system through the perspective of the general public, which can then help in implementing a more efficient system in order to decrease the number of road accidents. Inadequate traffic system also significantly affects the economic growth of the region. According to the World Road Statistics, 2018, India ranks 1st in the number of road accident deaths hence there is an urgent need to understand the root cause for such a high number of accidents and to find solutions for this issue. Our results show that there is a need to implement stricter rules for road safety and this perspective of the general public is not affected by the status of the individual (driver, non-driver). It also suggests the need for increasing the level of licence tests conducted. Increasing awareness at an early stage among the people regarding the seriousness of following traffic rules can help prevent road accidents at the baseline level.