IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i22p6249-d284553.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Road Safety in Low-Income Countries: State of Knowledge and Future Directions

Author

Listed:
  • Shahram Heydari

    (Department of Civil, Maritime and Environmental Engineering, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 7QF, UK)

  • Adrian Hickford

    (Department of Civil, Maritime and Environmental Engineering, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 7QF, UK)

  • Rich McIlroy

    (Department of Civil, Maritime and Environmental Engineering, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 7QF, UK)

  • Jeff Turner

    (High Volume Transport Applied Research Programme, IMC Worldwide Consultants, London RH1 1LG, UK)

  • Abdulgafoor M. Bachani

    (Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit, Health Systems Program, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA)

Abstract

Road safety in low-income countries (LICs) remains a major concern. Given the expected increase in traffic exposure due to the relatively rapid motorisation of transport in LICs, it is imperative to better understand the underlying mechanisms of road safety. This in turn will allow for planning cost-effective road safety improvement programs in a timely manner. With the general aim of improving road safety in LICs, this paper discusses the state of knowledge and proposes a number of future research directions developed from literature reviews and expert elicitation. Our study takes a holistic approach based on the Safe Systems framework and the framework for the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety. We focused mostly on examining the problem from traffic engineering and safety policy standpoints, but also touched upon other sectors, including public health and social sciences. We identified ten focus areas relating to (i) under-reporting; (ii) global best practices; (iii) vulnerable groups; (iv) disabilities; (v) road crash costing; (vi) vehicle safety; (vii) proactive approaches; (viii) data challenges; (ix) social/behavioural aspects; and (x) capacity building. Based on our findings, future research ought to focus on improvement of data systems, understanding the impact of and addressing non-fatal injuries, improving estimates on the economic burden, implementation research to scale up programs and transfer learnings, as well as capacity development. Our recommendations, which relate to both empirical and methodological frontiers, would lead to noteworthy improvements in the way road safety data collection and research is conducted in the context of LICs.

Suggested Citation

  • Shahram Heydari & Adrian Hickford & Rich McIlroy & Jeff Turner & Abdulgafoor M. Bachani, 2019. "Road Safety in Low-Income Countries: State of Knowledge and Future Directions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-29, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:22:p:6249-:d:284553
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/22/6249/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/22/6249/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Garbacz, Christopher, 1991. "Impact of the New Zealand Seat Belt Law," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 29(2), pages 310-316, April.
    2. Trond Nordfjærn & Stig Jørgensen & Torbjorn Rundmo, 2011. "A cross-cultural comparison of road traffic risk perceptions, attitudes towards traffic safety and driver behaviour," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(6), pages 657-684, June.
    3. Dongo Rémi Kouabenan, 1998. "Beliefs and the Perception of Risks and Accidents," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(3), pages 243-252, June.
    4. Jonathan C Samuel & Edward Sankhulani & Javeria S Qureshi & Paul Baloyi & Charles Thupi & Clara N Lee & William C Miller & Bruce A Cairns & Anthony G Charles, 2012. "Under-Reporting of Road Traffic Mortality in Developing Countries: Application of a Capture-Recapture Statistical Model to Refine Mortality Estimates," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(2), pages 1-4, February.
    5. Emmanuel Bonnet & Lucie Lechat & Valéry Ridde, 2018. "What interventions are required to reduce road traffic injuries in Africa? A scoping review of the literature," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-20, November.
    6. Clifford Winston & Vikram Maheshri & Fred Mannering, 2006. "An exploration of the offset hypothesis using disaggregate data: The case of airbags and antilock brakes," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 83-99, March.
    7. Benedettini, Simona & Nicita, Antonio, 2012. "The costs of avoiding accidents: Selective compliance and the ‘Peltzman effect’ in Italy," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 256-270.
    8. Lv, Jinpeng & Lord, Dominique & Zhang, Yunlong & Chen, Zhi, 2015. "Investigating Peltzman effects in adopting mandatory seat belt laws in the US: Evidence from non-occupant fatalities," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 58-64.
    9. Catherine Staton & Joao Vissoci & Enying Gong & Nicole Toomey & Rebeccah Wafula & Jihad Abdelgadir & Yi Zhou & Chen Liu & Fengdi Pei & Brittany Zick & Camille D Ratliff & Claire Rotich & Nicole Jadue , 2016. "Road Traffic Injury Prevention Initiatives: A Systematic Review and Metasummary of Effectiveness in Low and Middle Income Countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Batara Surya & Hamsina Hamsina & Ridwan Ridwan & Baharuddin Baharuddin & Firman Menne & Andi Tenri Fitriyah & Emil Salim Rasyidi, 2020. "The Complexity of Space Utilization and Environmental Pollution Control in the Main Corridor of Makassar City, South Sulawesi, Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-41, November.
    2. Santosh Bhatta & Dan Magnus & Julie Mytton & Elisha Joshi & Sumiksha Bhatta & Dhruba Adhikari & Sunil Raja Manandhar & Sunil Kumar Joshi, 2021. "The Epidemiology of Injuries in Adults in Nepal: Findings from a Hospital-Based Injury Surveillance Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Bruce Thompson & Bernard Obika, 2020. "Advancing Applied Research in High Volume Transport in Low-Income Countries in Africa and South Asia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-6, May.
    4. Fabricio Esteban Espinoza-Molina & Christian Fernando Ojeda-Romero & Henry David Zumba-Paucar & Giovanny Pillajo-Quijia & Blanca Arenas-Ramírez & Francisco Aparicio-Izquierdo, 2021. "Road Safety as a Public Health Problem: Case of Ecuador in the Period 2000–2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-20, July.
    5. Maha M. A. Lashin & Wafaa Salah Eldin Shoukry Saleh, 2022. "Road Safety Policies for Saudi Females: A Fuzzy Logic Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-13, March.
    6. Santhani M. Selveindran & Gurusinghe D N Samarutilake & David Santiago Vera & Carol Brayne & Christine Hill & Angelos Kolias & Alexis J Joannides & Peter J A Hutchinson & Andres M Rubiano, 2021. "Prevention of road traffic collisions and associated neurotrauma in Colombia: An exploratory qualitative study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-23, March.
    7. Simone Cordovez & Esteban Ortiz-Prado & Eduardo Vasconez & Felipe Andrade & Katherine Simbaña-Rivera & Lenin Gómez-Barreno & Rich C McIlroy, 2021. "Bicycling-Related Mortality in Ecuador: A Nationwide Population-Based Analysis from 2004 to 2017," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-10, May.
    8. Tasneem Miqdady & Juan de Oña, 2020. "Identifying the Factors That Increase the Probability of an Injury or Fatal Traffic Crash in an Urban Context in Jordan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-16, September.
    9. Maria Kett & Ellie Cole & Jeff Turner, 2020. "Disability, Mobility and Transport in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Thematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-18, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Asmussen, Katherine E. & Mondal, Aupal & Bhat, Chandra R., 2022. "Adoption of partially automated vehicle technology features and impacts on vehicle miles of travel (VMT)," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 156-179.
    2. Lv, Jinpeng & Lord, Dominique & Zhang, Yunlong & Chen, Zhi, 2015. "Investigating Peltzman effects in adopting mandatory seat belt laws in the US: Evidence from non-occupant fatalities," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 58-64.
    3. Pablo Martínez & Daniela Contreras & Mónica Moreno, 2020. "Safe mobility, socioeconomic inequalities, and aging: A 12-year multilevel interrupted time-series analysis of road traffic death rates in a Latin American country," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, January.
    4. Suchi Kapoor Malhotra & Howard White & Nina Ashley O. Dela Cruz & Ashrita Saran & John Eyers & Denny John & Ella Beveridge & Nina Blöndal, 2021. "Studies of the effectiveness of transport sector interventions in low‐ and middle‐income countries: An evidence and gap map," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(4), December.
    5. Mingyu Liu & Jianping Wu & Adnan Yousaf & Linyang Wang & Kezhen Hu & Katherine L. Plant & Rich C. McIlroy & Neville A. Stanton, 2021. "Exploring the Relationship between Attitudes, Risk Perceptions, Fatalistic Beliefs, and Pedestrian Behaviors in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-14, March.
    6. Liang, Yuanning, 2020. "Do Safety Inspections Improve Safety? Evidence from the Safety Inspection Program for Commercial Motor Vehicles," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304312, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Darren Shannon & Grigorios Fountas, 2021. "Extending the Heston Model to Forecast Motor Vehicle Collision Rates," Papers 2104.11461, arXiv.org, revised May 2021.
    8. Hoy, Michael & Polborn, Mattias K., 2015. "The value of technology improvements in games with externalities: A fresh look at offsetting behavior," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 12-20.
    9. Castillo-Manzano, José I. & Castro-Nuño, Mercedes & López-Valpuesta, Lourdes & Pedregal, Diego J., 2019. "From legislation to compliance: The power of traffic law enforcement for the case study of Spain," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 1-9.
    10. Liang, Yuanning, 2023. "Do Safety Inspections Improve Safety? Evidence from the Roadside Inspection Program for Commercial Vehicles," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335618, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. Mutia J. Mpekethu & Dr. Franciscah Irangi Wamocho & Dr. Beatrice Bunyasi Awori, 2020. "Influence of Disabilities Induced by Road Traffic Accidents on Academic Achievement of Survivors’ Children before and After Occurrence of Accidents in Kiambu County," International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation, International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI), vol. 7(7), pages 270-278, July.
    12. Claudio Deiana & Vikram Maheshri & Giovanni Mastrobuoni, 2020. "Migrants at Sea: Unintended Consequences of Search and Rescue Operations," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 636, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    13. Renfei Wu & Xunjia Zheng & Yongneng Xu & Wei Wu & Guopeng Li & Qing Xu & Zhuming Nie, 2019. "Modified Driving Safety Field Based on Trajectory Prediction Model for Pedestrian–Vehicle Collision," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-15, November.
    14. Xiong, Yingge & Tobias, Justin L. & Mannering, Fred L., 2014. "The analysis of vehicle crash injury-severity data: A Markov switching approach with road-segment heterogeneity," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 109-128.
    15. Guangquan Li & Robert Haining & Sylvia Richardson & Nicky Best, 2013. "Evaluating the No Cold Calling Zones in Peterborough, England: Application of a Novel Statistical Method for Evaluating Neighbourhood Policing Policies," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(8), pages 2012-2026, August.
    16. Hélène Laurent & Marc Sangnier & Carole Treibich, 2021. "Traffic safety and norms of compliance with rules: An exploratory study," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(4), pages 2464-2483.
    17. Laura N. Rickard, 2014. "Perception of Risk and the Attribution of Responsibility for Accidents," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(3), pages 514-528, March.
    18. Elizabeth Kopits & Maureen Cropper, 2008. "Why Have Traffic Fatalities Declined in Industrialised Countries?: Implications for Pedestrians and Vehicle Occupants," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 42(1), pages 129-154, January.
    19. Berlemann, Michael & Matthes, Andreas, 2014. "Positive externalities from active car safety systems," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 313-329.
    20. repec:ipf:psejou:v:42:y:2018:i:42:p:45-65 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Xiong, Yingge & Mannering, Fred L., 2013. "The heterogeneous effects of guardian supervision on adolescent driver-injury severities: A finite-mixture random-parameters approach," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 39-54.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:22:p:6249-:d:284553. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.