Pedestrian safety: a road safety manual for decision-makers and practitioners <br />AttachIRM B <br />area, for example, narrowing from a four-lane road <br />to a two-lane road through the settlement. Other <br />measures to slow traffic entering a settlement <br />include speed bumps and rumble strips, which <br />can be installed at the village entrance. Posting <br />and enforcing speed limits for driving in settle- <br />ments is also necessary. <br />• Stopping buses and mini buses: Bus stops gener- <br />ate flows of pedestrians and tend to be in places <br />that are convenient to passengers and shoppers, <br />ratherthan safe for pedestrians. Bus stops should <br />be well marked and there should be a designated <br />place for the bus or mini-bus to stop, with foot- <br />paths and safe pedestrian crossings nearby. <br />Source: 20,21. <br />2.1.2 The width of roads and lanes, and road design speed <br />Road widening increases pedestrian injury risk (22-25). Wider lanes and roads, and <br />higher design speed tend to increase motor vehicle traffic speed, which increases <br />pedestrian risk. Wider roads with more traffic lanes and higher traffic speeds are also <br />more dangerous for pedestrians to cross. <br />10 Road design speed is the initial speed limit for a section of road at the <br />planning stage. Factors considered when determining design speed are <br />sight distance, radius, elevation and friction of the road (26). The design speed <br />is determined before the road is built, implying that it may have to be adjusted <br />to take into account the actual conditions when the road becomes operational, <br />for example, adjacent land-uses and traffic mix. <br />Reducing the number of lanes appears to improve traffic safety, particularly for <br />pedestrians and cyclists (27,28). Vehicles travel more slowly on single lane roads or <br />when streets are narrow (29,30). Drivers may drive less aggressively and generally feel <br />less safe and thus drive more cautiously on narrow streets (31,32)• <br />In general, slow and main streets experience low rates of vehicle-pedestrian crashes, <br />while downtown areas with wide travel lanes and higher operating speeds experience <br />higher rates (33). For this reason, a number of European cities have moved towards <br />designing roads for lower vehicle operating speeds (31). For example, Freiburg in <br />southern Germany has lowered the speed limit to 30 km/h on go% of its streets and <br />provided car-free residential areas for is ooo people. The effect of this strategy is that <br />24% of trips every day are on foot, 2-8% by bicycles, zo%u by public transport and 18% <br />by car (34) <br />The Lancashire County Council in the United Kingdom, where approximately <br />1.2, million people live (3S), has also recently decided to implement a 3o km/h speed <br />limit in all residential areas as well as outside of all schools. The 3o km/h speed limit <br />31 <br />176 <br />