Examination of Infrastructure Solutions for Improving Pedestrian Safety in Israel

This paper describes how the number of pedestrian fatalities and injuries in road accidents in Israel is decreasing over-time. However, the location of the pedestrian problem in road accident injury did not change significantly over the last decade, where pedestrians usually present 8%-10% of total traffic injuries and more than 30% of the total fatalities in road accidents in Israel. In 2008, 3,317 pedestrians were injured in road accidents, with 134 killed, which comprised 10.4% of total injuries and 32.5% of total fatalities in road accidents. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data, the share of pedestrian fatalities out of the total road fatalities is higher in Israel than in most industrialized countries. This finding and its over-time stability arouses concerns, especially considering basic road safety indicators, e.g. fatality rate per population, which are relatively low in Israel in comparison with other countries. At the same time, the pedestrian safety problem is well known in many countries, where in the research and professional literature extensive data and knowledge have been accumulated regarding the efficiency of various infrastructure and other treatments that deal with the problem. Therefore, a comprehensive study was initiated aiming at: (a) a detailed description and analysis of pedestrian accidents in Israel, including international comparisons and creating a typology of pedestrian accident patterns; (b) assembling and examining infrastructure solutions for improving pedestrian safety, based on the international and Israeli experiences; (c) a diagnosis of infrastructure problems in a wide range of locations where concentrations of pedestrian accidents were observed; and (d) identifying infrastructure solutions that might improve pedestrian safety in Israel. The study was carried out in 2008 and its findings were recently published locally in a comprehensive report. The purpose of this paper is to briefly present the analysis approaches applied in the study and its main findings and recommendations, which outline the ways for improving pedestrian safety in Israel and have implications for pedestrian safety improvements elsewhere.