Abstract:
South Africa faces challenges to adequately provide safe roads for all road users. In its
urban environments, pedestrians have often been neglected in the design and
construction of road networks; a phenomenon seen in almost all urban areas, but which is
ironically often most evident in poor income areas where residents are most dependent on
walking as a form of mobility. These poor income areas include older ‘Township’
establishments as well as the more recent RDP housing developments that have been
built since the end of apartheid. Some urban local authorities have begun the process of
remedying poor pedestrian safety in such areas, through, for example, the retrofitting of
sidewalks. International studies have shown that the physical separation of pedestrians
and vehicles will typically reduce road crashes and fatal injuries to pedestrians in
particular. In a township environment, where walking may be the predominant mode of
transport, the potential of sidewalks to improve road safety seems straight forward.
However, operational elements such as the lack of traffic enforcement and poor driver
behaviour; poor road safety education; lack of infrastructure and undisciplined pedestrian
and public transport movement, may well influence the effectiveness of sidewalks, and this
has yet to be investigated. This study assesses the effectiveness of new sidewalks on
pedestrian safety along four roads in three townships in eThekwini. Comparisons were
made of crash data before and after installing a sidewalk on already constructed roads,
and observations were carried out along each route to begin to understand the behaviour
of the pedestrians and the overall effectiveness of the sidewalks at the sites. The analysis
confirmed that sidewalks in this township environment have had a positive effect on
pedestrian safety in that they have reduced pedestrian fatalities. The results also show,
however, that even with the installation of sidewalks, pedestrian crashes persist –
especially at non-designated crossing points. This is although sidewalks, and formal
pedestrian crossings, appear to be used by the majority of pedestrians, which suggests
that crashes are occurring at locations where pedestrians are unexpected. Unfortunately,
the lack of driver behavioural studies before the sidewalks were installed means that it is
difficult to assess whether drivers themselves are driving less safely now that pedestrians
are better managed, and so this does remain a possible contributory factor.
