Safe roads, safe residential districts

People are the most important asset of any nation, and general safety is one of its most important requirements. Traffic safety, which is one of the components of the general safety of any modern nation, consists of four essential elements: the road network, the human factor, the vehicle and the traffic police and laws. In implementing the principles of the safety of modern roads and in devising plans for their projects, engineers, decision makers and executive authorities in the state should make of the protection of human life their priority. Preliminary studies concerning the number of road accidents in the Kingdom of Bahrain from 2010 to 2013 reveal that among the pedestrian casualties %27 were children and young people. This study aims at designing safe roads for children and young pedestrians through the development of road networks in the areas where these age groups live (schools, residential areas and public places). The solutions I put forward are based on engineering designs intended for pedestrian protection. To achieve this goal, a pilot study was conducted on traffic accidents and the number of casualties by collecting data from the Ministry of Interior and the General Directorate of Traffic for the period 2013-2010. The focus was on the age group 19-0 years, the gender of the victim, the level of danger, the timing of the accident and the date of the accident with a view to developing a clear picture of the causes of road accidents and their relationship with the design of the road. In order to obtain clear results, the descriptive statistical methods analysis was used to determine the size of the problem and the need for safe roads. For this purpose, two questionnaires were designed: the first for young road users aged 19-4 years, and the other for parents/guardians aged 19 years and above. The results of the study revealed that the proportion of male victims tended to be higher than that of females. This may be due to the fact that females are more conscientious and disciplined on the road than male road users and that child pedestrians aged 11-6 years are the age group most vulnerable to road accidents (deaths and injuries). This high accident rate among children reflects the fact that they spend more time outdoors playing or going to school, in addition to their being inexperienced, insufficiently schooled and unable to accurately control their behavior while walking or crossing the road. The results of the data analysis show that the rate of accidents during the week and on weekends was close, with an average rate of 28.95 accidents during the week and an average of 26.5 cases per day on the weekend. Most of these accidents occurred at 13:00 during the official workdays and between 16:00 and 17:00 on weekends. The results of the questionnaire show that %39 of parents/guardians agree that the current road network in Bahrain is not well designed for pedestrians with %17 of them strongly approving so. However, %33 of parents/guardians agree that the recklessness of drivers makes them worried about letting their children walk to school, while %55 of them strongly agreed about the previous survey question. The propositions put offered in the questionnaire to improve road conditions, especially elevated pedestrian crosswalks and sidewalk indicators, to set up mobile barriers at the main school gates and to ensure the presence of more than one police officer in front of schools received a high approval rate among students and parents/guardians. It became clear from the questionnaire results on the opinions of parents/guardians and children that the Kingdom of Bahrain is in dire need of a much safer environment for pedestrians, and based on my engineering background I proposed some practical solutions suitable for the local environment.