In-depth Analysis of Pedestrian Safety in the State of Qatar

Abstract

Pedestrian safety is of a serious concern as it includes children and the aged population. From the Global status report on road safety in 2015 by World Health Organization (WHO), it can be seen that pedestrian fatalities in the word is a serious issue and represents 31% of the total deaths. In the State of Qatar, the number of pedestrian fatalities and injuries in road accidents is decreasing over time due to the tremendous efforts done by the state. However, the overall share of the problem did not change significantly over the past ten years. Since pedestrians' movement is quite unpredictable, this makes them the most vulnerable road users. In Qatar, pedestrians held to 23.8% of the total deaths by road users in 2013. To tackle this problem, the development of a detailed data analysis is crucial and a major approach followed in attempting to solve existing pedestrian issues in the road system, in terms of evaluating the current pedestrian safety issues in the country. More specifically, we focus on the analysis of pedestrian fatalities, in an attempt to include the most critical situations of them all. The total number of pedestrian fatal accidents occurred between years 2011 and 2013 were 163 accidents. For the purpose of this research, 51 pedestrian accident sites were investigated, which included 53 fatal pedestrian accidents (Some accidents took place on the same road section). The goal of this field investigation is to come up with several possible reasons for the accidents taking place. After that, understanding the pedestrian laws is another important step where we discuss the existing 18 articles concerning the safety of pedestrians, and handling pedestrians safety either directly or indirectly. Finally, recommendations are presented in terms of the availability of pedestrian facilities in the roads under the study, where the fatal accidents took place. The importance of these facilities primarily is to protect citizens and residents from run-over pedestrian accidents and risks of crossing the street. The ranges of fatalities in each location vary from one to ten casualties. Besides each location, the total number of pedestrian deaths which occurred between years 2011-2013 is listed to show its severity. For each location, many recommendations were provided regarding crosswalks, speed humps/bumps, street lights, pedestrian footbridges, pedestrian fences and parking pots. In addition, reasons behind pedestrians not using the facilities are analyzed. This project was carried out by Qatar Road Safety Studies Center for the benefit of the General Traffic Police Department and under the sponsorship of ExxonMobil Qatar.