The Relationships between Social Deprivation, Pedestrian and Driver Actions and Exposure in Road Casualty Accidents at Mid-Block Crossings

In July 2002, the UK Department for Transport enhanced its road safety targets to specifically tackle the significantly higher number of casualty accidents that occur in disadvantaged areas (DfT 2004). It is desirable, for practitioners, to consider the impact of specific road safety measures on different socioeconomic groups. With regard to mid-block pedestrian crossings, the current UK assessment guidelines note that it 'has not yet been proved possible to make general predictions about how the accident incidences or rates at a site might change following the introduction or change of type of crossing'. This paper uses information from both the STATS 19 road accident database and the National Census to provide an additional insight into deprivation and pedestrian road casualty accidents at Zebra and signalised mid-block crossings