Urban planning, pedestrians and road safety.

Mixed traffic in residential neighbourhoods has led to the establishment of residential yards (shared spaces) . residential yards are areas where the space open to the public is designed primarily so that the functions of walking and playing are adequately provided for, and only local traffic is allowed. Since traffic accidents do not occur in sufficient numbers in a residential area for statistical research, it is impossible to use accidents as a criterion of traffic safety for short-term research. In this investigation an attempt was made to give a definition of a serious conflict which would be as close as possible to a traffic accident, would be measurable, and would provide enough serious conflicts to make the problem capable of investigation. The first part of the research showed that it is quite possible in a test situation to make the developed conflict observation technique reliable. The field research carried out in two very differently planned parts of delft was the second part of the investigation. The field observations have shown that mixed traffic in the residential yard solution leads to more encounters between children and wheeled traffic than in the conventional neighbourhood, and to more serious conflicts involving children. It is clear that much development work still has to be done before the object of the research has been achieved, i.e. to develop a reliable and practical conflict technique for predicting accidents. For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD abstract no. 229739