Road Safety in Low-Income Countries: State of Knowledge and Future Directions

Abstract

Road safety in low-income countries (LICs) remains a major concern. Given the expected increase in traffic exposure due to the relatively rapid motorisation of transport in LICs, it is imperative to better understand the underlying mechanisms of road safety. This in turn will allow for planning cost-effective road safety improvement programs in a timely manner. With the general aim of improving road safety in LICs, this paper discusses the state of knowledge and proposes a number of future research directions developed from literature reviews and expert elicitation. This study takes a holistic approach based on the Safe Systems framework and the framework for the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety. The focus is mostly on examining the problem from traffic engineering and safety policy standpoints, but also touches upon other sectors, including public health and social sciences. Ten focus areas were identified and, based on findings, future research ought to focus on improvement of data systems, understanding the impact of and addressing non-fatal injuries, improving estimates on the economic burden, implementation research to scale up programs and transfer learnings, as well as capacity development. Recommendations, which relate to both empirical and methodological frontiers, would lead to noteworthy improvements in the way road safety data collection and research is conducted in the context of LICs. This is an output of the High Volume Transport Applied Research Programme