# Chapter 2 Overview of Current Road Traffic Safety Measures

1 Improvement of Road Traffic Environment

## ☑ Improvement of People-First Walking Spaces Offering Safety and Security

While gaining the cooperation of the local communities, traffic safety measures such as actively improving sidewalks in school routes, residential roads, and main roads in town areas were promoted from the standpoint of "people".

(1) In order to ensure the safety of passage for children and infants attending elementary schools, kindergarten, nurseries, and children's houses, the improvement of sidewalks along school routes were actively promoted.

In addition, improvement was devised for school and kindergarten routes through push-button traffic lights, improving pedestrian lighting and pedestrian overpass, and expanding and augmenting pedestrian crossing.

(2) In March 2009, prefectural public safety commissions and road administrations cooperated to implement comprehensive accident prevention measures and pedestrian improvement in 582 residential and industrial areas with high rates of fatal and injury accidents of pedestrians and bicycles that were assigned as ‘Safe Walking Areas’.

Additionally, in residential roads outside of such areas, prefectural public safety commissioners and road administrators worked together to apply the "Residential Road Accident Prevention Measure Manual"*. Advances were made in preventing speeding vehicles, defining the shape of roads, and making clear the existence of intersections to drivers and traffic sections for pedestrians and drivers. Policies for preventing traffic accidents were implemented to promote the initiative for creating secure road spaces that could be safely shared by pedestrians and drivers.

(3) In order to ensure comfortable and safe passage for pedestrians and bicycle users, the continual improvement of sidewalks and bicycle paths were implemented mainly in conjunction with renovation project-based improvement for areas posing a high risk of traffic accidents to pedestrians.

Furthermore, in order to ensure the self-sustained daily and social lives of the elderly and disabled people, wide and flat sidewalks were actively improved on roads connecting stations, government facilities, hospitals, etc. as based on the new barrier-free laws. In addition, electric pole clearance in conjunction with reconstruction projects were promoted along with the improvement of barrier-free traffic lights, pedestrian overpass with lifting and lowering devices, car parking lots, and car parking lots with parking grids for disabled persons. At the same time, LED lighting and higher brightness for road signs were promoted in order to devise the safety and smoothness of passage for elderly and disabled persons along with adapting to the increase of elderly drivers.

## Application of the Intelligent Transport System

A system unifying people, roads and cars was created using cutting edge information technology, and the realization of improvements in safety, transport efficiency and comfort was promoted along with an intelligent transport system (ITS) designed to contribute greatly to environment conservation through smoothening traffic such as reducing traffic jams. Therefore, based on the overall ITS concept formulated in 1996, the improvement of research development, field testing $ ^{*} $ , and infrastructure (social infrastructure) was promoted while working together with industry, government and academia.