Titel:
Abstract:
For more than 25 years intensive efforts have been made to
improve traffic safety. Yet, in defiance of extensive research it
is not easy to discern the primary causes of these achievements.
In fact, we have to consider several important factors, like
traffic separation, traffic education programmes, technical
improvements of car technology and traffic regulations. However,
while each of these factors, separately and in combination,
certainly have some positive effect within a relatively short
time lapse, they tend, in the long run, to counteract our safety
intentions. Furthermore, if we leave our current, most dominant
interpretation of traffic safety in favour of a more appropriate,
extended notion of traffic safety, even short-term improvements
are highly questionable - or so I shall argue. Anyway, we have to
deal with the fact that our fight against traffic fatalities and
injuries has come to a dead end. It seems to be extremely
difficult and costly to reduce our present traffic accident rate
significantly. The falling accident rate pr. road-user has
obviously levelled out. In what follows I want to propose a more
appropriate notion of traffic safety which takes into account the
ethical substance. Thereafter, the role of ethics in traffic
safety discussions will be shortly illustrated. On this basis,
the significance of traffic separation arrangements will be
discussed and I shall argue that traffic separation will not
promote but rather tend to prevent long-term improvements in
traffic safety.
Forfatter:
Ulli Zeitler, CeSaM, Aarhus Universitet.
Keywords - dansk:
trafiksikkerhed, etik, trafikseparering
Keywords - engelsk:
traffic safety, ethics, traffic separation
Session:
Trafiksikkerhed
År:
1996
Konferencerapport
bind 2, side 765