Innovative Methods for Strengthening Road Safety

Approaches from Situational Crime Prevention and Environmental Criminology

Abstract

Introduction: In Hungarian urban settings, the risk of pedestrian-involved injury crashes is largely shaped by junction design, conspicuity conditions and prevailing speed levels. These mechanisms are well described in the literature and in practice, yet a mechanism-based synthesis aligned with policing tools remains incomplete. This article addresses that gap.

Objectives: To present a Hungary-applicable, causally grounded set of interventions to reduce the risk of pedestrian-involved injury crashes.

Methods: Mechanism-oriented narrative review and evidence synthesis, prioritizing European urban before–after evaluations published since 2010. Interventions are grouped into four domains: (1) crossing and junction engineering (cleared sight lines, shorter crossing distances, protected geometries); (2) consistent speed enforcement with emphasis on average-speed enforcement; (3) vehicle technologies – automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection (AEB) and intelligent speed assistance (ISA); (4) effect detection via before–after analyses using conflict indicators: Time to Collision (TTC) and Post-Encroachment Time (PET).

Results: Protected junction geometries, shortened crossings and direct sight lines reduce conflict frequency and lower prevailing speeds. Optical speed-calming treatments and 30 km/h zones yield sustained downward shifts in speed choice. Transparent, well-signposted and consistent enforcement – particularly average-speed enforcement – suppresses outlier speeds. In-vehicle systems (AEB, ISA) mitigate consequences of common perceptual-interpretive errors. Conflict-indicator-based before–after analyses provide early, unambiguous effect detection.

Conclusion: Coherent signage, self-explaining and self-enforcing design, together with consistent enforcement, act jointly to lower pedestrian-involved crash risk. Impact stems from the site-specific, consistently applied combination rather than any single device. Further work should expand Hungarian before–after studies based on conflict indicators.