If a passenger aircraft crashed and slain 162 people every month, there would be enormous open public outrage, an intensive federal government investigation and a drive to reform basic safety.
However similar casualty statistics on Cambodia’s roads only garner condolences, tired explanations plus redundant promises, never real change.
The nationwide police reported 859 traffic accidents along with 486 deaths from January through March. The cost of road traffic accidents was approximated to have cost Cambodia $466. 8 million in 2019 only, equivalent to 1 . 7% of the country’s yearly GDP earnings, according to a report by the National Street Safety Committee (NRSC) and the United Nations Development Programme.
NRSC Secretary-General Minutes Manavy urged road users to respect the traffic laws, noting that 866 people involved in accidents concerning motorbikes were helmetless.
Helmets and seatbelts only mitigate injuries, they do not prevent an automobile careening down the street and causing injuries. Instead of blaming victims, Cambodia should enact a comprehensive change to examine the true causes of traffic accidents and make a sweeping policy shift to solve the issue.
The Ministry of Public Works and Transportation reported overspeeding accounted for 33% of the 1, 619 incidents recorded nationwide within the first half of 2020. The other factors mixed up in accidents included right-of-way (23%), incorrect lane use (14%), ruling (10%) and wrong turning (10%).
While careless drivers accounted for 90% of all traffic accidents in 2020, the reasons drivers velocity and overtake upon crowded roads, intersections or sharp transforms is rarely discussed.
Asia Injury Prevention Foundation Director Betty Panga highlighted the issue of speed. In a Phnom Penh Post interview, he recommended amending speed limits in previously implemented sub-decrees, arguing that will speeds in school areas should be limited to a maximum of 30 kph (18. 6 mph) while the speed limit with regard to passenger trucks needs to be lowered to a more 50 kph (31 mph).
Traffic police all through Cambodia have setup checkpoints and a new speed camera program in an attempt to correct the problem, but speed limit reform is a restricted, top-down approach. Visitors police cannot be likely to set up checkpoints at every street corner, neither do speed cameras address the root factors behind many accidents.
Better street design is the primary tool Cambodia should apply to address driver behaviour and street safety.
Road designs
Passive and proactive designs are little-known road engineering philosophies that could significantly replace the conversation.
A passive design approach accounts for the particular worst-case scenarios: accidents and traffic congestion. Using this approach, roads are built to consist of multiple oversized traveling lanes and generous clear zones to fulfill high traffic quantities and allow space meant for potential crashes.
Evidence shows this style strategy has significant flaws, especially when applied in urban areas where high speed is undesirable.
Focus on wide, simplified, and unobstructed streets leads to drivers to lose their own inhibitions. Generous plus unobstructed driving lanes distorts judgments of speed, causing drivers to subconsciously proceed faster.
Driving speed improves as the lanes become wider. A 2001 research in the usa found widening lane by 1 metre (3. 2 feet) increased average speeds by 15 kph (9. 3 mph). The same study highlighted that within a lane of 3. 25 metres (10. six feet), which is Cambodia’s urban street standard, driving speeds averaged an alarming 55 kph (34 mph).
As the saying goes, “speed kills. ” These passive street design choices encourage higher driving rates of speed and ironically lead to more and deadlier mishaps.
A proactive approach to road design would increase safety within the Kingdom’s urban areas.
This cautious road design technique involves street components which guide plus influence better traveling behaviour by enforcing slow and careful navigation. These steps are crucial in significantly reducing the intensity of grave injury and decreasing the opportunity of an accident occurring in the first place. One supporting example is a 2019 research from Ghana that found “traffic calming products reduce vehicular rates of speed and, thus, the particular incidence and intensity of pedestrian accidental injuries in built-up locations. ”
Another comprehensive United states study in 1997 examined risks associated with traffic speed. An automobile travelling at twenty kph (12. 4 mph) has an incident rate of just 5% and a fatality risk of 2%. Yet doubling the velocity to 40 kph (24. 8 mph) was shown to triple the rate of accidents to 15% plus spike the fatality risk to 5%, the report stated.
As the Kingdom ways to expand and improve its road network, adapting a proactive approach would be more efficient than retroactively modifying streets.
Safe road designs
Using various techniques referred to as ‘ traffic calming procedures , ’ Cambodian towns and metropolitan areas can reduce traffic rates of speed. Some interventions get a new physical configurations associated with roadways, while others modify how drivers understand and respond to roads.
The very first alteration local creative designers can make is reducing lane numbers and their width through the usual 3. 25 metres to three or more metres (9. 6 feet) or much less. Reductions help decrease crossing distance and minimize stoplight cycle time without impacting overall traffic flow .
The area gained from road space reduction could be better utilised because dedicated bus and protected bicycle lane and on-street car parking buffers to protect pedestrians. This is sorely needed in Cambodia, because illustrated by any sort of accident in which a careening vehicle on Phnom Penh’s Monivong Boulevard slain a pedestrian to the sidewalk.
To help reduce motorist velocity, streets should be designed with a chicane, or even a lane shifting design, that slows motorists with shallow transforms. This can be done simply by alternating parking or curb extensions into the desired pattern. Focusing on a similar principle, the pinch-point design expands sidewalks to slim roadways, which restricts speeds and expands sidewalk space.
Planners can also utilise roadway centre islands. Combined with elevated pedestrian crossings plus located in the middle of town blocks, islands decrease speeding and provide safe crossings for people and cyclists.
Psychological tips also can complement actual restructuring. Trees, road furniture and simplified building lines develop visual indicators, making drivers more acceleration conscious, alert and aware of their environment.
Protected intersections
Intersections are by far the most dangerous road locations due to the fact traffic flow converges, visibility is limited and conflict points are usually plentiful. The danger is usually heightened by motorists often ignoring end signs, leading to heartbreaking consequences on a regular basis.
One of Cambodia’s most infamous hit-and-run incidents occurred at a Phnom Penh intersection in 2019. A good underage driver barreled through a Toul Kork intersection with an VEHICLE, killing motorcyclist Dum Rida.
A preferred method of improving intersections is to narrow corners using curb plug-ins. This sharpens the particular turn radius, which encourages slower switching speeds, decreases the distances pedestrians must cross and ensures good visibility for many users as they strategy the intersection.
Another efficient intersection safety measure is raising crosswalks to the same level as sidewalks, whistling to drivers that they are intruding on people space and should become alert. The slight ramp also serves as a speed bump to slow motorists.
Cambodian road engineers also should pay more focus on the largest group of motorists: motorcyclists. Slip lane for motorcycles, which account for four from five vehicles, will allow riders to line up ahead of other automobiles when stopped with intersections and reduce discord points.
Despite decades of top-down enforcement plan, traffic accidents carry on and soar at mind boggling rates. Over the exact same 30-month period, traffic accidents led to three or more, 599 deaths when compared with 3, 056 attributed to Covid-19.
Given this grim fact, the Kingdom’s approach to road safety should be reconsidered. Instead of blaming drivers, authorities and city planners must recognise the dangerous environment which the incumbent road design technique has yielded.
As the current design paradigm eliminates and maims indiscriminately, the time has arrived in order to reassess our street priorities. We must end pursuing speed and volume for road users and instead location greater value on health and safety for everyone.
Ses Aronsakda is a junior specialist at Upcoming Forum . Educated being an architect, he conducts research on Phnom Penh’s urban preparing with interests in every aspects of cities plus urban design.