INTRO:
The safety of vulnerable road users is a concerning problem internationally. The World Health Organisation estimates the costs of accidents in terms of the number of people fatally and seriously injured plus its impact on those directly and indirectly involved in accidents. These impacts have associated physical, psychological, social and financial costs for the population.

OBJECTIVES:
The data used for accident statistics is problematic as it leaves out data about non-serious, near miss incidents and trips and falls. Safety models explain how non-serious and near misses are used to forecast the probability of serious or fatal accidents. When all accident data is considered, the pedestrian emerges as the most vulnerable road user, yet they are overlooked in terms of safety design. Additionally, research is limited in how to design for the pedestrian, particularly in how to communicate safety risks to them. This study aims to address these gaps by considering ways in which design can be used to improve pedestrians safety and how to design communication interventions.

METHODS:
Grounded Theory was employed to gather and analyse data through interviews with safety experts, road safety charity groups, researchers and academics in the field, literature reviews, participation in safety working groups and observations using case studies.

RESULTS:
Data analysis showed the lack of inclusion of wider non-serious data that may be giving a skewed view of the road safety problem, by missing out on identifying patterns that might be leading to more serious accidents. Safety interventions are focused on the accident rather than causation factors. If attention was focused on pedestrians and preventative measures this may reduce the accident numbers. Subsequently, if the pedestrian was better informed about safety risks they could take preventative action that might reduce their risks and increase their agency. Furthermore, the analysis indicate that safety interventions aimed toward the pedestrian often marginalises less mobile pedestrians.

CONCLUSION:
The research will look at design methods to improve preventative communication aimed towards the pedestrian and how to make road safety interventions more inclusive. The wider benefits of these design interventions would be an improvement in road safety especially for the most vulnerable road user, and as a consequence reducing the overall costs of accidents.

KEYWORDS: Design for safety, near-miss, safety risks, communication, prevention, benefits, inclusion.

Royal College of Art, London - London - United Kingdom - UK