THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT Adult Pedestrians in the Night Time Economy

Context In 2013 we published a report with PACTS that looked at the problem of pedestrian casualties. Lots of improvement have been made in in-vehicle safety but until recently few had the potential to benefit pedestrians Pedestrian casualties still make up almost ¼ of all those KSI on our roads Recent trends show that there have been great reductions in child pedestrian casualties, down 48% over the last decade, but adult pedestrian casualties have gone down by less than half this percentage. From our research with PACTS we know that adult pedestrians are very often involved in collisions in the evening and that alcohol impairment is high in the list of contributory factors. Together with RSGB we started work on an in-depth review of the crash DNA, previous research, possible interventions and existing work in the area of adult pedestrians at night. Rather than go through all of the report in detail however we are going to highlight the main findings and consider what can be done to tackle the problem using the evidence available.

Gender This is the who, what, how, where, when and is the first thing we always do when designing an intervention. Often we start with the collision circumstances but here we are going to concentrate on people first in this presentation As with many report we find that men outnumber women, in this case it’s roughly a two-thirds male to one-third female split. This is however quite a bit different to the distribution for daytime adult pedestrian casualties with the risk for men going up by almost 20%

Age It won’t surprise any of you to realise that risk is higher amongst younger adults. This is almost certainly a reflection of the numbers of people in these age groups who are out at night as pedestrians, although actual numbers are impossible to ascertain so we can’t calculate a true rate. The rise could also be due in part to behavioural differences between the age groups, something we will address in a moment One of the important things to note is the big rise in casualty distributions versus daytime collisions. Those in the youngest age bracket (16-24 years old) see a 34% increase in casualty distribution at night time compared to the day when compared to all other age groups.

Mosaic The Mosaic profiling was done at type level thanks to the amount of data available and it brought up five main types as being over-represented and at-risk The wheel diagram here is reproduced in the report and shows where there are shared characteristics between the types We find that there are several things in common: Unemployed / Student Deprivation Budget Supermarkets Low / no car ownership Feel unsafe at night You can also see that a few of the types have other things in common too although they may not be universal

IMD The link between IMD and pedestrian casualties has been established for some time Child casualties tend to be even more deprived than adult casualties, although the trend is still very strong for adults as you can see There is a significant increase in risk at night as well for the most deprived groups

Contributory Factors Pedestrian casualties themselves contribute in some way to just over 75% of collisions at night, up by 7% from the daytime figure Alcohol impairment more than doubles at night-time, 2/3rds for drugs Dangerous actions increase by 2/3rds also Drivers who hit pedestrians at night are more likely to be under the influence of alcohol, be driving at speed over the limit, and be driving aggressively compared to the daytime.

Crash DNA Hourly distributions show a reducing trend throughout the evening and into the night The drop-off is much slower than seen for other casualty groups however with significant numbers still injured after 9pm

Month A quick look at the monthly distributions shows peaks in the autumn and winter months This is broadly in line with other collision data however and does not vary significantly from the norm

Crossing Facilities One of the significant features we analysed was crossing facilities The significant majority were injured well away from pedestrian crossings There was a big rise those injured near a crossing compared to daytime and a decrease in those injured on a crossing Encouraging better use of existing facilities could therefore be one way to reduce casualties

Road Class Reviewing where on the road network these crashes occur gives us the results we would expect It’s predominantly and issue in urban areas with A roads featuring prominently and at slightly elevated risk levels compared to daytime Casualties on high-speed roads M, A(M) increase significantly but the numbers are very low

Regional Variation London dominates the picture and has increased risk at night compared to the daytime. Scotland, Wales and the North-East have even larger increases at night

Previous Research Common Factors At weekends Between 6pm and 11pm Where the casualty is aged between 16 and 34 years old Where the casualty is male Where the casualty is deprived Where the casualty is impaired by alcohol Where the casualty is wearing dark clothing Where the casualty undertook dangerous actions in the carriageway Where the related driver was impaired by alcohol, driving aggressively and/or were exceeding the speed limit We looked at many different research studies from around the world to see if others had reviewed the problem as well They made very good reading and the key point are summarised in the report Here are the things that were common to our report and the international research

Previous Research Other Findings Lack of awareness of impairment Risky crossing behaviour Difficulty judging speed and distance Areas with a high density of pubs & clubs History of alcohol abuse International researchers also looked at other information about impaired adults

Interventions Engineeering Enforcement Separation of pedestrians from motor vehicles by fences Reducing speed limits Fencing or other facilities to separate pedestrians and motor vehicles in areas where bars cluster Adequate lighting to assist drivers in seeing pedestrians at night Traffic calming devices Enforcement Drunkenness Jaywalking As usual there are three types of solution under the ‘Three E’s’ Engineering may be the most useful and removing vehicles from the streets altogether would be even better! Other than general laws about drunken behaviour, there is little that can be done as jaywalking is not an offence in our country

Interventions Education Drunk-Walkers do not think they are at risk More worried about assault Getting drunk is normal behaviour, telling people not to drink won’t work Very drunk people will not retain advertising or awareness messages Educating a person who willingly puts themselves into danger is quite difficult Getting an impaired person to take on a message (and remember it) is also quite tricky! There is evidence that there is low awareness of risk and therefore improving this could assist other measures.

Existing Campaigns Use trains and buses: Transport info website Organise a lift Book a taxi or mini-bus: Taxis NSW Stay overnight at a place nearby Wear bright, light clothes at night so you are more visible to drivers and riders Drink & Drug Driving Interruption events Direct conversations with target groups Evaluated

Fun Theory “The thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better” Developed by Volkswagen International awards scheme Speed Camera Lottery Bottle Bank Arcade The Play Belt

Fun Theory Around 2 months ago we were sat in a meeting, going through the initial findings and trying to think about what a successful campaign would look like We used all of the information about the problem (drunk, young adults, at night, not using crossings) and looked at the kinds of messages that may work with the target audience We also considered what drunk people were interested in More alcohol Food Loud music Sex And then we thought of how we could re-purpose one of the best road safety tools we possess – The Crossing Patrol