Impact of Spatial Development on Traffic Safety in a Medium-Sized Town – Case of Chelm Lubelski (Poland)

Abstract

The purpose of this article is a presentation of influence of spatial development on road safety in a medium-sized city (65,000 inhabitants) on the example of Chelm Lubelski situated in the Lublin Province, - in the so-called area of Eastern Poland. In the period of analyzes in this town the level of individual motorization was in 2014 - just over 470 passenger cars/1000 inhabitants. The article is based on the analysis of city planning documents and the study of the state of spatial structure of the city of Chelm and traffic safety statistics from 2012-2014 made available from the Polish Road Traffic Observatory. Analyzes carried out indicate that Chelm is a safe city against the background of the country, there are many places in its area where the state of road safety indicates a disturbance of the balance between the social space and space for transport. In Chelm, in the analyzed period there were up to 25 accidents and 830 collisions per year. The analyzes carried out show that Chelm is a city that is considerably safe against the background of other cities in the Lubelskie Province and medium size towns in Poland. There are, however, many places in the city, where the state of road safety indicates the imbalance between the social space and space for transport. The main area of concentration of the number of accidents in Chelm Lubelski is the city center and some residential areas located near this zone. The most threatened by accidents were collective and local streets, and collisions most often occurred on main roads, as well as on collective roads. The main reason of road safety hazards is high concentration of service areas in one place, high traffic volumes on some streets, not very good condition of road surfaces, multifunctionality and high availability of many streets (numerous intersections and public entrances).