PEDESTRIANS’ SAFETY IN POLAND AND USE OF REFLECTIVE MATERIALS

Abstract

The subject of pedestrian safety is particularly important in Poland, where the risk of mortality is very high compared to other European Union (EU) countries. In Poland, 60% of all killed pedestrians lost their lives at night, mostly away from urban areas. The current article focuses onpedestrians’compliance with the law requirements of the mandatory use of reflective elements at night in non-urban areas since its introduction in Poland in 2014 based on adata analysis and survey on pedestrians’ attitudes and behaviours. An analysis of pedestrian accidents, fatalities, and serious injuries at night five years before and five years after 2014 showed an improvement inpedestrian safety more in non-urban areas (where the law on reflective elements is obligatory) than in urban areas. This study is the first published work to present comprehensive results from an in-depth national survey about people’sattitudes and behaviours regarding theuse of reflective elements. The data were obtained from 600 observed and 400 questioned pedestrians in 2018. Observationsfrom 2018 showed that only 21% of pedestrians respected the obligation towear reflective elements at night outside urban, even though 46% of respondents declared in questionnaires that they wore such elements. Pedestrians who usedreflective devicesin non-urban areas at night were mainly young people aged 40 years old or younger. They used reflective clothing (shoes, trousers, backpacks); 79% of observed pedestrians did not wear reflective elements at night according to questionnaires from 2018. More pedestrians (60%) who didn’t use any reflective wore black clothing, whichmade them not visible to drivers and put them atrisk of being killed. A comparison of thedata showed a positive change in pedestrians’ attitudes due to this obligation.In 2015 only 35% of respondents knew that the use of reflective elements was obligatory in some situations; in 2018, almost half of them (46%) did. The analysis carried out in the present study indicated that the preventive action of introducing the mandatory use of reflective elements at night by pedestrians outside urban areas has slowly improved the safety of pedestrians anddecreased the numbers of accidents, seriousinjuries, and fatalities. Changes introduced intoPolish traffic rules have improvedpedestrians’ safety on roads since 2014; however, there is still an immense need tocarry on social actions and campaigns promoting the use of reflective elements to educate road users to change pedestrians’ behaviours.