Road Safety in the Romanian Cities. A Study on Urban Road Traffic Crashes

Abstract

Sustainable urban mobility and road safety have been both a challenge and a priority at the European level for two decades now. Urban road traffic crashes are some of the most difficult issues to tackle by the local administrative planning and development authorities in Europe. The aim of this study was to enhance the focus on urban road safety by providing an illustrative spatial and temporal overview on the road crashes occurred in the cities and towns of Romania and their effects on the people involved. Data related to urban road crashes for a 12-year reference period from 2008 to 2019 were used. Results showed no significant difference in the number of road traffic crashes in 2019 compared to 2008. However, the impact on the people involved show a decrease in severity, the number of road crashes deaths in 2019 being halved compared to 2008. We note a redistribution in the occurrence of these events at the city level, for the period 2008-2019, whilst the most affected are the cities of rank 1 and 2. All rank 1 cities in Romania were detected as hotspots with a high concentration of road traffic crashes and casualties, designated as low-safety road traffic urban poles. We argued in favour of customized and relevant strategies for sustainable and safe urban transport in accordance with the particular features of the cities and towns in Romania, given the varied severity degree of the phenomenon and the specific features of road infrastructure and road traffic.