Road safety measures (Donostia San Sebastian)

Summary

Donostia-San Sebastian established a Road Safety Pact with civic associations to step up the number of actions directed at road safety including better enforcement of speed limits through radar controls.

Implementing sustainable mobility

Donostia-San Sebastian shared management and monitoring of road safety activities with civic organisations such as associations for drivers, cyclists, motorists, people with disabilities and elderly. This participatory approach was expected to be an effective means to improve road safety activities.

The main objective of the measure was to:

• Reduce the number of accidents.

Donostia-San Sebastian run an awareness raising campaign, set up post-accident attention services, monitored progress and installed radar systems for speed controls at three locations. The Road Safety Pact was in line with the European Road Safety Charter and was based on the city’s Plan for Traffic Safety and Security from 2007. The design of this plan already involved a number of civic associations.

Progress

Donostia-San Sebastian involved thirty associations in the development of the Road Safety Pact that was completed. Specific measures included: awareness-raising campaigns; post-accident attention services; observatory for monitoring progress, co-ordinating traffic safety data from all stakeholders.

The city implemented 9 radar systems at arterial roads to control with cameras, enforce and sanction against high speed.

Outcomes

This measure is closely related to another CIVITAS measure that includes the implementation of 30-kilometer zones in three neighbourhoods. The impact evaluation of the two measures was integrated.

The perceived security increased after the implementation of the measures, even when this perception was already high before the CIVITAS project started: From 6.1 out of 10 before, to 6.7 after. The perception of security also increased among bicycle users. Before the implementation 68% believed that the city was safe for cyclists, while after the implementation this proportion reached 70 percent.

In the areas with radar control a reduction of 11 km/h in average speed was measured. Also, significant reductions in the number of deaths and injured people were accounted in all neighbourhoods, ranging from a 14 percent reduction in the area of the radar system and 11 percent, 7 percent and 1 percent respectively in the three implemented 30-km-zones.

Moreover, results from the evaluation confirmed the suitability of each approach to their corresponding context: while 30-km-zones provided further improvements in residential areas where traffic speeds were already low; radar systems were more suitable for main arterial streets where traffic speeds are high.