ICTCT Beijing Workshop on Vulnerable Road Users

International Cooperation on Theories and Concepts in Traffic Safety, president of which is Professor Christer HYDÉN of University of Lund, Sweden, is going to hold a special workshop in Beijing on April 2 and 3, whose theme is "Road user behaviour with a special focus on vulnerable road users Technical, social and psychological aspects". I met Professor Christer HYDÉN and András VÁRHELYI in Malmo, Sweden in last October after ITS World Congress in London, and I understood I should attend. By various reasons, I only very recentlly decided to attend, and the Secretaries of the Workshop, i.e. Dr. Ralf RISSER of Ausria and Mr. Clemens KAUFMANN of Austria worked hard to insert my presentation into already constructed program. I am very thankful for their accepting me. Following is a summary of my presantation, and I hope it will tell you why I have been quiet in this blog and why it is essential to attend Beijing Workshop.

I am very much looking forward to seeing my old friends of Europe and new frieds of China in Beijing soon.

Viewing Traffic Safety Issues from Victims’ Standpoints
- Developing Wider Social Acceptance of Safe Speed Initiatives -

Yukio Oguri Professor, Faculty of Policy Informatics, Chiba University of Commerce (CUC)
Director of Soft Car Millennium Project, Japan oguri@cuc.ac.jp

The author and his associates have been conducting Soft Car Project both locally in Japan and internationally exchanging information with ISA experts in Europe and Australia. The concept of Soft Car emerged in 1982 and is a type of ISA car with an additive equipment, i.e. Maximum Speed Indicator which indicates four (4) levels of maximum speed either chosen by drive manually or set automatically utilizing GPS with four (4) types of color of light to those out of the car and to the driver him/herself, and violation of maximum speed is identified by flickering of light. In 2000, with three (3) years research fund of the Japanese Government, they started developing Soft Car equipments, and experiments both in the community next to CUC and in a driving test course proved appropriate performance of them. Questionnaire surveys proved good acceptance of Soft Car by various types of people. Soft Car demonstration was undertaken in Malacca, Malaysia in 2001, and electric Soft Cars (Soft Q Cars) were used for everyday parades in Expo Aichi 2005. Soft Car caravan to visit city mayors, elementally schools, etc. were undertaken in the Exposition period with high popularity. Outcomes of the project have been presented at various occasions, including at ITS World Congresses, by the author and mass media reported them quite frequently. At a special session in ITS World Congress Nagoya 2004, the author and ISA expert developed a concept of “World Wide Platform of Safe Speed Initiatives”. However, the project has not been successful enough to let car manufactures produce Soft Cars and to let governments enforce drivers to install Soft Car equipments on their cars.

The author realized that they should get back to the essential target their project, which was to make our community safer and livable. They started researching traffic environments of the roads used by pupils of an elementary school next to CUC and found that most of the drivers violate legal maximum speed and it was so dangerous for children. In summer of 2006, the author started to report cases of traffic accidents in his blog named Soft Car Diary (http://blog.livedoor.jp/oguriyukio/) utilizing news by mass media and internet. A father whose daughter was killed in one of the most disastrous traffic incidents in recent years in City of Kawaguchi next to Tokyo, in which four (4) kinder garden children of ages 3, 4 and 5 were killed and 17 others were injured by a speeding wagon, contacted the author through the blog. Communicating with the father, the author found inadequacy of traffic-accident-related-law to punish criminal drivers and of speed-regulation-related-law-and-ordinance. The father and his friend parents whose daughters were also killed in the disaster started a campaign to change existing law to punish criminal drivers more severely, and around 220 thousands citizens showed their sympathy with their signature to support the campaign. Ministry of Law and Police Agency started to examine to change existing laws. The mayor of Kawaguchi started to explore the way to turn his city into a special district where legal maximum speed would be regulated at much lower level. The author’s blog reported actions of victimized families, national and local governments, and it became a forum for many fathers and mothers whose children were killed, who have fear their children being injured or killed someday and experts with legal and planning knowledge for traffic safety. Another blog by a young and popular actor whose daughter was also killed in January of this year has also become such a forum, through which the author started communicating with the actor and concerned parents. The messages exchanged there are essentially on grief and anger of the victims and on how not to sacrifice small lives. However, author believes such network of emotion will become a firm base to nourish Safe Speed Initiatives all over the world, and will eventually push motor manufacturers and government take appropriate measures for traffic safety.

The author conclude his presentation with the statement that (1) traffic safety issues should be viewed from a comprehensive view combining technology, law, administration, industry, psychology, etc. with regarding the emotion of victims of traffic accidents as its essential core ; and (2) China, which is the frontier of traffic system for the 21st century, will be a leading country to take Safe Speed Initiatives of the world and we, who take safety initiatives in Japan, are willing to collaborate with Chinese people in cooperation with European experts.