18 th I CTCT workshop Road safety issues 1 Traffic environment for children and elderly as pedestrians and cyclists Lars Leden* , Per Gårder 1 , Charlotta Johansson 2 * VTT Building and Transport, P.O. Box 1800, FIN-02044 VTT, Finland. and Luleå University of Technology, Division of Architecture and Infrastructure, SE-971 87 Luleå, Sweden. Phone: + 358 20 722 4298, Fax: + 358 20 722 7056, Lars.Leden@vtt.fi 1 University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469-5711, USA. .Phone +12075812177, Fax + 12075813888, Garder@Maine.edu 2 Luleå University of Technology, Division of Architecture and Infrastructure, SE-971 87 Luleå, Sweden. Phone: + 46 920 491867, Fax: + 46 920 492 345, Charlotta.M.Johansson@ltu.se Abstract Vehicle speeds should be 30 km/h or less wherever children (regularly) cross streets. However, safety can be further improved at sites already reconstructed to ensure low speeds. Results based on field data collected at sites close to schools in Malmö, Trollhättan and Borås in Sweden, and analyses of Finnish and Swedish police-reported crashes including in-depth studies, suggest that safety for children and elderly is further improved at sites where visibility, orientation and clarity are sufficient. Also, marked crosswalks may increase yield rates towards pedestrians and speed cushions situated at a longer distance from the zebra crossing increase yield rates towards pedestrians and cyclists. It is also concluded that bicycle facilities promote biking and that the risk for bicyclists and pedestrians decrease with increasing bicycle and pedestrian flows. Some key issues are here outlined for the design of a safe, non-restrictive cycle network. Key words: Traffic Safety, Mobility, Child, Behaviour, Road design, Speed reducing devices, Speed cushions, visibility, orientation, clarity