Voices of the vulnerable: insights from a German road safety co-creation workshop

Global Road traffic incidents account for approximately 1.19 million fatalities annually, with an additional 50 million people sustaining injuries. Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) constitute a significant proportion of these statistics (almost half). The scenario is akin to Europe, where 70% of the overall road fatalities are attributed to VRUs. Initiatives like the European Commission’s Vision Zero aim to eliminate road accident fatalities and enhance transportation safety. Therefore, understanding the specific challenges VRUs face is crucial to address this issue effectively. While prior studies have explored challenges among specific VRUs, this study comprehensively gathers a wide range of stakeholder groups and analyses the various attitudinal and subjective concerns of VRUs in Germany. By adopting a co-creation approach through online workshops, insights and common challenges faced by VRUs were identified. Key themes such as infrastructural issues, behaviour and attitude, requisite for training and awareness, law and regulation enforcement, personal safety concerns, leveraging technological advancement, environmental concerns, and potential solutions emerged from thematic analysis of qualitative data. This provides valuable information for those instrumental in driving change and for those delivering policy. Moreover, this study underscores the importance of involving end-users in planning mobility infrastructure to tailor safety measures to diverse VRU needs. Adopting a human-centric design approach is critical to reducing road injuries and fatalities and ensuring equitable access and safety for all VRUs in Germany.

Citation

Sudhakaran, G.M., Pohle, M., Booth, C.A. et al. (2025) Voices of the vulnerable: insights from a German road safety co-creation workshop. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Civil Structural and Transportation Engineering (ICCSTE 2025), July 17, 2025 - July 19, 2025, Imperial College London, paper number 122. DOI: 10.11159/icsect25.122

Type

Conference contribution

Language

en

Description

This is an author's accepted manuscript of a paper published in the Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Civil Structural and Transportation Engineering (ICCSTE 2025), July, 2025 Imperial College London. The full proceedings can be accessed online: https://avestia.com/ICCSTE2025_Proceedings/files/ICCSTE25_Proceedings.pdf

ISSN

2369-3002

ISBN

9781990800559

Collections

Faculty of Science and Engineering