Road Safety Measures in Japan

Abstract

Road accident reduction in the 1970’s in Japan was drastic. The fatalities were halved while total distance of travel increased 1.7 times from 1970 to 1979.

The trend in the 1980’s, however, indicates a gradual but obvious increase despite the continuous efforts at accident prevention.

What I will try to show is the reasons for the past success and failure in accident prevention. These reflections of our experiences in the past will automatically lead us to the measures that should be taken from now on.

In short, I will try to indicate that: (1) the accident reduction in the 1970’s is largely attributable to improvements of the environment of road users rather than improvement of the road users themselves. (2) the effectiveness of investing in the environment approached the saturation level already in the early 1980’s and (3) the only remedy left for future accident decrease is to improve behaviors of road users, especially drivers.