14.12 | Dangerous by Design: Understanding Road Fatalities in Kingston & St. Andrew

With almost 500 persons killed in motor vehicle-related crashes in 2021, last year was the most violent year for road users across Jamaica in nearly 20 years. Each year since 2018 has been progressively more deadly on our roads despite pandemic lockdowns. Road crashes injure more than 10,000 persons annually and cost the country an average of J$3.2 billion each year. The standard policy response is hyper-focused on addressing road user behavior by expanding enforcement and investing in education campaigns that promote safer road use. These are important initiatives, but they have not adequately addressed the increasing carnage on our roads; and completely miss a significant factor, street design.

Urban transportation is the complex web of intersecting transportation modes and user interests. Pedestrians, cyclists, public transit operators, and private vehicles constantly interact and negotiate space along our corridors. The physical form of the transportation network is the framework within which these interactions take place and therefore determines how they occur. In the Kingston Metropolitan Area (KMA), street design is reductive and, above all else, focuses on moving large volumes of vehicles as quickly as possible. With a bias towards car speed, can safety for all other road users ever be achieved?

Between 2017 and 2021, three hundred and forty-eight (348) persons died along all streets in the KMA, with deaths jumping 43% in those four years. Of that total, non-motorized commuters, i.e., pedestrians and cyclists, together accounted for 41% of all fatalities. Commuters in cars and on motorcycles are also dying at an unacceptably high rate. Notably, motor cars are responsible for the majority of traffic fatalities in the KMA, even though most residents do not own a car. Jamaica and the KMA have higher road fatality rates than other countries with higher car ownership rates. Even more alarming, our road fatalities are steadily increasing as many countries are experiencing declines.

More than 70% of our population relies on walking for all or a portion of their journey. Walking is not inherently dangerous or unpleasant, but we have systematically transformed our environment into a hostile place for pedestrians. Sidewalks are necessary infrastructure for pedestrian safety and the overall function of an economically vibrant city but are generally inadequate across the municipality. The Kingston & St. Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) and the National Works Agency (NWA) are responsible for the sidewalks along our streets but typically reserve routine maintenance for the roadways. Sidewalks tend to get attention only when a major rehabilitation or capital project occurs; however, they are often reduced in size to accommodate car travel. As a result, pedestrian networks throughout the KMA are disjointed and untraversable in many cases, forcing many to walk in the high-speed roadways with motorized vehicles.

Between 2017 and 2021, the leading cause of pedestrian fatalities (57%) occurred because a pedestrian "walked", "stood" or "ran" into a roadway". Pedestrians are not just walking along roadways; they must safely and frequently cross them. Recent major capital projects have included highway-style concrete barriers that obstruct pedestrians trying to cross and strand them in the roadway. Correspondingly, 9% of pedestrian fatalities occurred when they attempted to cross a street. In a generally hostile urban environment, pedestrians are constantly weighing risks. Too often, the walk to a crossing is unreasonable and requires doubling back; a pedestrian may decide to cross along a more direct route despite the risks. Regular crossings every 80 - 100m that connect to destinations where possible are necessary to ensure safety for pedestrians when crossing and encourage their use, but very few exist along many of our corridors.

Motorcycles are a dangerous formula. They have the agility and compactness of a pedal cyclist and the mobility and speed of a motor car without any of the thorough safety features. Our cities are organized primarily for travel by private car in an economy where very few can afford one. "Yeng Yengs" ultimately offer a more affordable option for people willing to take the risk. A crucial factor in the high rate of motorcycle fatalities is that wide lanes and congestion encourage motorcyclists to drive in-between lanes, which accounts for 25% of motorcycle fatalities since 2017.

The former head of the Road Safety Unit, Kanute Hare, stated in an interview that the widest, smoothest, and straightest roads, were also the most dangerous and the data confirms this. The three most dangerous roads in the KMA are Spanish Town Road, Marcus Garvey Drive, and Washington Boulevard. Collectively, these three roads represent ⅕ of all fatalities in the KMA since 2017. Each road is a 6-lane dual carriageway; they are also the gateways into the KMA from Portmore and Spanish Town. The trend across the data suggests a high correlation between road width and traffic fatalities.

The ways in which the physical form and design of roads and their adjacent land use influence our behavior are often overlooked in the discourse around road safety. The international research and local data tell us that road design across the KMA is deadly because our road network is designed and built solely to prioritize speed at the expense of safety.

The National Works Agency follows the America Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO) for road design standards. That means regardless of context- the "gold" standard is to design all our roadways the same as we would another leg on Highway 2000. These designs optimize the geometry of our roads for maximum car volume and car speed based on the principles of "forgiving design". Widened lanes, soft shoulders, broad and smooth corners, slip lanes, hazard signage, easily collapsible light poles, and concrete barrier medians are all features common to highways but also distinct features along recently upgraded Legacy Road Projects.

These design elements claim to create a forgiving environment for the common mistakes motorists could make; swerving or breaking suddenly. But result in increased driver confidence which usually results in increased speeds. This approach has been incredibly successful at saving lives along highways, which are relatively simple environments. But when these design elements exist in complex urban environments with pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, and an abundance of destinations, the result is devasting. In complex urban environments, car speed and safety are fundamentally incompatible goals. The faster cars go, the more dangerous the street is for everyone (motorists and non-motorists).

Speeding is the main cause of death on our streets. While police-reported crash descriptions state that 22% of all traffic fatalities in the KMA were caused by speeding, the number is likely much higher. All the 20 most dangerous roads in the KMA have a maximum speed limit of at least 50kph with an additional buffer of +16kph before any fines are triggered (66kph total). A US Department of Transportation study analyzing the impacts of vehicle travel speeds and pedestrian injuries suggests that keeping within our allowable speed limit is still dangerous for many pedestrians. For all crashes, the likelihood of a fatality increases as speed increases, and this is even more true for vulnerable road users like pedestrians, motorcyclists, and cyclists.

The speed limit set by the National Works Agency (NWA) dictates the maximum speed a car can drive along a specific roadway. Speed limits are set as objective metrics, but how they are experienced depends heavily on the context. Drivers don't monitor their speedometer to ensure compliance instead, they drive at a speed that feels comfortable relative to their conditions and this is highly variable depending on the driver. For many, driving at 50kph on a clear day along Constant Spring Road may feel too slow because of how forgiving the conditions on the roadway are. In fact, NWA designed Constant Spring Road to accommodate speeds up to 70kph but set the speed limit to 50kph. That same speed would feel uncomfortably fast along Cassava Piece Road, which is winding and narrow.

It is beyond surprising to know that road fatalities increased nationwide during the pandemic and remained unchanged in the KMA in 2020 and 2021 when compared to pre-pandemic 2019. How have the months of mandated lockdowns not reduced deaths on our roads? One likely reason for this phenomenon (also observed in the US) is that lockdowns and work-from-home orders meant that there were far fewer cars on our streets and far more space available for the remaining cars. That excess space gave drivers the ability to speed more, which resulted in the deaths of more vulnerable road users like pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists. This unfortunate example demonstrates that the faster cars are allowed (legally or otherwise) to drive, the more dangerous the streets become for everyone using them.

A fundamental problem is that we are designing roads where streets should be. Most people think roads and streets are the same, but they are not. Roads prioritize speed, to get as far as possible in a short amount of time (mobility). A road connects point A to point B, just as how Mandela Highway connects the KMA to Portmore and Spanish Town. A street, however, deprioritizes speed to increase the ease of access to as many destinations as possible. Kings Street, for example, provides access to an abundance of shops, homes, and businesses; clustered together. Across the KMA, we are designing roads to prioritize car speed in areas with high activity and high population, resulting in a dangerous environment for all involved.

This brings us to the Legacy Road Projects: which represent a biased and destructive focus on mobility and speed as opposed to accessibility to places and things people want and need. They are perfect examples of the consequences of designing roads where streets should be. These projects were meant to solve traffic and improve safety but nothing in our research support that they have achieved either.

In contemporary urban planning, it is widely understood that widening roads does not alleviate congestion because of a phenomenon called induced demand. With terminology borrowed from economists, it refers to the impact of increasing the supply of road capacity (an additional lane or a brand-new overpass), which results in increased demand for that new capacity which then leads to even more traffic than before the expansion. Having witnessed the return of high levels of traffic to recently expanded roads like Constant Spring and Barbican Roads, it is clear that the way we traditionally try to solve congestion is ineffective.

Across the KMA, fatalities along the Legacy Road projects were some of the highest. Collectively they account for 17% of all fatalities in KMA over the period. The former head of the Road Safety Unit, Kanute Hare, asserted that the "nicely laid road sections" are the most dangerous across the corporate area. Standard across all Legacy Road projects; engineers have widened lanes, flattened hills, straightened curves, and removed obstacles from roadways. What this does is to communicate to drivers that mistakes like swerving or driving outside of their lanes, or momentarily looking down at their phones are less risky activities. Of course, these activities are not at all less risky, not for vulnerable road users outside or inside the car.

A "stroad"—a term coined by a transportation engineer is a thoroughfare that combines the complexity of a street with the design speed of a road. All the most dangerous roads in the KMA are stroads- bringing high-speed motorways in conflict with dense populations, residences, and businesses. Many of these roads began as streets and then were converted to a stroad through widening and other changes (Constant Spring Road, Hagley Park, Barbican, South Camp Road, etc). Transforming these dangerous stroads back to streets is critical if we ever hope to reduce road fatalities and general violence on our streets.

We have made some progress in increasing vehicular safety and encouraging safe roads through programs at the Island Traffic Authority and the Road Safety Unit. Along with policies around seatbelt usage and helmets for motorcyclists (proposed) the Jamaica Injury Surveillance System has gone a long way in preparing hospitals for post-crash responses. The draft 2004 National Road Safety Policy set two goals for the island: 1) continually reduce the occurrence and severity of road accidents and 2) reduce the rate of vehicular accident mortality by at least 25% over the proceeding 5-year period. To do this the government has invested in road safety education, training, and marketing, along with digital police enforcement tools, etc.

The Road Safety Unit (RSU) is the 12-member agency (under the Ministry of Transport and Works) dedicated to tracking and improving road safety island-wide. In an interview with RSU Director Deidrie Sinclair, she made it clear that the agency understood road design as a major cause of road fatalities. The Unit conducts road safety audits on new and upgraded roads but is not involved with the designing of the roads beforehand. They lack the institutional power to discourage unsafe design elements and lack the technical capacity to make specific design recommendations. Their hyper-focus on education campaigns is a direct result of their meager budget not affording them the ability to pursue more meaningful road safety approaches.

Here are some essential next steps to rethinking road safety in the KMA:

Change engineering standards for all urban roads/streets from AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials) to NACTO (National Association of City Transportation Officials). NACTO standards are more focused on understanding street design as a major influence on road user behavior and have a broader understanding of street safety than AASHTO.
Transform the most dangerous "stroads" back to streets or roads.

Nationally, we have spent years narrowly focusing on enforcement, running ineffectual education campaigns, or blaming the victims of crashes, while ignoring the role of roadway design in these deaths. We cannot simply deploy the same standards and design guidelines and expect this trend to change—we need a fundamentally different approach to the problem. We need to acknowledge that the status quo approach to designing and managing streets and roads contributes to these deaths. It is a simple tradeoff; we design to encourage speed we need to expect a reduction in safety. Conversely, if we design to encourage safety we need to curb and cut car speeds.

Stay tuned for more blog posts on Rethinking Road Safety, Parking, Managing Congestion and much more.