Impact of socioeconomic and transport indicators on road safety during the crisis period in Europe

Abstract

The risk of being involved in a road crash is typically influenced by mobility, which in turn is influenced by various socioeconomic indicators. This study aims to investigate the impact of socioeconomic and transport indicators on road safety during the economic crisis period in Europe. A database containing Human Development Index (HDI), suicides, passenger-kilometers and road fatalities per population was developed. Linear Mixed Models were applied for all the examined countries and the different groups that were selected for the period 2006-2015. The results led to the conclusion that HDI has the most important impact and its increase leads to road fatalities decrease. Moreover, the evolution of human development affects the outcomes of road crashes more than suicides and passenger-kilometers travelled. After the end of the crisis, the impact of human development is even higher. Concerning passenger-kilometers travelled, there is an increase in the relative impact on road fatalities after the end of the crisis.

Keywords:

• road fatalities
• road safety
• Human Development Index
• passenger-kilometers
• economic crisis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.