Sustainable Transportation Systems to Improve Road Safety Situation

Abstract

Road safety is a very serious problem all across the world with 1.3 million people getting fatal injuries. Around
1.5 lakhs people die on Indian Roads with a rate of one death every 4 minutes. The contribution of vulnerable
road users group is around 60% at national level. Along with the safety issue, sustainability, sustainable
transportation and sustainable environment are the burning areas of discussion at present. The subject matters
related to the meaning, assessment and realization of safe and sustainable transportation are discussed in this
paper. The important concerns are various definitions of sustainability, the problems considered under
sustainability, different perceptions, assessing sustainability and impact of various transport mode on
sustainability. Now the broad areas covered while defining sustainable systems include ecological balance,
social welfare and equity and health issues as well. Discrete scientific solutions may not be satisfactory for
solving sustainability issues. How the transportation system may be made safe and sustainable through proper
integration is the subject matter of the present paper.