The rural-urban divide in road safety: the case of China

Abstract

Mainland China accounted for about 7% of the global road fatalities in 2008. Road crashes happening on Chinese roads were deadly. On average, one person died in every four reported traffic crashes. Despite the scarcity of data, substantial rural-urban differences were found. In the rural areas, higher-order Highways, roads with no lighting and some heavy vehicles warrant particular attention from road safety administrations. In the 2000s, the average number of road fatalities per 100 crashes on Expressways quadrupled. Furthermore, the rural-urban divide was not limited to inner provinces only but was found in a large part of the country. By 2008, nearly 70% of the provincial units were having larger shares of rural population. In the long term, only a national road safety strategy will provide the necessary holistic framework for addressing the road safety problems in China systematically.