title: A holistic approach for assessing traffic safety in the United Arab Emirates.
abstract: Traffic accident and fatality rates can be utilized as indicators of traffic safety, but cannot reflect the overall status of traffic safety in a country. This paper uses a holistic perspective approach to investigate traffic safety in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Initially, 12 potential items were selected to investigate the issue of traffic safety in the country. The investigation included data collection and analyses from official police reports, survey among road-users and interview of traffic safety experts. Based on data analysis and interpretation, the main factors affecting traffic safety in the UAE along with their level of deficiency were identified. The study revealed that the main factors contributing to traffic safety in the UAE are driving behaviour, awareness, education and training, infrastructure, vehicle, law enforcement, coordination and quality of resources. Among these factors, a major deficiency was found in the "driving behaviour", a minor deficiency in "vehicle safety", and a moderate deficiency in the others. Based on the deficiency level of the factors recommendations were proposed to improve the status of traffic safety in the country.
authors.affiliation: Roadway Transportation and Traffic Safety Research Center, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. mnhassan@uaeu.ac.ae
authors.forename: Mohammad Nurul
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Hassan
authors.forename: Yaser E
authors.initials: YE
authors.lastname: Hawas
authors.forename: Munjed A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Maraqa
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control*; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000193:education / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards; D001336:Automobiles / Q000592:standards; D001364:Awareness; D002423:Cause of Death; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003625:Data Collection / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012449:Safety / Q000592:standards; D012622:Seat Belts / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D015996:Survival Rate; D014479:United Arab Emirates; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality