Enhancing Urban Traffic Safety: An Evaluation on Taipei's Neighborhood Traffic Environment Improvement Program

Abstract

In densely populated urban areas, where interactions between pedestrians, vehicles, and motorcycles are frequent and complex, traffic safety is a critical concern. This paper evaluates the Neighborhood Traffic Environment Improvement Program in Taipei, which involved painting green pedestrian paths, adjusting no-parking red/yellow lines, and painting speed limit and stop/slow signs on lanes and alleys. Exploiting staggered rollout of policy implementation and administrative traffic accident data, we found that the program reduced daytime traffic accidents by 5 percent and injuries by 8 percent, while having no significant impact on nighttime incidents. The effectiveness of the program during the day is mainly attributed to the painted green sidewalks, with adequate sunlight playing a part in the program's success. Our findings indicate that cost-effective strategies like green pedestrian lanes can be effective in areas with dense populations and high motorcycle traffic, as they improve safety by encouraging pedestrians to use marked areas and deterring vehicles from these zones.