CPTED principles for traffic safety

Research on the spots where the rate of accidents is the highest as well as research on conflicts clearly supports the earlier assumption that there are places and times where and when human faults are not the exception but many of the people or often most of them behave in a way that goes against the expectations. On these occasions it is only the difference of the path of the vehicles and the time, which is a random factor concerning the participants, that decides whether the human fault would result in an accident or not. The suitable traffic environment plays a role not only in reducing the number of human faults but also in helping other participants (e.g., those who have the right of way) in the traffic to notice them in due time so that they can do something to prevent an accident. That is the main reason why defensible space and - considering the characteristics of traffic - defensible corridors are necessary. The purpose of this paper, with regard to the above, is to summarise those human characteristics (e.g., the fact that stimuli lead to certain actions, priorities are made subjective and the role of optical leading) that should be taken into consideration when designing successful urban environment design principles.