Integrating Public Health with Traffic Psychology

David A. Sleet, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia USA

Today, we can prevent, treat, or cure most of the deadliest diseases known to humankind – and yet more than a million people around the world die every year – 42,000 in the US alone, from traffic injuries. Globally, the burden of traffic injuries rivals that of TB and malaria. In fact, motor vehicle crashes are projected to move from being the ninth leading cause of death in the world in 1990 to becoming the third leading cause of death by the year 2020, unless we act.  Ironically, this projection comes at a time when we know more about effective prevention strategies than ever before.  Yet motorization is increasing around the world, and the adaptation and application of effective interventions hasn’t kept pace.  

Considering motor vehicle injuries in the context of other preventable causes of death and disease helps make motor vehicle injury a salient issue in public health and preventive medicine.   Framing motor vehicle injury as a predictable and preventable health problem offers an opportunity to persuade the public and policy makers to take an ecological approach.  Public health’s long history in promoting lifestyle change to reduce smoking, heart disease, cancer and other non-infectious diseases can be extended to changing the safety behaviors of drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.

Solutions will depend on successfully applying theory-driven approaches to improve traffic and transportation safety.  Accelerating the dissemination and adoption of effective preventive behaviors, practices, and policies, and developing and testing new ones, will involve the contributions of environmental, community, health, and transport  psychology together.

Stimulating a culture of safety means providing safe and accessible transportation for all as a means to improve the quality of life.  Efforts to integrate traffic psychology and public health can help achieve this vision.  But achieving this will require a shift in how we think about traffic hazards, personal risk behaviors, mobility, and the value of prevention.