Introducing tougher penalties for careless drivers is no silver bullet for reducing cyclist and pedestrian accidents, University of Otago researchers say.
Prof Hank Weiss and Aimee Ward, from the university's injury prevention research unit, argued in a recent article in the New Zealand Medical Journal that, on their own, tougher laws would not fix the problem.
''In New Zealand, only toughening laws to protect vulnerable road users and expecting a measurable effect on driver behaviour is naive, and is more about justice than deterrence.
''Instead, a mix of traffic engineering solutions to protect cyclists and other vulnerable road users needs to be implemented, in addition to consideration of law changes,'' Prof Weiss said.
Engineering options could include separating vehicles from cyclists and pedestrians, ''calmed'' bicycle boulevards, slowing traffic and building safer intersections.
A comparison of laws between New Zealand and various states in the United States showed penalties for careless drivers were generally stricter in New Zealand than they were in the US, the article said.
''However, enforcement is another matter and it remains a question as to whether laws against careless driving are applied consistently and regularly on the most egregious cases of harm inflicted on vulnerable road users,'' Prof Weiss said in the Medical Journal article.
