Road safety issues in Pakistan: a case study of Lahore

This paper presents the results of a qualitative study of road safety issues in Pakistan, which was carried out with the intent of developing a better understanding of the road safety profile of the country. The study is exploratory in nature, based on semi-structured interviews, and targets government officials, academics and the general driving population to investigate their perception of factors provoking deviant driving styles in the country. Interviews were taperecorded and analysed using a ‘template analysis’ technique. The analysis revealed institutional issues, execution issues, physical and operational issues, behavioural issues and those related to road safety research and accident data bank as salient themes lowering road safety standards in the country. This has suggested a need for reforms at institutional, physical and operational levels and the need to bring change at a societal level through behavioural transformation, intensive traffic monitoring and law enforcement, along with conduction of road safety related research work.