Editor,—Jan Shield is to be commended for rallying the troops in favour of “active” safety strategies,¹ and most of her arguments in favour of education and enforcement would undoubtedly be valid in a developed country. However I would like to offer two contrasting viewpoints on the subject which are based primarily on personal observations related to the challenges of traffic safety confronting us in a cash strapped, developing country.

Firstly, in support of passive measures is the increasing strain placed on the human and financial resources essential to conceive and sustain education programmes and law enforcement, particularly in developing countries. As such, traffic calming measures are likely to be more effective than nothing—simply because there is no other affordable solution to undisciplined traffic flow on a particular thoroughfare. …