Call for Action: UN Decade for Road Safety launched

Image: Make Roads Safe campaign

New United Nations (UN) statistics show that every six seconds someone is killed or maimed on the world’s roads. People between the ages of 5 and 29 are more likely to die as a result of traffic accidents than any other cause.

In a global call for action, the UN has launched the Decade for Road Safety 2011-2020. The goal is to reduce the forecast 2020 level of road deaths by 50 per cent, from 1.9 million to under one million a year.

Achieving the 2020 target could save up to five million lives and prevent 50 million serious injuries in addition to an estimated economic benefit of US$3 trillion.

To help meet these targets, the EBRD and six other multilateral development banks (MDBs)[*] have launched a joint initiative to improve road safety as over 90 per cent of traffic accidents occur in developing countries.

“In developed countries, road fatalities are going down but in developing countries they are surging because of increased road building, motor vehicles and dangerous traffic mixes that pit vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and cyclists, against a growing tide of cars and trucks,” said World Bank President Robert Zoellick on launching the MDBs' enhanced efforts to contribute to the upcoming Decade for Road Safety.

The aim of the initiative is to jointly leverage country and regional road safety programs to help accelerate knowledge transfer, strengthen institutional capacity and scale up road safety investment. It will provide a harmonised platform under a new ‘MDB Road Safety Initiative’ that their partners can turn to for sustained support and guidance.

Reversing the death sentence

The Initiative calls for an integrated Safe System approach which promotes shared responsibility for ensuring safe mobility, recognising that human error is inevitable and should not be punished by death or serious injury. It calls for road transport systems designed and operated to ensure greater protection for all users.

The Initiative is currently being coordinated by the Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) at the World Bank but the aim is to set-up a dedicated Secretariat.

“This small body will have a person responsible for each region. MDB bankers and specialists will be able to feed project proposals to their respective contact at the Secretariat,” explains the Matthew Jordan-Tank from the EBRD's Municipal and Environmental Infrastructure (MEI) team. “The idea is to keep the Secretariat’s approval process as simple as possible and with a quick response time.”

“While the main source of funding will likely be bilateral, the initiative will actively seek private donors,” says Mr Jordan-Tank. “The Bloomberg Foundation has already pledged $125 million in anticipation of the MDBs ramped up effort for road safety.”

Ensuring concrete and coordinated action

Under the Initiative each MDB will have a certain amount earmarked for their region, but the use of the funds in the form of grants for enhanced road safety elements within a national or urban road loan will depend upon demand. The Fund may cover the cost of extra enhancements on a given road project, including, for example, more generous hard shoulders, ultra-reflective road signage, pedestrian islands or bridges.

“The EBRD has financed over 60 road projects and road safety is of course built into the design of these infrastructure investments,” says Sue Barrett, the EBRD’s Director for Transport. “As a project-based institution, our focus on road safety is related to the physical infrastructure, for example ensuring forward visibility for drivers, the provision of road signage and markings and road safety barriers.”

“We also support our IFI co-financing partners in broader road safety improvement measures,” says Ms Barrett. “For example, we have parallel-financed road projects with the World Bank in Serbia and Moldova, where the World Bank has worked together with the government on road safety issues.”

Modest beginnings

The MEI team is also looking into new ways to factoring road safety concerns into their projects. In 2010, MEI, together with ESD, received €280,000 in Technical Cooperation funds (Special Shareholders Fund) to pay for specific ‘urban roads safety audits’ on projects throughout the region. 

The first application of this safety review was performed for on a roads project in Skopje, Macedonia, and included the uncovering the 10 worst ‘black spots’, i.e. junctions with the most recorded accidents. “The consultancy firm working on the project then made a series of design change recommendations to lower future accidents rates,” explains Mr Jordan-Tank. “These include pedestrian islands, traffic signal timing changes to give pedestrian more time to cross busy streets, dedicated left-hand turn traffic signals, overhead lane signals gantries, speeding alert signs.”

“It’s a modest beginning,” he continues. “But it should reduce accidents rates and save lives, especially in a city like Skopje which is rapidly motorising as incomes rise. This is true for most cities in our region, hence the importance of road safety aspects over the next decade.”

By Claire Ricklefs

 

For more information about the campaign, visit www.decadeofaction.org  and for events where you live visit www.who.int/roadsafety/decade_of_action/en/

 

 

Last updated 11 May 2011