Road Safety
As an international organisation, IFP has to seek the co-operation with other actors who work in favour of pedestrian safety.
The UN-ECE (this is the European regional Organisation of the United Nations) has a „Transport Division“, and this division is by far the most active UN-body with respect to road safety. Apart from the permanent work in Working parties, campaigns are co-ordinated under the following label:
More about the UN-ECE and its road safety-work you find under:
http://www.unece.org/trans/roadsafe/rsabout.html
The World Health Organisation WHO is a specialised organisation of the UN, which has started to be-come more active in road safety. On April 7th, 2004 the WHO has dedicated the World Health Day to road safety.
Logo of the World Health Day of 7.4.2004 www.who.int/world-health-day/2004/en
Logo of the WHO www.who.int/en/
In 2004 the United Nations General Assembly has mandated the World Health Organisation to im-prove road safety world-wide. In many of the poorer countries of the world pedestrians are the major-ity of road crash victims. The reason for this has been the rapidly growing motorisation of settlements which were originally built for pedestrians, rishkas and bicycles. Car drivers are often considered privileged as motorists - being more important than pedestrians - because they usually belong to higher social classes. The respect for traffic regulations and the enforcement of low speed limits is insufficient in many countries, and therefore the improvement of pedestrian safety constitutes an important social and cultural advancement. In this respect the democratic societies, where lives of pedestrians and car drivers are considered equal, can provide a technical know-how for an important element of real progress. The people in power may be easier to convince to apply safety measures of technically advanced countries than to introduce more democratic structures of their own. However, the social effect of a transport system that gives “humans-on-foot” back their dignity should not be under-estimated.
The legal and technical framework for pedestrian mobility and safety is internationally co-ordinated by many different commissions. An important one is the Working Party on road safety (WP1) of the European regional organisation of the United Nations (UN-ECE). In this commission more than 30 countries have a seat and a number of NGOs represent car and motorcycle drivers as well as important road safety agencies. The International Federation of Pedestrians (IFP) represents the point of view of the pedestrian. In such a body the NGOs have the right to speak but not the right to vote.
Numerous different NGOs participate in the proceedings of the Working Party on Road Safety
All the same, the possibility to influence decisions is good because it is possible to make statements and bring in arguments at the beginning of the process of producing new rules and standards. As a matter of fact, IFP has proposed a basic paper on pedestrian safety in 2001 which was not weakened at any point. On the contrary, the delegates have adopted the paper with specific improvements for pedestrians. This paper is again improved in 2006 (see navigation "basic papers"). In 2004 a new chapter of the work of WP1 has started and IFP has proposed a questionnaire which will be submitted to all European Governments (later possibly to other Governments as well). The answers to this questionnaire will be used in an exchange of best practises and to expose to all Governments the best solutions available. Of course, this type of work will take a few years, but it can improve the framework of road safety for pedestrians instead of just deploring the symptoms of the traffic system (the number of crashes, deaths and injuries).
UN-ECE: Safety of Pedestrians (2006)
The Working Party on Road Safety has elaborated in 2006 an improved new chapter on Pedestrain Safety. These recommendations were approved to be repected by the European Countries (including the non-member states of the EU).
- UN-ECE: Paper on Safety of Pedestrians (english) (pdf / 56.6 KB)
- Nations Unies: Sécurité des Piétons (français) (pdf / 61.2 KB)
In some cities of the industrialised world the casualties among car-drivers have been reduced to a low level or to zero (among them Zurich, Switzerland), but the number of casualties of pedestrians (and cyclists) has not been reduced as much. This change in the loss of pedestrians is not possible merely by technical means. There are no air bags for pedestrians. Pedestrians and cyclists are the most vulnerable road users, and to assure their safety cities and towns have to be re-designed, speeds have to be reduced, and the general acceptance of traffic-rules has to be improved. All this is cultural work as well as technical know-how.
International Organisations like the WHO with the aim of health and road safety are in favour of our cause because we have similar goals. This being so, we can disseminate many of our ideas together with them. In many countries it is important and possible to make the cause of the pedestrians a re-spected and important theme, if an international organisation, like the WHO promotes it. That’s why IFP should seek collaboration with the big international organisations, even if they are complicated and seemingly not efficient in the terms of an industrial enterprise.
Other Institutions and Initiatives in Favour of Pedestrian Safety
In Europe, the European Transport Safety Council ETSC develops particular activities in favour of the vulnerable road users with its VOICE program. For more see: http://www.etsc.be/Voice.php
The European Union has a Website for Road Safety:
European Road Safety Charter
Unfortunately, the pedestrinas are not a major concern in this context.
In addition, there is the European Road Safety observatory: www.erso.eu where you find a comprehensive linklist on road Safety in Europe, and elsewhere.
In the USA John Z. Wetmore produces TV-films on pedestrian safety in America and elsewhere. Each month a new episode comes out. Under the Web-address www.pedestrians.org you find more than 100 of them listed. Many of the episodes you may view here:
www.video.google.com --> Perils for Pedestrians
The US Department of Transportation (Federal Highway Administration), together with the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center has published a 159p-brochure on pedestrian safety, which you find here:
http://www.walkinginfo.org/pp/howtoguide2006.pdf
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has published a report on Road Safety
Each year, more than 1.2 million persons are killed, and 50 million are injured due to road traffic. The WHO has recognised this as one of the major problems of public health, and is willing to act.
For the first time, a global status report has been compiled. It is based on data of 2008 from 178 countries.
Nearly 50% of the fatalities are vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists transit-passengers). The share of the pedestrians is particularly high in low-income-countries. In Peru 78% of all victims are pedestrians, in Bangladesh 53%, in Switzerland 21%, and in Sweden 12%. Some data are not precise, and some impossible. In the Dominican Republic the pedestians killed don't seem to be counted, their share is reported to be 5%.
The number of victims per 100'000 inhabitants amounts to 6-8 in industrialised countries, where as in Latin America it is over 30.
The report (301 pages) is available in different languages, among them French and English.
www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/road_safety_status/report/en/index.html
Other Literature on Road Safety
A really comprehensive Literature Review on Pedestrian Safety has been written by A. Martin, London. It contains numerous references from the last 15 years, all in English. If in London they put all the recommendations from this research into practise, London will be the pedestrian's paradise.
Factors Influencing Pedestrian Safety (A Martin) (pdf / 545.5 KB)
For pedestrians there would be a great improvement of road safety, if the cars would use intelligent speed adaptation (IT-supported automatic adaptation to the maximum speed at any location). A literature review and scoping study by the University of Leeds shows that there are sytems ready to be introduced at large scale:
Intelligent Speed Adaptation (University of Leeds) (pdf / 851.9 KB)
In French you find more literature here:
http://www.preventionroutiere.asso.fr/actions_etudes_route.aspx
And make sure not to miss this:
Ce que chaque usager reproche aux autres
Many papers on Road Safety by authors from different countries
you find on the search-page of the walk21-website:
http://www.walk21.com/paper_search/default.asp#