Road Safety
The World Health Organisation WHO is promoting Road Safety
In 2004 the United Nations General Assembly has mandated the WHO to improve road safety world-wide. The WHO is a specialised organisation of the United Nations. On April 7th, 2004 the WHO has dedicated the World Health Day to road safety, and 2011-2020 is the Decade of Action for Road Safety, declared by the UN General Assembly. May 6 to 10 2013 is the week dedicated to Pedestrian Safety, and in April 2013 the Pedestrian Safety Manual has been published by the WHO:
Download the Manual here:
2013 Pedestrian Safety Manual (pdf / 2.7 MB)
A team of eleven writers from all over the globe including Geert van Waeg and Ellen Vanderslice of IFP has written the manual, and got additional contributions from many more, coordinated by the World Health Organization. The result is a comprehensive though appropriately compact, well balanced manual on what can and should be done to make our public space safer and better. It will be an important contribution to the Decade of Action on Road safety. What can be taken from the manual goes beyond pedestrian safety only, as many of the proposed measures will also be beneficial for other road users, vulnerable and less vulnerable. And more liveable cities will be a welcome side-effect!
In many of the poorer countries of the world, pedestrians are the majority 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 (at least in theory) considered as 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.
Pedestrian Safety, Urban Space and Health
The road safety for pedestrians cannot be consiedered as positive, if just the number of the prersons injured is close to zero, because very dangerous situations and the wealth of a population may lead to a mobility behaviour without walking. All displacements are done in in a vehicle, the public space degenerates, and health becomes more and more difficult to obtain. Therefore, Walking has to be planned, and a pedestrian-friendly infrastructure has to be implementented, and doing this, pedestrian saftey has to be kept in mind. In 2012 a comprehensive report has been published by the International Transport Forum ITF (Agency of the OECD,which is an ageny of the high income countries).
The research report may be bought here:
http://www.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/display.asp?sf1=identifiers&st1=9789282103654
IFP-members may write to: secretary@pedestrians-int.org / Subject: Road Safety
Campaigning
International Campaigns and campaign information:
Decade of Action for Rad Safety 2011-2020:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/roadsafetydecade
The Long Short Walk: www.flickr.com/groups/longshortwalk
“Walking is enjoyment!” (Campaign in Austria 2013)
Aiming to raise the awareness for pedestrians and their safety and to get the people to walk more, Walk-space.at - the Austrian Association for pedestrians realises during the UN Global Road Safety Week a "Walking is enjoyment!"-Campaign in cooperation with municipalities in Lower Austria - supported by the government of Lower Austria.
As part of the campaign three main messages will be given to pedestrians and other road users (such as car drivers, cyclists, etc.):
• "Thank you for walking"
• "Thank you for being considerate to pedestrians"
• "Thank you for paying more attention to pedestrians in future"
Carrier medium of these three messages is a small bar of fairtrade chocolate handed out at appropriate localities such as zebra crossings, in front of schools, etc. ...More info in German: www.walk-space.at/index.php/bewusstsein/road-safety-week
Films: www.youtube.com/user/austriawalk?feature=guide
Pictures: www.flickr.com/photos/walk-space/sets
Press & Information: www.walk-space.at/index.php/press
Online Campaigns in Switzerland
In 2013, two web-based campaigns have been launched in Switzerland: three 1.5-minute-video-clips with animated dummies may be viewed here in French, German and Italian: www.dummies-in-danger.ch
IFP and road safety institutions
As an international organisation, IFP has to seek the co-operation with other actors engaged in pedestrian safety.
United Nations Road Safety Collaboration UNRSC
Under construction
Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety
IFP is Founding Member of the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety (*2012), which coordinates efforts to improve road safety particulaly in middle and low income countries.
More information:
roadsafetyngos.org
Details on IFP see: roadsafetyngos.org --> IFP
UN-ECE
The UN-ECE (this is the European regional Organisation of the United Nations) has a „Transport Division“, and this division is the UN-agency which has the longest track-record with respect to road safety. Apart from the permanent work in Working parties, campaigns are co-ordinated.
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.
Legal Framework
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
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: Securite des Pietons (francais) (pdf / 61.2 KB)
In some cities of the industrialised world the casualties among car-drivers have been reduced to a low level or close to zero, but the number of casualties of pedestrians (and cyclists) has not been reduced as much. A sharp reduction of the casualties 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.
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:
http://pedestrians.blip.tv
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
Global status report on road safety (WHO, 2009)
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 "Global status report on road safety" (301 pages, 2009) is available here in different languages, among them French and English.
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)
Many papers on Road Safety by authors from different countries
you find on the search-page of the walk21-website