The role of road safety in achieving sustainable cities
18 October 2016. Quito, Ecuador. Globally, 1.24 million people die on the roads as pedestrians, motorists, passengers, public transport users or commercial vehicle drivers. As urban areas flourish and become rampantly inhabited around the world, by people and vehicles, road safety must be a critical element for consideration when planning for sustainability.
UNITAR jointly with the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety hosted the session titled “the role of road safety in achieving sustainable cities”, which took place in Quito, Ecuador in the framework of the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) from 17 to 20 October 2016.
The event brought together some 150 participants from around the world, providing policy guidelines and current best practices in road safety. Mr. Christian Friis Bach, Executive Secretary of UNECE gave a summary of global policy guidelines on road safety for local implementation, and, as the custodian of UN road safety legal instruments highlighted its relevance in this context.
Mr. Jean Todt, UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety provided an overview of road traffic injury crisis, global mandates and key roles of relevant stakeholders.
Mr. Nikhil Seth, Executive Director of UNITAR highlighted initiatives at the local level aimed at improving road safety. Mr. Seth stressed “the urgency to work towards the achievement of the target set in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents, by 2020”. “This is only three years away,” Mr. Seth pointed.
The Mayor of Mexico City Mr. Miguel Angel Mancera shared about current initiatives implemented in its city that are integrating road safety in city-level transport and mobility priorities.
UNITAR’s efforts towards the improvement of road safety have been focusing in two lines of work: advocacy and capacity building.
Advocacy and raising awareness efforts target youth and individual road users. Changing road users’ behavior on key risk factors for road traffic injuries (speed, drink–driving, and the failure to use helmets, seat belts and child restraints properly or at all) is a key component for improving road safety.
Strengthening capacities at national and local levels to address road safety is essential. In this line, UNITAR provides training activities aimed at improving the capacities of government officials at the national and local level to implement road safety strategies and programmes.
“Road Safety is a collective responsibility. Each of us is responsible. So the core of our work towards the achievement of the ambitious targets is to build awareness, promote education, train those who have to create and enforce legislation, and to instill a sense of civic responsibility. UNITAR will be with you in these tasks ahead” Mr. Seth highlighted.