Opinion: On road safety, time for more governments to race ahead

In the time it takes to read this article, as many as 10 people will die somewhere on the world’s roads. Add up the numbers and the toll is staggering. For several decades, the number of annual fatalities on the world’s roads has exceeded 1 million. As many as 50 million more people are injured in road crashes every year. Countless family members and entire communities are left reeling in the aftermath. Road safety does not receive nearly enough attention. Shockingly, road crashes are the world’s leading killer of children and young people aged 5-29. They disproportionately affect low- and middle-income countries, which account for over 90% of traffic fatalities. The economic cost is enormous, too. The biggest tragedy of all is that road crashes are not inexplicable “accidents.” They are preventable. Millions of lives could be saved with interventions that are proven when used as part of a comprehensive approach: designing streets to protect vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists; mandating vehicle safety standards like electronic stability control; and adopting and enforcing strong policies on key risk factors like speeding and drinking and driving. “Where a person lives, where they were born, or what they earn should never determine whether they can travel safely from their homes and back every day.” --— The good news is more countries have been taking action. Since 2018, more than 20 countries have strengthened their road safety laws. Safer street design, improvements in vehicle safety, public awareness campaigns, and stronger enforcement are helping to save lives as well. In the past decade, 45 countries succeeded in reducing road traffic deaths by more than 30%, and 10 of those reduced deaths by more than 50%. Yet only six countries have laws that meet all the World Health Organization’s best practices for road safety. Fewer than 50 have policies that promote walking, cycling, and public transport. Combine that glaring lack of investment in safe, sustainable mobility options with the fact that nearly 80 countries still have no laws at all on vehicle safety standards, and the results are predictably deadly. As the world’s population grows, and the demand for efficient mobility options grows alongside it, the ongoing work to ensure that roads are safe for all is more urgent than ever. Last month, along with the United Nations, the global organizations we lead — Bloomberg Philanthropies and WHO — convened an international group of experts and advocates in New York City. Together, we are sounding the alarm, while also helping to spread the most effective solutions to more cities, states, and countries. The United Nations has set an ambitious goal: to cut road deaths in half by the end of this decade. The success in some countries shows that progress is possible, if more leaders at every level of government can match policy solutions and practical interventions with the political will and consensus-building it takes to implement them. The success stories range from the local to the national level. They include the work of Pleiku City, Vietnam, which is reducing speed limits around schools as part of its comprehensive approach to road safety. In Colombia, Bogotá is investing in infrastructure that can better protect cyclists and pedestrians. In national capitals, governments have the power to take what works locally and expand it. Argentina adopted a zero-tolerance policy that will prevent injuries and fatalities caused by drinking and driving. In Tunisia, the government’s road safety observatory created a transformative digital crash database that has enabled better decision-making and investments based on more accurate crash data. Leaders in those cities and countries are racing ahead — and our organizations will be with them, and their counterparts everywhere, every step of the way. Since 2007, Bloomberg Philanthropies and WHO have worked in close partnership with a global network of road safety allies. With our support, governments have strengthened laws that now protect a total of nearly 4 billion people. We have miles to go. Where a person lives, where they were born, or what they earn should never determine whether they can travel safely from their homes and back every day. Faster progress on road safety will require stronger commitments from governments. It will also take more people in every country ready to hold their lawmakers accountable for doing their jobs and keeping all of us, especially our children and grandchildren, safe.