Today see’s the UN launch a campaign for 10 years of action on reducing deaths and casualties on the roads across the globe.
It’s certainly a goal that is very large and one which save millions of lives a year if it is achieved. Can the +100 countries involved get there heads together and make the roads across the globe a safer place to travel along? I certainly hope so.
Thanks for sharing this. I was not aware of this safety campaign. Apparently here in Western Australia we have an Fatality Free Friday campaign as part of this. Not well publicised sadly 🙁
I wasn’t actually aware till yesterday afternoon. Been kept quite on the low and seems like it still actually is!
Some parties with more understanding of the issues of cyclists and pedestrians than the people in charge of the Decade, support the Decade of Action for Road Safety, but are pointing to necessary changes in priorities.
European Cyclistst’ Federation http://www.ecf.com/4408_1
Excerpt :
“In the long term, ECF sees getting more cyclists on the road as essential to improving safety, with its Charter of Brussels demanding a tripling of cycling in Europe to “at least 15% for the share of cycling in the modal split of trips by the year 2020” and also “halving the number of fatal cycling accidents by the year 2020”. ”
Road Peace, UK : http://www.roadpeace.org/resources/PR_090511_Decade_May_11.pdf
Excerpt :
“A Global Plan (http://www.roadpeace.org/resources/WHO_road_safety_plan_2011‐20.pdf ) outlines a range of activities with the aim of stabilizing and then stopping the predicted rise of annual road deaths from nearly 1.3 million to 1.9 million by 2020.
RoadPeace, the UK’s only members based road victims’ charity, and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) welcome this opportunity to focus on and act to stop the terrible global epidemic of road death.
But we are concerned that the actions proposed within the Plan focus more on protecting car occupants than pedestrians and cyclists, despite the majority of those being killed being outside cars, and with few people in low income countries expected to own a car by the end of the decade. We are alarmed at the acceptance and even encouragement of the predicted growth in global motorization in the Global Plan, with only token reference made to environmental and public health concerns. The FIA Foundation (which was established in 2001 with a donation of $300 million from the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the non‐profit federation of motoring organisations and the governing body of world motor sport) has spearheaded the Decade of Action, but recently suggested that you can “Buy a car. Stop a road death”
“
Thanks for the links, good reading! I know about roadpeace but not ECF