Participants in new phase of global road safety initiative selected

Bloomberg Philanthropies has announced the winning cities and countries selected to participate in a new phase of the foundation's Global Road Safety Initiative, which aims to reduce fatalities and injuries from road traffic crashes. With a new commitment of US $125 million over five years, the program will work at both the national level to strengthen road safety legislation and the city level implementing proven road safety interventions. Twenty invited cities participated in the competition with ten c
February 13, 2015 Read time: 3 mins

Bloomberg Philanthropies has announced the winning cities and countries selected to participate in a new phase of the foundation's Global Road Safety Initiative, which aims to reduce fatalities and injuries from road traffic crashes.

With a new commitment of US $125 million over five years, the program will work at both the national level to strengthen road safety legislation and the city level implementing proven road safety interventions. Twenty invited cities participated in the competition with ten cities and five countries selected as official participants in the program. The five countries selected to receive technical support to review and strengthen road safety legislation include China, India, Philippines, Thailand and Tanzania.

The ten cities are: Accra, Ghana; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Bandung, Indonesia; Bangkok, Thailand; Bogota, Colombia; Fortaleza, Brazil; Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam; Mumbai, India; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Shanghai, China.

Senior-level, full-time staff will work within city governments on their road safety initiatives for up to five years. Comprehensive technical assistance will be provided by the world's leading road safety organisations, together with training for police officers and other relevant city staff and support to create hard-hitting mass media campaigns.

"We can prevent millions of road traffic fatalities and injuries through stronger laws, more effective enforcement and better infrastructure. The 10 cities selected to participate in our next five-year road safety program have demonstrated a commitment to this work, and we are excited to support them," said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and three-term mayor of New York City. "Road traffic deaths will become increasingly common in the years ahead, unless we take decisive action now to prevent them."

The proposals that cities submitted detailed how they plan to address road safety by applying solutions to a number of challenges including improving pedestrian and cyclist safety, increasing awareness through graphic media campaigns and increasing police enforcement to combat drinking and driving and speeding as well as encouraging the use of motorcycle helmets, seat-belts and child restraints. Infrastructure solutions such as widened sidewalks and improved pedestrian crossings are also included in the cities' proposals.

With assistance from the world's leading experts in road safety, winning cities will establish an elite network of visionary municipal leaders who commit to implementing bold, new efforts to save lives and protect their citizens from road traffic injuries.

Related Content

  • Automated enforcement tames speeders in Chicago’s Children’s Safety Zones
    November 20, 2013
    Chicago is installing automated enforcement after pilot schemes indicated that one in 10 motorists exceed the speed limits in Children’s Safety Zones. Each year in Chicago there are around 3,000 incidents of pedestrians being struck by a motor vehicle - and about 800 of those casualties are children. In an effort to improve child safety the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) has established Children’s Safety Zones around schools and other areas where children congregate. These zones allow the impos
    Read More
  • China-Sweden research centre for traffic safety opens
    December 24, 2012
    The China-Sweden Research Centre for Traffic Safety has been officially inaugurated in Beijing, attended by representatives of Volvo Cars and other research partners in the project, including Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Volvo Group, the Chinese Ministry of Transport's Research Institute of Highway and Tongji University in Shanghai. The governments of Sweden and China will contribute to fund the research centre.
    Read More
  • South Africa's traffic management and enforcement gears up
    February 1, 2012
    Paul Vorster, CEO of ITS South Africa, takes a look at the national enforcement situation in the year when the country gears up to host the FIFA Soccer World Cup. There are four main drivers pushing the growth of ITS-related law enforcement within South Africa. These are: transport operations associated with hosting the FIFA Soccer World Cup 2010; traffic management linked to increasing congestion; the development of new public transport systems such as BRT; and vehicle and driver-related crime.
    Read More
  • ITS needs continuity at the policy-making level
    February 1, 2012
    ITS needs to be sold to politicians in plainer terms and we need to be encouraging greater continuity at the policy-making level says Josef Czako, chairman of the IRF's Policy Committee on ITS. At the ITS World Congress in New York in 2008, the International Road Federation (IRF) held the inaugural meeting of its Policy Committee on ITS. The Policy Committee's formation, says its chairman, Kapsch's Josef Czako, reflects an ongoing concern over the lack of deployment of ITS technology on roads in anything li
    Read More

Highlighted Content