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

  • Increase in Scotland’s road deaths ‘deeply troubling’, says Brake
    June 15, 2017
    Transport Scotland has released provisional headline figures for road casualties reported to the police in Scotland in 2016, showing 191 people were killed in reported accidents in 2016 - 23 more than in 2015.
    Read More
  • Euromed countries warm to Galileo’s services
    June 6, 2014
    The EU is helping countries in North Africa and the Middle East utilise Galileo’s services. With its Galileo constellation rapidly taking shape, the European Union has opened lines of communication with countries in North Africa and the Middle East with a view to assisting their governments and businesses to utilise the satellite services that extend across the Mediterranean. The services available to countries are provided through the European Global Navigational Satellite System (E-GNSS), which includes a
    Read More
  • Cross border enforcement a logical step
    January 30, 2012
    The logic supporting a cross-border enforcement Directive for the European Union (EU) is both detailed and compelling. The White Paper on European transport policy published in 2001 included the ambitious objective of reducing by 50 per cent by 2010 the number of people killed on the roads of the EU. But since 2005 the reduction in the number of road deaths has been slowing down: overall, the period from 2001 until 2009 saw the number of fatalities decrease by 36 per cent. According to Community indicators,
    Read More
  • New York State DOT awards IRD traffic data collection contract
    February 3, 2016
    The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) has awarded International Road Dynamics (IRD) a five-year traffic data collection maintenance and upgrade contract valued at US$4.8 million. Under this agreement, IRD will install, upgrade, repair, operate and maintain the NYSDOT permanent data collection sites, the majority of which have IRD equipment, located in Metro New York City, Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland and Westchester Counties. NYSDOT uses these sites to collect, summarise and interpret
    Read More

Highlighted Content