Cities around the world co-operate to save lives
POLIS and the International Transport Forum’s “Safer City Streets” initiative cooperate for safer roads. The second joint workshop on 7 and 8 December brings cities from around the world, which are committed to reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured in traffic, to Brussels.
Cities and regions from the Polis network and from the International Transport Forum’s ‘Safer City Streets’ network meet in Brussels today and tomorrow. The meeting addresses challenges regarding road safety data. This includes collecting crash data, benchmarking data, making walking, cycling and public transport safe and using data to develop effective local policies that save lives Among the participating authorities are Amsterdam, Brussels Capital region, Budapest, London, Los Angeles, New York and Rome.
Ahead of ITF’s 2018 Annual Summit in Leipzig themed “Transport Safety and Security”, POLIS and Safer City Streets are enhancing their networks of cities that are committed to increasing road safety. Activities will include workshops in cooperation with research and industry in 2018 and representatives of all groups are encouraged to get in touch. Los Angeles is the latest addition as it joined Safer City Street today. In both networks, local authorities from Europe and around the world work together to protect people from road crashes. Safer City Streets develops the first global database of road safety data of cities.
“The Safer City Streets initiative offers a unique global platform to support cities in the collection of data and in developing evidence-based road safety policies”, says ITF Secretary-General Young Tae Kim.
“Many cities deal with incomplete crash data but aim to develop road safety policies based on evidence. The cooperation on road safety data with the International Transport Forum will help many cities in Europe and beyond to prevent people from being killed or seriously injured on the road”, says Karen Vancluysen, Secretary General of POLIS.
"Los Angeles eagerly teams up with the Polis member cities and the 44 dedicated cities that make up the Safer City Streets network. Los Angeles is working hard to implement Vision Zero on our local streets, but thoughtful implementation also requires thoughtful partnerships with the global transportation community to share data and best practices. This global partnership is critical to keep our streets safe and save lives”, says Seleta Reynolds, General Manager, Los Angeles Department of Transport.
"We went for an extensive consultation and highly participatory process establishing our road safety strategy, the 'Consulta for road safety' and the launch of our SUMP, which has been a first in Italy”, says Linda Meleo, Deputy Mayor, Rome.
The Belgian Road Safety Institute VIAS will host the 2nd day of meeting on 8 December 2017 in their premises in Brussels.
Notes to editors:
Every minute a person is killed in urban traffic crashes . For every person killed in the EU, five times as many suffer serious injuries with life-changing consequences. Vulnerable road users in urban areas are especially affected. More efforts to save lives are needed and cities play a central role in improving the safety of pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, young and older road users.
POLIS is the network of cities and regions working together to achieve more sustainable urban mobility. 67 cities and regions are members of the network and Manchester has just been elected as new Polis president. Road safety is one of Polis’ thematic focus areas. Polis has a permanent secretariat located in Brussels. www.polisnetwork.eu
Safer City Streets is a global traffic safety network for cities. It is managed by the International Transport Forum (ITF) and developed in partnership with the FIA. Safer City Streets helps cities to improve their urban road safety performance by sharing data, experiences and knowledge – by learning from each other. As of today, with Los Angeles joining the network, 45 cities are taking part in Safer City Streets. http://www.itf-oecd.org/safer-city-streets
Contacts:
POLIS : Dagmar Köhler, Polis Communication Manager, dkoehler@polisnetwork.eu, +32 2 500 56 72
ITF: Michael Kloth, Head of Communications, michael.kloth@itf-oecd.org , + 33 (0)1 45 24 95 96