These are the precise form of city initiatives which the UN International Street Security Week – kicking off on Monday – goals to rejoice and promote.
First established in 2007, this 12 months’s week is devoted to the theme “Make strolling and biking secure.”
“Strolling and biking must be essentially the most unusual, and due to this fact, the most secure mode of transport,” stated Dr. Etienne Krug, who chairs the group generally known as the UN Street Security Collaboration and directs the World Well being Group’s efforts to deal with social and financial situations which impression human well being.
Stats inform a narrative
In September 2020, the UN Normal Meeting handed a decision which established the Decade of Motion for Street Security 2021-2030 and set a objective to scale back street site visitors deaths by a minimum of 50 p.c by the tip of the last decade.
Whereas progress has been made, WHO says that extra motion is required throughout all coverage sectors.
Annually, 1.2 million individuals are killed in street site visitors incidents, with pedestrians and cyclists accounting for over one-quarter of those deaths. These deaths are usually not distributed equally around the globe. Somewhat, 90 per cent of street site visitors deaths happen in low- and middle-income international locations.
Furthermore, the UN estimates that a minimum of 90 per cent of the world’s roads don’t meet pedestrian security requirements and solely 0.2 per cent of roads have devoted cycle lanes, leaving pedestrians and bikers dangerously uncovered.
A holistic strategy
Bettering pedestrian and bike owner security has far-reaching advantages for communities, by way of well being, financial and environmental outcomes.
“Strolling and biking enhance well being and make cities extra sustainable. Each step and each experience [helps] to chop congestion, air air pollution and illness,” stated Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-Normal.
Take, for instance, Fortaleza in Brazil – the five-fold growth of their biking community led to a 109 per cent enhance in pedestrian exercise and made youngsters twice as prone to play outdoors within the areas that had been redesigned.
In Norway, the Fyllingsdalstunnelen tunnel which is adorned with murals and guarded by safety cameras works to scale back carbon emissions and encourage strolling and biking.
To help the continuation of enhancements like these throughout UN Street Security Week, WHO has offered policy-makers with a toolkit outlining tangible initiatives which embody integrating strolling and biking initiatives into different coverage sectors and constructing extra in depth infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists.
“We want [to] and we will do higher,” Dr Krug stated.
Mtur/Jade Queiroz
Fortaleza, Brazil.
