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Abstract
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A consensus is building around the value of systemic approaches to collision prevention. In Latin America, cities are beginning to take heed.
As policymakers and researchers, worldwide, look back on the United Nations-backed Decade of Action for Road Safety, which ended in May 2021, they are questioning that view and asking themselves if focusing on the individual is the best way to draw up road safety policy.
For many of those experts, the answer is a resounding "no". "We have been preaching to road users and prescribing better manners for decades. It doesn't help, as indicated by the number of deaths on the world's roads remaining stuck at around 1.35 million, despite the Decade of Action," says Victor Pavarino, National Traffic Safety Advisor at PAHO's Brazil country office.
"Limiting our focus to personal responsibility is not particularly helpful, and prevention policy derived from it, such as using awareness-raising and educational campaigns, has been shown to be ineffective if it is not aligned with infrastructure and enforcement measures," he adds.
What does help, in Pavarino's view, is the adaptation or transformation of the roads themselves as part of broader systemic reforms. "The truth is people make mistakes," he says. "But that is not a conclusion. It is a starting point for Safe System design."
Language: en |