SAFE and SUSTAINABLE ROADS the Case for a Sustainable Development Goal Kevin Watkins

SAFE AND SUSTAINABLE ROADS The case for a Sustainable Development Goal Kevin Watkins Safe and sustainable roads: The case for a Sustainable Development Goal 01 Executive Summary Road traffic deaths and injuries represent manent disabilities. The vast majority of the victims live in the world’s developing countries and the major a global public health epidemic. That emerging economies, where road traffic injuries are epidemic has reached crisis proportions holding back progress towards the Millennium Devel- and is set to worsen over the years ahead. opment Goals (MDGs). For millions of people, injuries sustained on roads are a source of poverty, debt and It is the product of transport policies that put vehicles, despair. Children and young people are among the highways and speed before people and road safety. main victims. Road traffic injuries are the single big- The same ‘vehicle first’ approach has makes current gest source of fatality in the 10-24 year-old age group, approaches to transport policy a threat to internation- worldwide. In 2004, the last year for which compre- al efforts to tackle global environmental problems, hensive data is available, road traffic injuries claimed including air pollution and climate change. Govern- more lives among 5-14 year olds than major killer dis- ments meeting at the UN ‘Rio+20’ summit in June 2012 eases such as malaria, diarrhoea and HIV/AIDS. acknowledged these impacts, emphasising the need for safe and sustainable transport to be an essential The future looks far worse than the present. Demo- component of development strategy. Following the graphic, economic and human settlement trends point Rio summit the current debate on post-2015 priorities unequivocally to a marked increase in road traffic fatali- and new Sustainable Development Goals provides ties and injuries. In Africa, which has the world’s highest an opportunity to reframe transport policy priorities ratio of fatalities per vehicle, a growing and increasing- around two simple principles: safety for people and ly urbanised population means that more people will sustainability for the planet. It is time to act on one of be placed in harm’s way. We estimate the cumulative the great development challenges of the 21st century. increase in fatalities to 2016 at 47,000. Another 90,000 people could be killed on India’s roads above current The sheer scale of the road traffic injury epidemic is levels. Globally, there will be some 2 million road traffic still not widely recognised. Every year, some 1.3 mil- fatalities annually by 2020 unless action is taken. With lion people die on the world’s roads – 3,500 every economic growth driving an increase in the number of day. Another 50 million people are left with injuries, cars on the world’s most dangerous roads, this projec- a large proportion of which are serious or even per- tion could prove to be an understatement. 1 Safe and sustainable roads: The case for a Sustainable Development Goal The relentless increase in road deaths is sympto- • Inclusion of sustainable transport and road matic of a wider failure to put people and planet at safety within the new Sustainable Development the centre of transport policy. Outdoor air pollution Goals, for example with a health target of reduc- kills as many people - 1.3 m annually according to ing global road deaths by 50% from 2010 levels the World Health Organisation – as road traffic inju- by 2030; ries. Some 70-90 per cent of the pollutants respon- • Stronger leadership in developing countries, sible for these deaths - such as carbon monoxide, with governments taking responsibility for put- ozone, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and other ting the interests of vulnerable people before particulate matter – originate from gasoline-pow- the drive to reduce journey times at all costs; ered cars. Transport is also a major contributor to • Increased financing, with US$200m annually in climate change, accounting for about one quarter aid to support the development of national road of worldwide CO2 emissions –and cars and trucks safety strategies in the poorest countries; represent three-quarters of this total. Emissions from • The production of safer vehicles and stronger road transport have increased by 50 per cent since regulation to prevent car manufacturers con- 1990 and are now the second fastest-growing source ducting a race to the bottom in vehicle safety of emissions after power generation. Meanwhile, the provisions for the poorest countries, through iron law of congestion, under which more roads act the harmonisation of global standards, uptake as a catalyst for more cars and more traffic jams, is of new technologies and car assessment pro- a source of economic waste and inefficiency. Many grammes. major cities are losing 1-3 per cent of their GDP as a result of road congestion. For multilateral development banks we recommend: There are no surprises or hidden magic bullets for • A common framework for road safety targets un- tackling the road traffic injury crisis. Vehicles need der which all projects are required to achieve a to be separated from vulnerable road users, such as reduction in the absolute number of deaths on pedestrians and cyclists. Speed has to be managed stretches of highway supported by the lending; to reflect the safety features of roads. Overpasses • An operational requirement that all roads sup- and underpasses are needed to ensure that children ported by the multilateral development banks have safe passage to school. Seat belt and safety-hel- meet, at minimum, the iRAP 3 star standard; met legislation has to be enforced – and car manu- • An agreement across the multilateral develop- facturers have to comply with safety standards that ment banks to resource independent road safety place a high premium on safety. The policies needed assessment programmes charged with monitor- are tried, tested and affordable – but they are not be- ing initial project design and project outcomes ing put in place. for all major transport infrastructure investments; • The executive boards of all multilateral develop- Many actors have a responsibility to change this pic- ment banks to develop clear road safety criteria ture. Developing country governments need to draw against which all proposed lending for transport up comprehensive strategies aimed at reducing infrastructure will be assessed, with a clear un- road traffic injuries. Multilateral development banks derstanding that non-compliant projects will spend billions of dollars each year to finance road not be authorised. building, yet systematically neglect road safety. High level policy statements from the World Bank and re- 2011 marked the start of a UN Decade of Action for gional development banks have not been followed Road Safety. The launch of the decade marked some- through and translated into operational practices. thing of a breakthrough. After years of neglect, road When it comes to assessing project performance, safety has at last registered as a global public health the multilateral development banks put speed and epidemic that can only be effectively treated through economic efficiency before all other considerations, international cooperation. This need for action was including the safety of road users. Policies that are reinforced by the Rio+20 summit. Now governments needed to tackle the crisis in road safety – the de- and the international community can demonstrate velopment of affordable and accessible public trans- they are serious about delivering results by including port, slower speeds, safer and greener cars – would targets for safe and sustainable transport within the also generate significant environmental benefits. post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals. Failure to act now will condemn many millions of people to This report sets out an agenda for change. It high- unnecessary, avoidable, violent deaths on the roads, lights some of the priorities for international coop- and will take our world further down a dangerous eration, including: path of unsustainable mobility. Safe and sustainable roads: The case for a Sustainable Development Goal 2 Introduction In June 2012, governments met in community to embrace sustainable transport as a key sectoral focus of the new global agenda for sustain- Rio de Janeiro at the ‘Rio+20’ summit. able development” and proposed “…that at least one They had a remit to look back at what of the new sustainable development goals (SDGs) to has been achieved since the original be formulated should be for sustainable transport”. ii ‘Earth Summit’ in Rio in 1992, renew No challenge merits greater attention than road safety. the commitment to sustainable This year more than 1.3 million people will die on the development, identify principles for world’s roads. Countless millions more will suffer de- bilitating injuries. The vast majority of the victims will moving towards a green economy, and, live in developing countries – most will be poor. The in the words of the UN Secretary General, epidemic of road traffic injury is a source of poverty, hu- ‘address new and emerging challenges’.i manitarian suffering and economic waste on a global scale. Ahead of the Rio+20 summit UN Secretary Gen- eral Ban-ki Moon urged the international community One of the emerging challenges recognised at Rio+20 to initiate an ‘unprecedented campaign’ aimed at eradi- was the global epidemic of road traffic deaths and in- cating five major killer diseases – and rightly so. How- juries. The summit highlighted the central importance ever, none of the diseases in question claims the lives of of transportation to achieving sustainable develop- more young people aged 15-24 than road traffic injury. ment and, for the first time, the need to include road safety in wider efforts to achieving objectives in areas Devastating as the current road traffic injury may be, such as social equity, health and urban development it is set to get worse. Over the next two decades, the (Box 1).

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