Almost everyone does it

According to official figures, around 10 percent of all road deaths are due to distracted driving. That percentage has held steady for a while now after peaking at 15 percent a decade ago. In the time since, governments and the auto and tech industries haven’t been ignoring the problem. Texting-while-driving bans are ever more common. Smartphones now have do not disturb modes, some of which can turn on automatically. Phones can also cast their displays and certain apps to the car’s center stack using Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

And modern vehicles are increasingly packed full of advanced driver aids—what the industry calls ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems)—like adaptive cruise control, lane keeping, blind spot monitoring, collision alerts, and so on.

The Esurance report includes survey data from more than a thousand participants. More than 90 percent said that browsing for apps, texting, and emailing were distracting. Yet more than half of daily commuters admitted to doing it. The survey also found that the longer your commute, the greater the chance is you’ll get distracted, probably by your phone.

Even participants who reported they were “rarely distracted” admitted to distracting behavior like talking on the phone or even viewing GPS Navigation data. (Any task performed while driving should be able to be performed in under two seconds to avoid becoming a distraction.)

Esurance also wanted to know if ADAS was actually making us safer or lulling drivers into a false sense of security. Almost half said semi-autonomous technology (like adaptive cruise control) makes their driving better, but one in ten of those surveyed believe the latter. But an important finding was that drivers of cars with lots of tech in them reported being more distracted than drivers of older or less advanced vehicles.

Each year, around 38,000 people die from traffic-related crashes in Brazil. Most of the victims are pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. The staggering number is a direct result of the lack of road safety precautions in Brazilian cities, which are growing quickly both in size and population but also the number of vehicles on the road.

Recognizing this as a serious problem, two of Brazil’s largest cities, São Paulo and Fortaleza – home to 12.1 and 2.6 million people, respectively – have become the first to adopt new road safety policies and protocols. To save lives, these cities are turning to what’s called a “Safe System” approach.

Lower Speeds, More Pedestrian Ways

São Paulo and Fortaleza have taken two important steps. The Safe System approach says mobility systems must be designed with human error in mind. Such errors are inescapable, but fatalities and serious road traffic injuries should not be.

To this end, both cities are lowering vehicle speed limits and improving road infrastructure to protect people walking and cycling. Pilot projects last year, led by the cities with technical guidance from WRI Brasil and funded by the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety, converted some streets into pedestrian-only areas, transformed a busy intersection into a roundabout, and created new public spaces. Communities reacted positively, convincing Fortaleza to replicate the process and design similar interventions in other parts of the city.

According to recent data, 2017 was the third consecutive year of declines in Fortaleza’s road traffic crashes to 256 deaths, a reduction of 9 percent from 2016. The fatality rate in traffic crashes has also been falling, reaching 9.7 deaths per 100,000 in 2017.

São Paulo also reduced the number of road fatalities in 2017, to 6.6 deaths per 100,000. According to data from the Traffic Engineering Company, there were 796 deaths in total, the lowest number recorded in the city since 1979.

But this isn’t enough. Inspired by countries like Sweden, where fewer than 3 in 100,000 people are killed in traffic crashes each year, and there is a goal set to reach zero road deaths, both cities are now formally developing citywide road safety plans.

A Master Plan
Both São Paulo and Fortaleza have hosted meetings with city leaders and planners this year to mark the beginning of this new chapter on road safety.

“A road safety plan is a way to capture all of the work that is being done in cities and present it as a document,” says Anne Eriksson of the Danish Road Directorate, who consulted with the cities on development and implementation. “It is very important to have a plan agreed upon at the political level, the result of discussions on important actions.”

Launching São Paulo’s internal deliberations in March, Secretary of Mobility and Transportation Sergio Avelleda emphasized that his main goal is to reduce traffic deaths. “For the first time in the history of the city, we got the death rate under 7/100,000,” he said. “It is a low index compared to the estimated 23.4 deaths in Brazil; however, there is no ‘good’ number when we talk about people dying for a cause that could be avoided. And all traffic deaths can be avoided.”

At a similar launch event in Fortaleza, Luis Alberto Saboia, executive secretary of Municipal Conservation and Public Services, explained that enacting a road safety plan is an important legacy for the administration. “Having a road safety plan established and formalized allows for stability and continuity of road safety policies.” Toward Zero Road Deaths

All eyes will be on São Paulo and Fortaleza as they draft and implement their new road safety plans. Both cities have an important path to travel this year, as they work collaboratively toward a safer future on the roads and blaze a trail for other cities facing similar challenges in the region.

“Cities that embrace the Safe System approach are more sustainable, more human, and more pleasant places to live,” said WRI Ross Center’s Claudia Adriazola-Steil, who also met with city leaders. “They are the cities that are more prosperous, and they are the cities that are safer to live and walk and bicycle in.”

The Safe System approach is part of a global effort to reduce road deaths and injuries, often branded under the name Vision Zero. More than a million deaths could be avoided each year if the rest of the world achieved levels of road safety comparable to the best-performing countries.

WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, in partnership with the World Bank, launched a report this year, “Sustainable and Safe,” which presents eight action areas to take into account when creating a safe road system. The report argues that we already know how to save millions from dying on the world’s roads. And it’s time to start doing so.

Written by: Paula Tanscheit, Communications Analyst for WRI Brasil Sustainable Cities. Read the original article here.

The 2018 Summit on “Transport Safety and Security” is addressing issues ranging from terrorism and cyber-security to road safety and extreme weather disruption, including the risks and benefits of automated driving. Safety and security are core concerns for transport.

A transport system that is safe and secure enables passengers to travel without fear and allows businesses to ship goods reliably and efficiently. Enhancing transport safety and security is also an essential element in the implementation of two major international agreements, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement.

Mr Mezghani suggested we raise the awareness of the role which is played by public transport in reducing the dramatic impact of road transport which kills thousands each day: “Tramways are six times safer than cars”. UITP’s approach to road safety is to avoid personal motorized transport (through the integration of sustainable land use and transport planning), shift to safer modes, and improve urban space design and operations.

Further experiences from the field were discussed in the session. Ms. MacLennan reported that, in Tajikistan where she ran a seat belt wearing campaign, 36% of seat belts in cars did not work. Her point is that “you can’t run an effective campaign, without properly understanding the root causes of behaviours”.

Mr. Cliff pointed out that most drivers think they are better than average. On this basis, he described a successful campaign from New Zealand showing that moderate speeding can have fatal consequences in the event where other road users make a mistake. He also made the case for consistent enforcement (as opposed to verbal warnings) in order to prevent confusion on the importance of vital traffic rules, something which could undermine awareness campaigns.

For Ms. Zammataro “Education and awareness campaigns are not enough. To break the road safety silo, we need a game changer: strong public engagement and youth engagement in particular.” This is facilitated by the emergence of new cooperative planning tools.

In line with this, Mr. Lieshout called for a paradigm shift: “Stop blaming young people for dying on the roads, but fix the system around them”. Simply raising their awareness is not enough. They need to be empowered, to become our partners towards a safe system.

From the session, it is clear that awareness campaigns would greatly benefit from being integrated with both enforcement campaigns and public involvement.

Speakers for the panel included:

David Cliff CEO, Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP)	Karola Lambeck Head of the Cycling and Road Safety Taskforce, Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, Germany	Floor Lieshout Founder/Director YOURS – Youth for Road Safety	Emma MacLennan Founder and Director, Eastern Alliance for Safe and Sustainable Transport (EASST)
Mohammed Mezghani Secretary General, International Association of Public Transport (UITP)	Ketil Solvik-Olsen Minister of Transport and Communications, Norway	Suzanna Zammataro Executive Director International Road Federation (IRF)	Ali Aslan (Moderator) TV Host and Journalist

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