Lina konstantinopoulou, EuroRAP Secreatry general, signed the The New Paradigm for Safe City Street, a city declaration launched by Polis and EUROCITIES on 10 principles for sound and effective action for traffic safety during the POLIS conference’s closing plenary session, “Who’s the action hero in vision zero?”, on 28th November 2019.
Urban area road safety is closely linked to the safety of vulnerable road users (70% of the total fatalities in urban areas are vulnerable road users, according to the EC Road Safety Statistics 2018). Within urban areas, pedestrians and not the car occupants account for the largest share of victims: Inside urban areas, 40% of the fatalities are pedestrians, 12% are cyclists and 18% are powered two-wheelers. Cities universally cite aging and outdated infrastructure as a pressing resilience challenge. The safety and viability of the road network is essential not only to improve traffic safety but also improve the health of city residents by reducing air pollution and increasing rates of physical activity, which has been shown to greatly improve longevity and quality of life.
EuroRAP is addressing these challenges by developing for evidence-based innovation tools like iRAP Urban Pedestrians and Cycle RAP to inform and shape road safety investment on the way to halving road deaths and injuries, improve pedestrian and cyclist safety and ultimately achieving Vision Zero. For more information please visit https://www.irap.org/innovation/