Improving Road Safety for Cyclists
Brussels—May 11, 2011
ECF strongly supports UN’s Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020
“Each year nearly 1.3 million people die as a result of a road traffic collision—more than 3000 deaths each day—and more than half of these people are not travelling in a car,” proclaims the recent Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020. The global launch of this plan today is a long awaited call to address vulnerable road users such as cyclists that are killed every year on the roads. European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) will be joining the United Nations (UN) Road Safety Collaboration Partners to ensure that injury and fatality rates for cyclists are halved by 2020.
More than 2000 cyclists were killed in the European Union in 2009 alone. To address this, ECF’s Road Safety Charter calls upon authorities to be proactive in this area by providing a comprehensive cycling infrastructure, using rate-based targets for cycling which measure safety in number of kilometers cycled and finally adopting the “Safety in Numbers” principle, which dictates that the more cyclists on the road, the higher levels of safety.
“Is it morally justifiable to go on with allowing individual motorized transport if this is evidently not safe for pedestrians and cyclists?” queried ECF Secretary General Dr. Bernhard Ensink at a recent global seminar on cycling safety organized by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in South-Korea. Because of the social and moral dimensions inherent in transport and road safety policy, Ensink is very pleased with the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety which seeks to upgrade road infrastructure, enhance vehicle safety and improve the behavior of road users. This is in line with ECF’s Road Safety Charter, published last year.
Taking action saves lives: Dutch planners reported a 20% drop in cycling accident rates and a 36% decline in injuries in Delft after installing bicycle lanes, part of the wider Dutch “Sustainable Safety” approach. Ultimately, a cyclist cannot be protected against poor infrastructure and planning.
In the long term, ECF sees getting more cyclists on the road as essential to improving safety, with its Charter of Brussels demanding a tripling of cycling in Europe to “at least 15% for the share of cycling in the modal split of trips by the year 2020” and also "halving the number of fatal cycling accidents by the year 2020”.
ECF is promoting road safety for cyclists to mark the launch of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety. In Europe and around the globe, too many cyclists are killed on the road and drastic action is required
For more information please contact:
Julian Ferguson, Communications Officer
Tel: +32 2880 9281
Email:
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Frá http://rdrf.org.uk/2011/05/a-bad-day-for-safety-on-the-roads/
PRESS RELEASE Wednesday May 11th 2011
“Nationally and internationally, this is a bad day for safety on the roads”.
Subject: UN “Decade of Action for Road Safety” and Department for Transport “Strategic Framework for Road Safety”.
This dark day for a civilised approach to danger on the roads will be symbolised by the UK Prime Minister David Cameron welcoming Formula One racing drivers to 10 Downing Street. Both the UN and UK “strategies” are based on misleading measures of safety on the road and conniving with careless and dangerous driving.
Globally, we support our colleagues in RoadPeace saying that: “reducing road danger, through the reduction in speed, volume and dominance of motorised vehicles, is essential not only to reduce road deaths but also to tackle the twin crises of climate change and obesity”.
Nationally, a civilised approach to safety on the road requires reducing danger at source from careless and dangerous driving, with proper accountability from those responsible for it. But this has once again been opposed by the Department for Transport’s downgrading of the importance of careless driving by reducing likely penalties and ineffective “education” for bad drivers.
Note to Editors:
The Road Danger Reduction Forum is a transport professionals-based organisation with support from cycling, pedestrian, road crash victims and sustainable transport organisations in the UK. Go to www.rdrf.org.uk
Contact: RDRF Chair Dr. Robert Davis on 078 1029 1837 / 0208 451 1309
Above is our Press Release. We will be spending some time saying what is so wrong with these two strategies, meanwhile let’s get one of the perpetrators of the global strategy to show his true colours:
Lord Robertson – http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01114ks/Today_11_05_2011/ Listen at 2:41:50. This excerpt was aired at the RoadPeace conference at London School of Hygiene and Medicine on May11th to gales of laughter.
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Athugasemd Mortens : Það er ekki allt jafn vel sett upp í þessum texta ECF. Mér finnst eins og þeir fagna opinberum markmiðum átaksins um of, en tilvitnun í spurning Bernhard gengur of langt í hina áttina. RDRF er pínu harðir í hvernig þeir setja fram sín sýn, líka, en engu að síður áhugavert. Reyni að ná í meira bitastætt efni frá ráðstefnu roadpeace.org 11. maí seinna.
