Bloomberg picks Tanzania beneficiary in USD125m ptoject to cut back road carnage

Traffic jam in Dar es Salaam, the country's commercial capital. Tanzania, four other countries and ten cities have been selected to receive technical support to the tune of USD125m.

Tanzania, four other countries and ten cities have been selected to receive technical support to the tune of USD125m to review and strengthen road safety legislation under Bloomberg Philanthropies commitment for the coming five years.

 

With a new commitment of USD125m, the programme will work at both the national level to strengthen road safety legislation and the city level to implement proven road safety interventions, a report made available to The Guardian has said.

 

It did not mention the specific transport and travel areas or urban areas that are going to benefit from the initiative.

 

Besides Tanzania, other countries which will benefit from the reduction of fatalities and injuries from road traffic crashes are China, India, Philippines and Thailand, while the cities pecked are Accra (Ghana) Addis Ababa (Ethiopia),  Bandung (Indonesia), Bangkok (Thailand), Bogota ( Colombia), Fortaleza (Brazil), Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam),  Mumbai (India), Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Shanghai (China).

 

“We can prevent millions of road traffic fatalities and injuries through stronger laws, more effective enforcement and better infrastructure. The 10 cities selected to participate in our next five-year road safety programme have demonstrated a commitment to this work, and we are excited to support them,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and three-term mayor of New York City. 

 

“Road traffic deaths will become increasingly common in the years ahead, unless we take decisive action now to prevent them,” he said.

 

The proposals that cities submitted detailed how they plan to address road safety by applying solutions to a number of challenges including improving pedestrian and cyclist safety, increasing awareness through graphic media campaigns and increasing police enforcement to combat drinking and driving and speeding as well as encouraging the use of motorcycle helmets, seat-belts and child restraints. 

 

Infrastructure solutions such as widened sidewalks and improved pedestrian crossings are also included in the cities’ proposals, the reports said.

 

With assistance from the world’s leading experts in road safety, winning cities will establish an elite network of visionary municipal leaders who commit to implementing bold, new efforts to save lives and protect their citizens from road traffic injuries, it said.

 

“The investments in road safety by Bloomberg Philanthropies since 2010 have driven momentum for the UN’s Decade of Action on Road Safety, energised the NGO community worldwide and led to significant legislative advances in many countries,” said Saul Billingsley, Director General of the FIA Foundation and Co-Chair of the Road Safety Fund. 

 

“Bloomberg Philanthropies has shown great vision and leadership in supporting global road traffic injury prevention, and we hope other public health philanthropies will heed and follow their example,” he said.

More than 1.2 million people die and 20-50 million people are severely injured from road traffic crashes around the world every year. 

 

Since Bloomberg Philanthropies began working on road safety in 2007, nearly 2 billion people have been covered by strengthened road safety laws, 65 million people have been exposed to hard-hitting media campaigns promoting road safety, close to 30,000 professionals have been trained on road safety tactics and local governments have committed USD225m towards infrastructure improvements that will make roads safer.

 

In 2010, Bloomberg Philanthropies committed USD125m to 10 countries that represented half of road traffic-related deaths globally (Brazil, Cambodia, China, Egypt, India, Kenya, Mexico, Russia, Turkey and Vietnam). 

 

Brazil, Kenya, China, Mexico, Russia, Turkey, Cambodia and Vietnam have all passed life-saving road safety legislation, including stricter penalties for drinking and driving and applied speed reduction laws.

 

Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Road Safety partners providing support to winning cities and countries include: EMBARQ which is a part of the World Resources Institute and is based in Washington, DC. They work on sustainable urban transport, urban design, pedestrianisation, mass transit, and sustainability planning.