Every year, road traffic crashes cause 1.19 million fatalities globally, the majority in low- to middle-income countries, with over 50% of these fatalities amongst vulnerable road users.

Over the last eight years, GDCI has been working with cities such as Addis Ababa, Bogota, Fortaleza, Recife, São Paulo, and Salvador, which have shown how a holistic, city-led approach to ensuring safer streets can be scaled up and lead to policies and plans that can be sustained beyond political terms, budget cycles, and other variables.

Road infrastructure designed to self-enforce safer road user behaviors is a vital pillar of the “safe systems approach.” The session will showcase several examples to inspire the road safety community and adapt to their local context. In cities in Brazil, Ecuador, Ethiopia, and others, GDCI provides ongoing capacity building, technical assistance, development of long-term policy documents, and support for on-ground projects under the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety. This end-to-end approach has seen cities like Fortaleza achieve the global goal of reducing road fatalities by 50% and inspired other cities to follow.

The presentation will highlight city journeys that have led the way, starting with select street interventions designed and developed based on the Global Street Design Guide principles. Some of these cities have taken up the mantle to scale them up through developing multi-year programs such as the Safe Intersections program in Addis Ababa and Cidade da Gente in Fortaleza. Others have institutionalized them through Recife’s new Street Design Manual, Sao Paulo’s Public Space Manual, and Ethiopia’s National Road Safety Strategy. Bogota’s success encouraged the development of Pequeñas Grandes Obras, a multi-year nationwide program for projects across 10 Colombian cities.

The success stories across geographies, surpassing political terms, are a testament to this methodology. This supports cities in going from projects to programs to policies and, most importantly, the emergence of local champions embodying the ‘safe systems approach.’

Collaborating with cities globally has shown that a city-led, systemic approach to safe road infrastructure design can significantly reduce road traffic fatalities and severe injuries.