Background In many low- and middle-income countries, pedestrians make up the majority of road users,¹ and in high-income countries, walking is becoming recognized as a vital mechanism for sustainability.² However, across the world, pedestrians’ safety, convenience, and behavioral patterns are often overlooked in planning, design and management and pedestrians constitute 23% of global road fatalities.³ Pedestrians face significant risks, particularly at intersections. Intersections create conflict points, requiring careful consideration of the safety, convenience, and behavioral patterns of pedestrians. Pedestrian facilities, traffic calming, lower speed limits, and 30 km/h zones can create a better environment for safe, affordable, accessible, sustainable, and equitable mobility systems, reducing emissions, deaths and injuries, and promoting societal well-being.⁴ Transforming road systems to enable safe walking, cycling, and public transport aligns with government accountability and a Safe System approach.

Objective Mobility Snapshots aim to capture concrete examples of the lack of implementation of pedestrian facilities where the need is very clear and offer solutions to improve them, thereby supporting advocates to use data to highlight the problems faced by those who travel by foot, by choice or necessity, and advocate to make their journeys safer.

Program Description The Alliance is mobilizing its network of NGOs to do Mobility Snapshots that harness data for advocacy and accountability. Intersections are identified using the criteria: widely known and recognized near popular transportation hubs or market/shopping areas; pedestrians mix with motorized vehicles; lack formal pedestrian crossings, footpaths, traffic calming, traffic lights, or 30 km/h or lower speed limit. Mobility Snapshots were executed as part of the #CommitToAct campaign using tools specifically developed for this advocacy initiative in partnership with iRAP.⁵

Outcomes and Learnings NGOs and other road safety advocates in 34 countries completed 86 Mobility Snapshots. They showed 90% of the intersections assessed lacked 30 km/h limits; 85% had no traffic calming measures in place; and 74% either had poorly maintained/blocked footpaths or no footpaths at all. While conducting the snapshots, NGOs described their experiences as ‘eye-opening’, ‘concerning’, and ‘a real wake-up call’. Mobility Snapshots demonstrate how NGOs and community members can collect meaningful data. It is also a global movement that road safety advocates together, through the Mobility Snapshots, will show the reality of people’s journeys around the world and call for specific, life-saving, and cost-effective Priority Interventions, including 30 km/h limits, lower speed limits, pedestrian facilities, and traffic calming.

Implications Mobility Snapshots can be applied around the world to build urgent pressure for safe pedestrian facilities to achieve a 50% reduction in road fatalities by 2030 and promote active mobility and modal shift, serving other SDGs. This presents an opportunity to provide a global picture in the run-up to the 4th Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in February 2025. Streets that are safe for pedestrians can also encourage more walking, which further promotes health, local economic activity and sustainability.

Conclusions Mobility Snapshots, a powerful tool designed to capture how pedestrians experience the current road system, empowers NGOs and others to collect data at intersections in their home cities. Mobility Snapshots serve as a mechanism to concretely convey ground-level realities to decision-makers, enabling them to enact improvements that benefit all road users.

References

1. World Health Organization. (2013). Pedestrian safety: A road safety manual for decision-makers and practitioners. WHO, Geneva.

2. United Nations. (2021). Sustainable Transport, Sustainable Development. Interagency report for second Global Sustainable Transport Conference. https://doi.org/10.18356/9789210010788

3. World Health Organization. (2018). Global status report on road safety 2018. Geneva: World Health Organization.

4. Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety. (n.d). Alliance Accountability Toolkit. https://www.roadsafetyngos.org/toolkit/

5. https://www.roadsafetyngos.org/act-now/mobility-snapshots/mobility-snapshot-tools/