BrazilGCC traffic fatalities can be cut by half by 2030, says report
Countries in the Middle East, especially in the GCC, face a promising opportunity to enhance road safety on their path to ‘Vision Zero’, targeting zero road fatalities or serious injuries, which are more common when compared to other nations.
If a number of measures were initiated by GCC countries, they could see road traffic deaths and injuries decrease by at least 50% by 2030, which would bring the total down to around 8 traffic deaths per 100,000 people per year.
That is according to a comprehensive report from consulting firm Strategy& in collaboration with Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the world federation of top mobility organizations.
“Road infrastructure design plays a vital role in road safety outcomes. Poor road conditions contribute to as many as half of road crashes,” the authors note.
“Adopting safety-critical standards can include fixes such as retrofitting new technologies where appropriate, requiring more frequent vehicle inspections in state-of-the-art inspection centers, and encouraging wider adoption of safer vehicles.”
Other points of improvement that the report notes include innovations like real-time, commuter-assisted information that can help deliver messaging for drivers on the road; advanced traffic and incident management, like dynamic speed limits that change with the weather; and more robust enforcement using innovative technologies like speed cameras, radar monitoring, and road sensors.
“A country’s road safety strategy needs critical enablers, including political will and supportive policies, improved driver education and awareness through state-of-the-art driving schools with curricula centered on safety, data-informed planning and operations, and interoperable, disruptive technology,” said the authors of the report.
Adequate funding is another key driver of safer roads, with financing possibilities possibly opening up through public-private initiatives such as the implementation of road usage tolling fees.
The MENA region has one of the world’s highest traffic death rates in the world, at 17.7 deaths per 100,000 people per year, higher than the global average. If the changes noted in the report were undertaken, the resulting death rate of 8 per 100,000 people per year would be on par with Europe, the world’s safest region for drivers, by a distance.
