Making Roads Safer : Learning from the World Bank's Experience
Every year, nearly 1.3 million people worldwide are killed in road crashes, which have become the leading cause of death among people between the ages of fifteen and twenty-nine. More than 90 percent of the world s road fatalities occur in developi...
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Language: | English en_US |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2015
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Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/01/24321748/learning-roads-safer-learning-world-banks-experience http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21821 |
Summary: | Every year, nearly 1.3 million people
worldwide are killed in road crashes, which have become the
leading cause of death among people between the ages of
fifteen and twenty-nine. More than 90 percent of the world s
road fatalities occur in developing countries, and half of
the accident victims are pedestrians, cyclists, and
motorcyclists. Road accidents disproportionately affect the
poor, making road safety an economic development issue. Many
crash victims are of working age, and their death or serious
injury too frequently leaves their dependents destitute.
Governments in poorer countries have assumed they cannot act
to reduce death rates until they are wealthier. However,
many of today s road safety measures can be implemented
relatively inexpensively to reduce death rates, if managed
correctly. The United Nations (UN) invited the World Health
Organization (WHO) to coordinate a drive to improve road
safety globally. It also proclaimed a decade of action for
road safety (2011 2020) to stabilize and then reduce the
level of traffic fatalities and serious injuries around the
world. More than 100 countries as well as multilateral
development banks, including the World Bank, support the
interventions. The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) is
aware of the rapidly worsening road safety situation in the
developing world and efforts by the Bank's transport
sector to encourage the use of best practices in road
projects. This study, a pioneering learning product created
by IEG in cooperation with transport operational staff and
the Bank s Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), aims to
provide useful knowledge to Bank operational staff involved
with road safety, to support Bank and client countries in
fine tuning their road safety strategies and practices, and
to support the acceleration of the Bank s operational road
safety agenda. |
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