[sustran] One New Mobility 20/20 emergency program that worked and why

EcoPlan, Paris eric.britton at ecoplan.org
Sun Oct 31 16:49:46 JST 2004


Taken from latest version of the New Mobility 20/20 Emergency Initiative
(see http://newmobility.org for details).
 
 
Annex D - Epilogue: One 20/20 emergency program that worked and why
 
In 2002 7,242 people died on the roads in France. The country was stuck
at the tail-end of EU countries, three times more than the Swedish rate
of deaths per million inhabitants and more than twice that of Britain
were population and motorization levels are about the same.  
 
The causes were well known: speed, a factor in 50% of fatal or serious
accidents-almost 60% of cars, 66% of heavy good vehicles and 76% of
motorbikes thought to exceed the speed limit-and alcohol, implicated in
more than one in three fatal accidents. Failure to wear a seat-belt,
moreover, was responsible for 10% of deaths. Then, suddenly and quite
unexpectedly, it became a national priority to do something about this
and fast. And this a nutshell is what happened. 
 
During the highly contended presidential elections of 2002, the
candidate Jacques Chirac, who had broken a leg in a car accident in
1978, made road security a priority of his re-election campaign.
Starting immediately after his election, he avowed that this was going
to be among his highest priorities of his government. Refusing to let
things continue go this way, on 14 July the incoming Head of the State
showed his determination to make the fight against road violence a
"national project for the five year term". 
 
He then proceeded to make this happen, and today two years later, the
number has dropped to 4,900. President Chirac's initiative has resulted
in an unprecedented 20% reduction in road traffic deaths.  In our 20/20
perspective, it is useful to see if we can spot what were some of the
things that made this work.
 
This achievement is in fact due to a whole web of factors and a large
number of actors: 
 
*	A efficient national media campaign, relaying the president's
message, with reports daily and in high and vivid profile portraying
reckless drivers' behavior and other news coverage from road safety
activists 
*	The French police force has proven to be key to making changes.
The Interior Minister has doubled the police force on the roads,
focusing on drug- and alcohol-impaired driving and on wearing seat
belts. 
*	The installation of a fast growing network of photo radar on the
roads, highways and in unmarked police cars has also been instrumental. 
*	Each year, over one million fines are dodged by French motorists
with friends within the police force and the bureaucracy. The government
has taken steps to stop these interventions, and now no one is being
spared, regardless of who they are or who they know (a new situation in
which several ministers have now had direct personal experience).. 
*	The law has been made more strict and fines more severe, with a
jail sentence of up to seven years against those who cause a fatal
crash. People driving under the influence such as drug and alcohol are
being sentenced to jail. 
*	Probationary licenses for new drivers, and novice drivers may
have their license revoked if they make too many mistakes during their 3
years probation.
*	Senior drivers over 75 will soon be requested to take a
mandatory medical test to keep their driving privileges.
*	A greatly stepped-up road safety program in schools.
 
But there is more to it than this. What the French government and people
have managed to create here is the first stage of an adaptive learning
system. Put in other words, it is progressing beyond the traditional
passivity and is now beginning to show a capacity for new forms of
adaptation and assimilation.  
 
The latest sign of this is a recently initiated program aimed at showing
drivers how to adapt their driving patterns to achieve greater fuel
economy. Early versions of this program failed to gain public support
despite government exhortation and efforts.  This time around however
the public reaction is far more positive (might $50 oil have something
to do with it?), and while it is to early and this is perhaps too minor
a project to 'prove the principle', we would nonetheless suggest the
entire program is proving the point that with the right collection of
sticks and carrots - and great political will from all sides - it is
possible to modify the behaviour of our transportation systems and all
the myriad individual decisions and actions that go into making them
what they are. 
 
Fair enough and bravo! but what is the point in the present context. The
fact is that we are seeing here in this one concrete case what political
will and continuous application, including a selling of the program and
its objectives to the citizens at large, can do to crack one of the
severest cars/people problems of modern society. A more than 20%
improvement in a bit more than 20 months. 
 
We can do the same.
 
 
 
 
An unexpected honor that helps prove the point:
On 14 October of this year the first FIA World Prize for Road Safety,
Environment and Mobility was awarded to the President of the French
Republic, Jacques Chirac.  The citation went on to enumerate the
achievements of the program, stressing that " The key is political will
and leadership. Above all it shows that road traffic deaths are not
inevitable. This is important for France, but it is a lesson that is
relevant around the world."  (Now just in case it has slipped your mind
the FIA is the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, not exactly a
group usually associated with curbing the behaviour of motorists.  But
there you have it. They are one part of the solution.)
 
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