[sustran] Re: Latest News on Road Crashes is Depressing
Morten Lange
morten7an at yahoo.com
Fri Nov 21 22:08:22 JST 2008
Hi
I want to point to a fallacy or oversimplification, ( on my mind) in the text, that needs to be countered, at least in part :
"the measures and policies to reduce crashes and fatalities are well known. If all countries had fatality rates like Japan, Norway, UK or the Netherlands more than 80 000 lives would be saved".
The South should rather leapfrog past the concrete-, fences and highway-, super expensive and resource-wasting "solutions" of those rich nations.
The realisations that Todd Litman pointed to recently need much more traction than they have gotten so far :
Rethinking transportation safety
http://www.planetizen.com/node/36138
The opening sentences :
A paradigm shift is changing the way we think about transportation safety. In the past, traffic safety experts evaluated risk using distance-based units (traffic crashes and casualties per 100 million vehicle-miles or billion vehicle-kilometers), which ignores increases in vehicle traffic as a risk factor, and mobility management as a safety strategy. Yet, we now have overwhelming evidence that the amount people drive has a major impact on their chance of being injured or killed in a traffic accident.
Also check out this article on the car-centric raod safety lobby:
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2007/05/15/car-nage/
Best Regards,
Moten
--- On Fri, 21/11/08, Eric Britton <eric.britton at ecoplan.org> wrote:
> From: Eric Britton <eric.britton at ecoplan.org>
> Subject: [sustran] Latest News on Road Crashes is Depressing
> To: NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com, WorldTransport at yahoogroups.com
> Cc: sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org
> Date: Friday, 21 November, 2008, 10:29 AM
> From: ITF.contact at oecd.org [mailto:ITF.contact at oecd.org]
> Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:27 AM
> Subject: Press Release: The Latest News on Road Crashes is
> Depressing
>
> Postal address 2 rue André Pascal, F-75775 Paris Cedex
> 16
> Office address 2/4 rue Louis David, F-75016 Paris
> Tel. 33 (0)1 45 24 95 96 Fax 33 (0)1 45 24 13 22
>
> itf.contact at oecd.org <mailto:itf.contact at oecd.org>
> www.internationaltransportforum.org
> <http://www.internationaltransportforum.org>
>
>
> Press Release
>
> Paris, 20 November 2008
>
>
> The Latest News on Road Crashes is Depressing
>
> International Transport Forum Presents the Latest Available
> Data on Road
> Crashes
>
> "The latest news on road crashes is depressing"
> said the Secretary General
> of the International Transport Forum Jack Short today in
> Paris, as he
> presented the most recent data from the International
> Transport Forum.
>
> Over 150 000 people lost their lives and a further 6
> million people were
> injured in road crashes in the 44 countries of the Forum
> that reported data
> for 2007.
>
> Road deaths per capita vary by a factor of almost 8 across
> the countries.
> "This is what is most depressing", said Short,
> "the measures and policies to
> reduce crashes and fatalities are well known. If all
> countries had fatality
> rates like Japan, Norway, UK or the Netherlands more than
> 80 000 lives would
> be saved".
>
> Looking regionally, Central and Eastern Europe both show
> significant
> increases in fatalities. Rapid motorisation is a factor in
> the region but
> the figures show "the lack of continuous and
> determined political effort" in
> these countries, according to Short.
>
> In Western Europe, the picture is more mixed but the recent
> decline in
> fatalities has slowed and the 1.2% decline in 2007
> fatalities is the
> smallest for the last 5 years. Moreover, in Western Europe
> the number of
> casualties and the number of injury accidents have
> increased "a sure sign
> that we are not making our road system safer" said the
> Secretary General.
>
> Better news comes from countries outside Europe where there
> have been small
> reductions in fatalities, casualties and injury accidents
> in the major
> countries. The US reduced both injury accidents and
> casualties for the
> seventh consecutive year; Japan's striking improvement
> makes it now the best
> performing country in the International Transport Forum
> with 45 fatalities
> per million inhabitants.
>
> In Western Europe the number of road traffic fatalities
> declined in 2007 by
> 1.2%. However this decrease was accompanied by a rise in
> both the number of
> casualties (+1.4%) and the number of accidents (+5.6%).
> These data are
> strongly influenced by the performance of Turkey which has
> shown significant
> increases in all three indicators. In 2007, only the United
> Kingdom and
> Greece recorded drops in the number of fatalities,
> casualties and injury
> accidents. At the same time Denmark, Finland and Sweden
> have seen their road
> fatalities increase by 32.7%, 13.1% and 5.8% respectively.
>
> In Central and Eastern Europe the number of road fatalities
> increased by
> 6.4% in 2007. This result is all the more disappointing
> since the region
> recorded at the same time strong increases in the number of
> casualties
> (+6.4%) and number of accidents (+6.7%). With the exception
> of Bulgaria,
> Estonia, Hungary and Lithuania, which show a drop in road
> fatalities,
> casualties and injury accidents, all other countries have
> been confronted
> with a rise in the number of fatalities on their roads.
> Countries like the
> Czech Republic and Romania saw their fatalities increase by
> 15% and 12.8%
> respectively.
>
> In 2007, the Community of Independent States (CIS) recorded
> a strong rise of
> its road fatalities by 8.2%, breaking the positive signs
> recorded in the
> last few years. With the exception of Russia (+1.8%) the
> number of persons
> killed on roads increased strongly in all countries, and
> particularly in
> Ukraine with +38.1%.
>
> As far as non European members of the ITF are concerned,
> they continue to
> show encouraging results in 2007, recording a drop of 3.1%
> in the number of
> fatalities, 2.8% in the number of casualties and 3.3% in
> the number of
> injury accidents. Only Mexico and New Zealand are showing a
> strong rise in
> road fatalities (+10% and 7.9% respectively). The number of
> casualties and
> injury accidents are also increasing in these two
> countries.
>
> Behind these global figures there are significant
> variations from one
> country to another, as the following tables show:
>
>
> Road fatalities in 2007
>
>
> Western Europe
>
> Number of fatalities
>
> 2007/2006 %
>
>
> Austria
>
> 691
>
> -5.3
>
>
> Belgium
>
> 1 067
>
> -0.2
>
>
> Denmark
>
> 406
>
> 32.7
>
>
> Finland
>
> 380
>
> 13.1
>
>
> France
>
> 4 620
>
> -1.9
>
>
> Germany
>
> 4 949
>
> -2.8
>
>
> Greece
>
> 1 578
>
> -4.8
>
>
> Iceland
>
> 15
>
> -51.6
>
>
> Luxembourg
>
> 43
>
> 19.4
>
>
> Malta
>
> 12
>
> 9.1
>
>
> Netherlands
>
> 791
>
> -2.5
>
>
> Norway
>
> 233
>
> -3.7
>
>
> Portugal
>
> 854
>
> 0.5
>
>
> Spain
>
> 3 823
>
> -6.8
>
>
> Sweden
>
> 471
>
> 5.8
>
>
> Switzerland
>
> 384
>
> 3.8
>
>
> Turkey
>
> 5 004
>
> 8.0
>
>
> United Kingdom
>
> 3 059
>
> -7.2
>
>
> Total
>
> 28 380
>
> -1.2
>
>
>
> Central and Eastern Europe
>
> Number of fatalities
>
> 2007/2006 %
>
>
> Albania
>
> 384
>
> 38.6
>
>
> Bulgaria
>
> 1 006
>
> -3.5
>
>
> Croatia
>
> 619
>
> 0.8
>
>
> Czech Republic
>
> 1 222
>
> 15.0
>
>
> Estonia
>
> 196
>
> -3.9
>
>
> FYROM
>
> 173
>
> 23.6
>
>
> Hungary
>
> 1 232
>
> -5.4
>
>
> Latvia
>
> 419
>
> 2.9
>
>
> Lithuania
>
> 740
>
> -2.6
>
>
> Poland
>
> 5 583
>
> 6.5
>
>
> Romania
>
> 2 794
>
> 12.8
>
>
> Serbia
>
> 962
>
> 6.9
>
>
> Slovakia
>
> 661
>
> 8.7
>
>
> Slovenia
>
> 293
>
> 11.8
>
>
> Total
>
> 16 284
>
> 6.4
>
>
>
> CIS countries
>
> Number of fatalities
>
> 2007/2006 %
>
>
> Azerbaijan
>
> 1 107
>
> 7.8
>
>
> Georgia
>
> 737
>
> 9.2
>
>
> Moldova
>
> 464
>
> 21.5
>
>
> Russia
>
> 33 308
>
> 1.8
>
>
> Ukraine
>
> 9 481
>
> 38.1
>
>
> Total
>
> 45 097
>
> 8.2
>
>
>
>
>
> Other ITF
>
> Number of fatalities
>
> 2007/2006 %
>
>
> Australia
>
> 1 616
>
> 1.1
>
>
> Canada
>
> 2 729
>
> -5.6
>
>
> Japan
>
> 5 744
>
> -9.6
>
>
> Korea
>
> 6 166
>
> -2.5
>
>
> Mexico
>
> 5 398
>
> 10.0
>
>
> New Zealand
>
> 422
>
> 7.9
>
>
> United States
>
> 41 059
>
> -3.9
>
>
> Total
>
> 63 134
>
> -3.1
>
>
>
>
> Aggregates
>
> Number of fatalities
>
> 2007/2006 %
>
>
> OECD1
>
> 106 234
>
> -1.8
>
>
> EU2
>
> 42 924
>
> 0.2
>
>
> ITF1,3
>
> 158 929
>
> 1.3
>
>
> 1) For Italy and Ireland, the number of fatalities refers
> to the year 2006.
>
> 2) Cyprus is not included.
>
> 3) Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia, Montenegro, are not included.
>
>
>
> More detailed information on latest trends will be
> available on the Forum
> website in December 2008
> (www.internationaltransportforum.org
> <http://www.internationaltransportforum.org/> ) and
> in the forthcoming
> publication “Trends in the Transport Sector,
> 1970-2007”. This information
> may be reproduced, provided the ITF is quoted as the
> source.
>
> Contact: Michael Zirpel
>
> Director of Communications
>
> International Transport Forum
>
> Tel. +(33-1) 45 24 95 96
>
> michael.zirpel at oecd.org
>
> __._,_.___
>
>
>
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