[sustran] Re: First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety [was Re: Road Safety]

[Todd Edelman, Green Idea Factory]

Here are some excerpts from the BBC report about the event...

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8366952.stm>

* "Some of the world's poorest countries are to receive a cash injection 
of £1.5m from the UK government to help improve road safety.[...] The 
funding will pay for pedestrian crossings and better road markings. "

* "Former UK Defence Secretary Lord Robertson, who is chairman of the 
global Make Roads Safe campaign, said the conference must 'signal a 
change of direction'.

'*We know how to make roads safe: better road design and speed 
management; helmets and seatbelts; police enforcement*,' he said.

'We have the *vaccines* for this epidemic, now we need the political 
will for a decade of action for road safety.'"

Nothing about point 5 from the PDF Morten sent earlier... maybe more 
info will show up in a press release.

£1.5m represents 1% of a new contract to "...provide weapon sights and 
targeting devices to the U.K. Ministry of Defense" 
<http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2009/September/Pages/UKMilitarySpendingontheRise,SaysMODOfficial.aspx>
and about .00005 % of total UK military spending in 2009/10 
<http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/AboutDefence/Organisation/KeyFactsAboutDefence/DefenceSpending.htm>

Silliness. The UK representatives who are responsible should be forced 
to crawl home from Moscow. WHO needs to be honest and call this the 
"Keep on Drivin'" campaign.

- T

p.s. The radical who proposed the earlier statement about making less 
cars was also given a reflective vest with a happy face on it.


 * *Todd Edelman, Green Idea Factory wrote:
> One point out of eleven? It should be the main point. Indeed, as Morten 
> points out, the other points cement our current patterns....
>
> See here:
>
> http://www.who.int/roadsafety/ministerial_conference/en/
>
> ... in what I will call (generously) an "Old Mobility +" philosophy, 
> which is mainly about consciously doing very little to stop the private 
> car* industry from suffering in the slightest. In fact it is the private 
> car* industry which stands firmly behind a lot of their programming and 
> throws money around, polluting the agenda of otherwise fine sustainable 
> mobility organisations.
>
> --- "We will make fewer and fewer private cars*" suggested a more 
> controversial participant in the conference as a slogan to come out of 
> the conference. Her fellow attendees laughed  hard at her, but then gave 
> her a bike helmet and some paint to create some crosswalks in her town ---
>
> - T
>
>
> Morten Lange wrote:
>   
>> Hi 
>>
>> Good idea to keep an eye on that conference, First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Moscow, today and tomorrow 20.november.
>>
>> The following point on the agenda of the declaration to be singed tomorrow 
>>   http://www.who.int/roadsafety/ministerial_conference/declaration_en.pdf
>> looks promising : 
>>
>> 5. Begin to implement safer and more sustainable transportation, including through land-use planning initiatives and by encouraging alternative forms of transportation;
>>
>> Many other are traditional and partly can contribute to cement our current patterns. 
>>
>>
>> How can we who "have ssen the light" best guide this initiative as it gathers strength  to not repeat the mistakes of the north, which the ministers seem set to forget :  A grand motorisation of urban and other transport and creating of barriers for an active lifestyle, with side effects like a worsening public health due to inactivity and pollution, inefficient transportation systems,  sprawling cities, increasing patterns of buy and throw away etc. 
>>
>> Instead of looking to the rich countries for solutions, I guess there are better models being developed in the South.  Curitiba and Bogotá spring to mind. Which are other good (or better) beacons ? 
>>
>>
>>
>> Best Regards,
>> Morten 
>>
>>
>> --- On Thu, 19/11/09, Kanthi Kannan <kanthikannan at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>   
>>     
>>> From: Kanthi Kannan <kanthikannan at gmail.com>
>>> Subject: [sustran] Re: Road Safety
>>> To: sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org
>>> Date: Thursday, 19 November, 2009, 7:18
>>>
>>> Dear all
>>>
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>>
>>> Greetings!!
>>>
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>>
>>> Any idea as to who is representing India in the First
>>> Global Ministerial
>>> Conference on Road Safety.
>>>
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks and Regards
>>>
>>>
>>> Kanthi Kannan
>>>
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>>
>>> THOSE WHO WALK CANNOT DECIDE AND THOSE WHO DECIDE DO NOT
>>> WALK
>>>
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> -------------------------------------------------------- 
>>> To search the archives of sustran-discuss visit
>>> http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014715651517519735401:ijjtzwbu_ss
>>>
>>> -------------------------------------------------------- 
>>> If you get sustran-discuss via YAHOOGROUPS, please go to http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss
>>> to join the real sustran-discuss and get full membership
>>> rights.
>>>
>>> ================================================================
>>> SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of
>>> people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a
>>> focus on developing countries (the 'Global South'). 
>>>
>>>     
>>>       
>>       
>> -------------------------------------------------------- 
>> To search the archives of sustran-discuss visit
>> http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014715651517519735401:ijjtzwbu_ss
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------- 
>> If you get sustran-discuss via YAHOOGROUPS, please go to http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss to join the real sustran-discuss and get full membership rights.
>>
>> ================================================================
>> SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South'). 
>>
>>   
>>     
>
>
>   


-- 
--------------------------------------------

Todd Edelman
Green Idea Factory

Urbanstr. 45
D-10967 Berlin
Germany

Skype: toddedelman
Mobile: ++49 0162 814 4081

edelman at greenidea.eu
www.greenidea.eu
www.flickr.com/photos/edelman

CAR* is over. If you want it.

"Fort mit der Privatautostadt und was Neues hingebaut!" 
- B. Brecht (with slight modification)

* "Car" is a sub-category of automobile, i.e. one used inappropriately, opportunistically or without creativity