Confronting “Death on Wheels”: Making Roads Safe in Europe and Central Asia

This World Bank report is focused on how to improve road safety in the CIS and other developing regions. It is essentially a reminder for a 2004 report by a similar title that came to the conclusion that more funding was needed to improve infrastructure and vehicle and operator regulations. The following posts on this will be the usual chapter breakdowns that have been done for prior reports:

Chapter 1: Introduction

- Transportation sector is highly impacted by spending and decisions of most of the other sectors, especially in terms of planning and zoning.

- Road and noise pollution are serious environmental impacts and contribute to the high external cost of car transportation.

- Road Traffic Injuries (RTI)’s are defined in the report as any death occurring due to a traffic incident within 30 days. There is an increasing risk for RTI’s in developing nations due to a lack of regulation and continual funding infrastructure capacity/maintenance.

- Road safety should be an integral piece in transportation policy, which also includes pedestrian alternatives to car transportation.

- “The Commission for Global Road Safety (200) also notes that while the primary rationale for investing more than US$4 billion each year in road infrastructure is to improve road transport efficiency to spur economic growth, the risk and magnitude of increased societal costs associated with rising RTIs is often overlooked”

- This report was primarily written for an internal audience and to raise awareness of how other sectors can influence transportation.

report link