How can cities make streets safer, and what can EU and national governments do to support them? We put this question directly to European Commission representatives at the launch of this years’ EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK as we launched our city declaration on road safety.
Traffic safety is a global problem in which cities have a crucial role to play. The knowledge and means to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries in urban streets already exists. Our ten principles, designed incolloration with Polis, offer concrete proposals on how to do this.
Anna Lisa Boni, EUROCITIES secretary general, who presented the declaration alongside Lisbon’s deputy mayor of road safety, Miguel Gaspar, said:
“Every death of a cyclist or a pedestrian on our city streets is one death too many. Yet thousands lose their lives or are seriously injured each year in accidents that are avoidable. We can take bold steps together to reduce this unnecessary loss of life.”
The commitments of European cities and the EU are part of a global campaign that martials road safety commitments from national governments. The third ‘Global ministerial conference on road safety,’ to be held in Stockholm on 19-20 February 2020, will use these as the basis for discussion on global efforts to reduce the 1.35 million road deaths that result from road accidents each year.
The European Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc, also spoke, to share the European Union’s commitment to reducing fatalities and serious injuries on roads by 50% between 2020 and 2030:
“The Stockholm conference will be a crucial milestone in our fight for safer roads worldwide. I am pleased that we in the EU, with strong support from national governments, are able to lead the way. I invite all other regions worldwide to set ambitious targets and to follow them through with detailed monitoring, as we do. I am also grateful that we have been able to link this work with the fantastic, but often little recognised, work that many European cities do. I congratulate the first signatories of the city declaration and encourage all cities across Europe to follow their example.”
EUROCITIES is now working to collect signatures from member cities to support this declaration and highlight cities’ commitment to road safety.
If you are interested in signing the declaration please write to: thomas.willson@eurocities.eu
