Mexico’s State of Jalisco hosted the Safer City Streets network on the 18-19 of October, 2022. The FIA and 25 Member Clubs, including several FIA Region III members, participated in the 7th network meeting of the Safer City Streets Network, the global traffic safety network for liveable cities.
The agenda of the meeting reflected important road safety priorities, including:
• Monitoring progress in urban road safety, including new data and report release.
• Inclusion, equity, gender, sustainability and participatory initiatives.
• Road safety and public transport.
• Speed management.
• Protecting vulnerable road users.
• Public engagement, advocacy and campaigns.
The event gathered more than 130 participants, including: city representatives, international organisations such as iRap, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Resources Institute (WRI), the World Bank and the Global Alliance for NGOs for Road Safety. The attendees discussed effective policies to improve road safety. Twenty five FIA Member Clubs from Regions III and IV joined the global debate and interacted with city representatives and experts across the two-day event.
The FIA delivered the “Accessible Micromobility in Mexico City and Abroad” assessment on this occasion as part of the FIA Road Safety Grants Programme, with the assistance of the FIA Foundation. The report was created in collaboration with a group of students from Sciences Po Paris. The report lays out a methodology for assessing how cities employ policy tools to interact with groups that don’t have access to micromobility services. The technique focuses on the four axes of micromobility (physical ability, age, gender, and socioeconomic position), and provides a case study of Mexico City. It also outlines various policy options that can be used to improve accessibility.
Parallel to the event, a session of the Road Safety Course was organized by the FIA and FIA Region IV for FIA Member Clubs from Regions III and IV. The intention of this training program, funded by the FIA Foundation, is to provide theory and insight to clubs – helping with road safety project planning and implementation, and advocacy efforts. The occasion provided the chance to plan a live training session that will be followed by online webinars throughout November.
Please click here to see the complete “Accessible Micromobility in Mexico City and Abroad” report.
The Canadian Automobile Association and the Jamaica Automobile Association both attended the Delft University training session, and the Safer City Streets conference.
Some of the learnings taken back include:
- Mobility is a right, and as road safety professionals, it is important to advocate for safe mobility for all. Everyone should have the opportunity to freely move about society safely.
- Inequality can’t be ignored in road safety advocacy. Depending on the issue or country, certain populations are more susceptible to being injured or killed on our streets. This was made evident in Mexico who saw that pedestrians killed were primarily women. It is important for Clubs to look at any gender gap in their road safety data and ensure the solutions presented keep those at risk in mind.
- You can’t have sustainable roads without safe roads. In order to reduce our carbon footprint and move towards low emissions mobility, like cycling and walking, we need safer roads for cyclists and pedestrians. Safe roads lead to a more sustainable future.
Did you attend the conference? Please share your comments below.