No boundaries to achieving Vision Zero

There are no boundaries to achieving Vision Zero: Every country, city, and community can improve road safety for their citizens — if they invest in public-private partnerships.

While lack of infrastructure or resources may seem to be barriers to progress, there is a solution. By investing in public-private partnerships, local governments can tap into the private sector’s expertise, data, and technology to cross the current “boundaries.”

Together for Safer Roads (TSR) is an innovative coalition of global private sector companies, across industries, collaborating to improve road safety. The coalition brings together the private sector’s capacity and technical expertise, partnering with the public sector, and expanding the resources it takes for safer transportation and mobility systems.

Here are some examples of how the public sector has overcome existing challenges by partnering with business, non-governmental organizations and other partners.

See also: How cities are using telematics to achieve their Vision Zero safety objectives

Building a data partnership

Challenge: Often, data collection can be a challenge, ranging anywhere from lack of data available, to entities collecting data in different manners, or a lack of interoperability.

Solution: In São Paulo, Brazil, the State partnered with the private sector to build a road safety data and mapping system in 64 cities. As a result, the State was able to identify localized challenges and develop and implement road safety actions. The system generates monthly reports on crash occurrences, contributing risk factors, crash scene descriptions, road sections, and more. So far, the efforts have led to 496 lives saved. The Safer Roads Challenge in São Paulo showcases that concerted action and collaboration can result in saving lives.

Expanding capacity with community outreach

Challenge: Local governments may lack the resources (staff and financial capacity) to commit to road safety and transportation.

Solution: In Gurugram, India, by launching the #SaferRoadsForGurugram initiative, the city implemented its first educational outreach campaign as a consortium, which brings together government, industry associations, academia, research, NGOs, and corporate stakeholders. They are beginning field work and an observation study to diagnosis road safety challenges to inform appropriate solutions.

While in Shanghai, China, a collaboration mechanism between academia, government, private sector, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) was established to enhance the safety of Shanghai’s transport. Through a Crash Hotspot Roadway Segment Analysis and Improvement program, fatalities on intervened roads were reduced by 90 percent. Additionally, using behavior-based commercial driver safety analysis and education, risky driving behaviors reduced by 30 percent.

The multi-sector partnership is continuing the programs to survey and implement interventions on additional roadways, as well as evaluate fleet driver behavior to inform road safety education.

Accelerating road safety with innovative technology partners

Challenge: Every day, a new safety technology is brought to market. However, local government may lack the expertise and capacity to navigate all the options and select the solution that is right for their specific challenges.

Solution: As a connector for global-minded companies and private sector influencers, TSR’s Global Entrepreneur Program encourages early-stage companies to advance innovative solutions that improve road safety, becoming an important accelerator for their growth and social impact. For example, as a member of TSR, Geotab is contributing data, technologies, and expertise to New York City of Citywide Administrative Services (NYC DCAS) to establish best practices and safety solutions for a portion of the NYC Fleet that involves large, slow-moving vehicles that meet high-traffic public spaces, where vulnerable road users frequent.

About Together for Safer Roads

Together for Safer Roads (TSR) is an innovative coalition that brings together global private sector companies, across industries, to collaborate on improving road safety and reducing deaths and injuries from road traffic crashes globally. TSR’s current members include AB InBev, AIG, AT&T, CalAmp, Ericsson, Geotab, GM, iHeartMedia, Lyft, Octo Telematics, PepsiCo, Republic Services, UPS, Walmart, Alpha Drive, HAAS Alert, Ouster, and Zendrive. Learn more at www.togetherforsaferroads.org and follow us on Twitter @TSRCoalition.

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