MOBILIZING DEVELOPMENT

25 Mobilizing Sustainable Transport for Development
brunt of the negative outcomes. The fact that more than
90% of road fatalities take place in low- and middleincome
countries is a tragic and untenable situation.
In 2014, the World Health Organization estimated that
7 million people die prematurely every year due to air
pollution, with half of them due to outdoor pollution,
and with low- and middle-income countries in South-
East Asia and Western Pacific Regions carrying the bulk
of this burden. 49 In addition, in both developing and
developed countries, the levels of inequity of access to
jobs and key public services within individual cities are
not acceptable.
Private vehicle ownership tends to increase as nations
and cities develop, particularly given the cultural and
societal pressures that equate car ownership with
success. 50 In urban areas in developing countries in
particular, this model enhances access for the wealthier
parts of the population and not for the rest. But there
are ways to balance these trends with targeted policies
that enhance more diversified land use and multimodal
public transport systems. These include capacity
building for the effective procurement of public
transport systems, that meet the needs of people,
advance the objective of equitable access, lower air
pollution and road deaths, and increase quality of life.
The models of development that defined urbanization
in the developed world are not the only option, and
developing countries have the chance now, with the
support of development partners, to pursue a better
path. More than half of all urbanized land has yet to be
developed, which means that there is a great opportunity
now to pursue compact and connected models. 51
SaveKidsLives Campaign of the United Nations
Worldwide, 3,400 people die on the road every day.
500 of them are children.
While the road safety challenge is a global one, the
children most likely to die in a road traffic crash live in
the world’s low- and middle-income countries, where
95% of road traffic fatalities among children occur.
The SaveKidsLives campaign aims to raise global
awareness of the dangers children face every day
when they go to school and back home. The campaign,
coordinated by the United Nations Road Safety
Collaboration and co-led by children, is based on the
Child Declaration for Road Safety. The campaign has
collected more than one million signatures, including
from government officials, citizens, and prominent
figures such as His Holiness Pope Francis and
the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon.
SaveKidsLives is calling for urgent action.
The five priorities are:
1. A safe journey to school for every child including safe roads and speed management around every school;
2. Safe school transport including seatbelts on all school buses;
3. Vehicles safe for children and action to promote child restraints;
4. Motorcycle helmets for all children where two-wheelers are the main family transport;
5. Enforcement and action against drunk-driving.
An example of promoting safe journeys to school comes from Tanzania where the road safety NGO Amend is
implementing a program to systematically assess areas around schools and improve road safety in collaboration
with schools, the civil society and local authorities. Amend is targeting schools in poor and overcrowded
neighbourhoods where at least 1 out of 25 children have suffered injuries on the road every year.
Connected to Recommendations: 2, 4, 5, 6