Focus on Road Safety during the 6th edition of UN’s Global Road Safety Week
17 May 2021
Join PIARC in highlighting the importance of road safety during the 6th edition of UN’s Global Road Safety Week, 17-23 May 2021
Since 2007, the United Nations’ Global Road Safety Week is an opportunity to bring attention to the importance of road safety in the world. For PIARC, safety is at the heart of the agenda since the first World Road Congress in Paris in 1908. Road Safety is recognised as a cross cutting issue for the 2020 – 2023 PIARC work cycle. The Association implements several actions to improve road safety worldwide on a sustainable basis and collaborates with other international organizations within the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC).
PIARC Road Safety Manual, a reference highlighted by the United Nations
The PIARC Road Safety Manual is an extensive online resource which is available free of charge in English, Spanish and French. The designed to help countries at every stage of infrastructure development to fulfil road safety objectives. After many years of diligent work led by the PIARC Technical Committees on Road Safety, this reference publication compiles the experience from different countries, includes new thinking on road safety and offers a clear argument on why adopting a Safe Systems approach is crucial for sustainable improvement of road safety.
In the preamble of the new UN General Assembly resolution, PIARC Road Safety Manual is mentioned as a reference that “offers guidance on measures that can enhance the safety of roads infrastructure”. PIARC is honoured that its manual is acknowledged as an important international effort on road safety.
Technical Committees
Since 2000 there have been 6 successive teams of experts devoted to researching the best practice in road safety, whose findings are available on the PIARC website.
During the current 2020-2023 work cycle, it is up to Technical Committee 3.1 "Road Safety" of Strategic Theme 3 ‘Safety and Sustainability’ to continue the work. As determined in the Strategic Plan, its activities mainly consist in assessing and identifying the best practice of road safety activities for Low- and Middle-Income Countries, as well as exploring proven countermeasures that are effective in reducing the likelihood and severity of crashes at a given location.
International events
In order to promote knowledge exchange on road safety, PIARC’s Technical Committees organise many international seminars. Since 2005, there have been 15 different events in over 10 different countries.
The latest will take place online from Tunisia on 18-20 May 2021. The seminar on Issues and Countermeasures for Road Safety in Low- and Middle Income Countries, is organised jointly by PIARC, the Tunisian Road Association (ATR), the Tunisian Ministry of Equipment, Housing and Infrastructure (MEHI), and the National Observatory of Road Safety (ONSR).