Publication:
Confronting "Death on Wheels": Making Roads Safe in Europe and Central Asia

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (4.95 MB)
777 downloads
English Text (468.31 KB)
158 downloads
Published
2009-11
ISSN
Date
2017-08-15
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This report provides an overview of the challenges and opportunities in addressing road safety in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region. It presents information on the size, characteristics, and causes of the problem; presents evidence on the effectiveness of measures that countries world-wide have adopted to improve road safety; briefly describes current international road safety policy; and discusses a range of strategies and actions that could be undertaken by the World Bank in coordination and partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), multilateral development banks, other international agencies and donors, as well as with private and civil society institutions. A primary audience of this report is internal-particularly managers and staff of the World Bank working in the transport, health, education, and governance sectors, to raise awareness about the multisectoral nature of the road safety challenge and of effective options to address it. It proposes ways that the World Bank might engage more to support ECA countries in tackling this issue, working in partnership with other international agencies and donors. The secondary audience is external policymakers, senior analysts, program managers, and their advisers in the governments of ECA countries, private sector officials, and civil society and international organizations working in this field. The goal is to support discussion on appropriate choices and instruments for advancing the road safety agenda as a top development priority over the short and medium term.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2009. Confronting "Death on Wheels": Making Roads Safe in Europe and Central Asia. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27840 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Federative Republic of Brazil
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-11-01) World Bank
    As part of a long-term partnership between the World Bank and Brazil, the Federal Government of Brazil sought the World Bank’s assistance to review road safety management capacity in Brazil, building both on past experiences in the country and international best practices. This National Road Safety Management Capacity Review, therefore, was prepared by the World Bank, with the support of the Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF). The primary objective of the review is to evaluate the multi-sectoral capacity of road safety management in Brazil, identifying possible road safety challenges and presenting recommendations to address these challenges. The methodology of the review, in accordance with the guidelines of the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility, focused on examinations of key functional aspects of road safety, including institutions, legislation, financing, information, and capacities at all levels of government and among non-government actors. The review was prepared mainly based on interviews of key road safety stakeholders at the federal, state, and municipal levels, members of parliament, NGOs, and the private sector, in addition to direct inspection of roads and on-road behaviors, and the analysis of published research and reports on road safety. In addition, information and understanding gained from previous reviews of the states of São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, and Bahia were also incorporated.
  • Publication
    Guidelines for Mainstreaming Road Safety in Regional Trade Road Corridors
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-06) Breen, Jeanne; Humphreys, Richard Martin; Melibaeva, Sevara
    The global crisis of road traffic injury is escalating in low-income and middle income countries to devastating effect; with road traffic crashes a leading cause of death. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1.24 million people were killed on the world's roads in 2010 and between 20-50 million more suffer non-fatal injuries from road traffic collisions each year. Among young people aged 15-44 years, road traffic crashes are the second leading cause of death after HIV/AIDS. The guidelines presented here are an important contribution to addressing the challenge of road safety management in regional trade corridors. Developed jointly by the Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Program (SSATP) and the World Bank, they are intended to serve as a guide for mainstreaming road safety in regional trade corridor investment programs in developing countries. The guidelines present a roadmap and set of tools with templates for terms of reference to assist in the identification, preparation and implementation of effective road safety projects in regional trade corridors, based on the lessons and global best practice experience. The publication outlines a systematic and logical process for directly addressing priority road safety needs on regional corridors in a streamlined and iterative manner, that will be relevant not only within Africa, but also to other developing regions of the world.
  • Publication
    Making Roads Safer
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014) Independent Evaluation Group
    Every year, nearly 1.3 million people worldwide are killed in road crashes, which have become the leading cause of death among people between the ages of fifteen and twenty-nine. More than 90 percent of the world s road fatalities occur in developing countries, and half of the accident victims are pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists. Road accidents disproportionately affect the poor, making road safety an economic development issue. Many crash victims are of working age, and their death or serious injury too frequently leaves their dependents destitute. Governments in poorer countries have assumed they cannot act to reduce death rates until they are wealthier. However, many of today s road safety measures can be implemented relatively inexpensively to reduce death rates, if managed correctly. The United Nations (UN) invited the World Health Organization (WHO) to coordinate a drive to improve road safety globally. It also proclaimed a decade of action for road safety (2011 2020) to stabilize and then reduce the level of traffic fatalities and serious injuries around the world. More than 100 countries as well as multilateral development banks, including the World Bank, support the interventions. The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) is aware of the rapidly worsening road safety situation in the developing world and efforts by the Bank's transport sector to encourage the use of best practices in road projects. This study, a pioneering learning product created by IEG in cooperation with transport operational staff and the Bank s Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), aims to provide useful knowledge to Bank operational staff involved with road safety, to support Bank and client countries in fine tuning their road safety strategies and practices, and to support the acceleration of the Bank s operational road safety agenda.
  • Publication
    China Road Safety Engagement Strategy : Interim Report
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-07) Bliss, Tony; Breen, Jeanne; Howard, Eric
    The World Bank's road safety partnership with the Government of China (GOC) is maturing at a time when a deeper awareness of the negative development impacts of road crashes in low and middle-income countries coincides with the shift in road safety management policies and practices in leading high-income countries which are becoming focused on the elimination of road deaths and serious injuries, rather than accepting them as human failure and the inevitable price of economic progress. This shift in results focus is also aligned with other sustainable development initiatives addressing environmental, energy and public health goals, which present significant opportunities to capture the co-benefits of harmonized initiatives. For these reasons the World Bank and GOC agreed to review the situation in China and prepare a new road safety engagement strategy. The proposed strategy aims to facilitate an accelerated transfer of road safety knowledge and scaling up of investment at national, provincial and city levels to rapidly improve China's road safety performance, with an emphasis on strengthening national lead agency functions and multisectoral coordination arrangements. It also aims to promote China's regional and global leadership role over the coming decade and draw upon the innovative services of international partners through the World Bank's global networks and road safety investment experience. The need for a designated agency to lead and coordinate the delivery of activities under the new engagement strategy was highlighted. Several candidate agencies were considered and in particular the State Administration for Work Safety (SAWS) was identified as being well placed and ready to take responsibility for this task.This report summarizes the review findings and presents them in an operational framework specified in the form of a project concept encompassing all activities proposed under the new engagement strategy. It then outlines the steps to be taken to finalize the project concept before detailed preparation for its implementation can commence.
  • Publication
    The Health Benefits of Transport Projects : A Review of the World Bank Transport Sector Lending Portfolio
    (Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008) Freeman, Peter; Mathur, Kavita
    This paper reviews the contribution of the World Bank's transport lending portfolio to health outcomes, as background for the Independent Evaluation Group's (IEG) evaluation of the Bank's support for health, nutrition and population (HNP). Over the past decade (FY97-06), the World Bank committed nearly $28 billion to 229 new transport projects managed by the Transport Sector Board (TSB). Specifically, the paper reviews the extent to which these projects: cite potential health benefits or risks in design documents; include specific objectives with respect to improving health outcomes or mitigating health risks; propose environmental improvements that are likely to provide health benefits; target transport services, and both health and behavioral outcomes to the poor; and plans to collect evidence on changes in health outcomes as a result of transport interventions. For completed projects, it assesses the extent to which expected health benefits or objectives have been achieved. This review of health benefits in the transport lending portfolio over the past decade shows that in the majority of the cases the focus has been on improvements in road safety, as measured by a reduction in the fatality or injury rates. Among the 55 projects with health related objectives, 82 percent had objectives to improve road safety, while only 7 percent had objectives to improve safety of other modes of transport and only 2 percent each had HIV/AIDS prevention or air quality improvement objectives.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Mobile Usage at the Base of the Pyramid in South Africa
    (Washington, DC, 2012-12) World Bank
    Mobile phones are the primary means of accessing information or communicating for those who live at the base of the pyramid (BoP). It is likely that the mobile phone will therefore also be the preferred medium to provide value-added services to those at the BoP, whether they are private users or informal businesses, for the foreseeable future. Although the prepaid mobile model has brought voice and text services to this group, sustainable, replicable models for enhanced services, products and applications are far more limited. The purpose of the study is to investigate the demand for mobile applications, services and products, with a view to increasing economic opportunities and improving well-being for users at the BoP. The key objectives of the study are the following: i) to increase understanding of the actual usage of mobile services, products and applications at the BoP, and to understand their potential for economic and social empowerment; ii) to identify scalable examples of services, products and applications at the concept, prototype, or early product-development stages; iii) to develop tools and instruments to map viable operation models and objects of various segments of the BoP markets and to identify user needs; and iv) to formulate recommendations for business planning and policy development that can support this potential.
  • Publication
    Targeting Methods for Transfers
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2003-01) Coady, David; Grosh, Margaret; Hoddinott, John
    Of the commonly used methods for directing transfers to the poor, there is little consensus about which is best. Policymakers need to know how effective different targeting mechanisms are, how the effectiveness differs by method and type of program, and the implications. Targeting success can be partially captured by one outcome indicator, the share of benefits going to the bottom 40 per cent of the population. For example, if a program delivers 60 per cent of its benefits to this group, the outcome indicator is (60 divided by 40 =) 1.5. The higher the indicator - i.e., the greater the percentage of benefits going to the poor relative to their population share - the more progressive is the targeting. The authors calculate their indicator for 85 of the programs in the database. The full study provides information on the use of targeting techniques, summary statistics on comparative program performance, and regression analysis to examine the correlations between methods and outcomes. The study drew broad conclusions, subject to the limitations described beforehand, suggesting that "Targeting can work, but it doesn't always. There is no clearly preferred method for all types of programs, or all country contexts. A weak ranking of outcomes achieved by different mechanisms was possible. And, implementation matters tremendously to outcomes". Targeting performance improved with country income levels, the extent to which governments are held accountable for their actions, and the degree of inequality.
  • Publication
    Direct and Indirect Impacts of Transport Mobility on Access to Jobs: Evidence from South Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-12) Iimi, Atsushi
    Access to jobs is essential for economic growth. In Africa, unemployment rates are notably high. This paper reexamines the relationship between transport mobility and labor market outcomes, with a particular focus on the direct and indirect effects of transport connectivity. As predicted by theory, wages are influenced by the level of commuting deterrence. Generally, higher earnings are associated with longer commute times and/or higher commuting costs. Local accessibility is also important, especially for individuals with time constraints. Both direct and indirect impacts are found to be significant in South Africa, where job accessibility has been challenging since the end of apartheid. For the direct impact, the wage elasticity associated with commuting costs is significant. Returns on commute are particularly high for women. Local accessibility to socioeconomic facilities, such as shops and health services, is also found to have a significant impact, consistent with the concept of mobility of care. To enhance employment, therefore, it is crucial to connect people not only to job locations but also to various socioeconomic points of interest, such as markets and hospitals, in an integrated manner. This integration will enable individuals to spend more time working and commuting longer distances.
  • Publication
    Digital Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.
  • Publication
    Taxes, Spending, and Equity: International Patterns and Lessons for Developing Countries
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-17) Wai-Poi, Matthew; Sosa, Mariano; Bachas, Pierre
    Taxes and public spending underpin the basic administration of government and finance the human capital and infrastructure investments needed for economic growth. They can also have a significant and immediate impact on poverty and inequality. The question of how public finance can support longer-term growth objectives while promoting equity has become even more important in recent years, given the high fiscal deficits and debt levels most countries emerged with in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. These included the increasing cost of debt and the need to restart environmentally sustainable growth while helping households address the learning losses and other social scars caused by the pandemic. This paper examines the global evidence on which households pay which taxes and who benefits from what spending, and critically, the net effect on different households across the income distribution. The aim is to identify the patterns and lessons that emerge for designing progressive fiscal policies. A global dataset of 96 countries is assembled, spanning all regions of the world and all national income levels, grounded in the Commitment to Equity (CEQ) approach to fiscal incidence.