Large scope public awareness campaigns

The road safety education projects reach a wide scope of society, due to their delivery, according to different public audiences. During 2008, the large-scope programs included: the Drivers Campaign, reaching 33,981 people, the Motorcyclists Campaign (15,575 people), the Pedestrians Campaign (63,705 people) and the Cyclists Campaign (13,911 people).

Besides such campaigns, other special programs were also devoted to very specific public audiences such as: Traffic Friends (47,567 people), Young People in Traffic (6,715 people) and School Areas (27,530 people) among others. These road safety education projects aimed, above all, at the formation of “multipliers” of traffic behavior citizenship.

Many road safety engineering projects

The engineering projects such as speed calming, signs and markings have had a high impact on road safety, such as: horizontal road markings with 186,538 m2 done during 2008; sign cleaning done at 6,499 units and mounting of small speed bumps with 20,430 units. These actions enabled better orientation and road visibility for drivers, especially at night.

At enforcement area, must be mentioned: Corridor Enforcement with 20 operations, Truck “Blitz” with 34 operations and Breath Testing “Blitz” with 10 operations throughout the year. Heavy enforcement led drivers to a better respect for traffic regulations.

The city of São José dos Campos rewarded

The Transport Municipal Secretariat was highly committed to targeting crash reduction, through the above mentioned and other projects. São José dos Campos was honored with the following awards: VII Denatran Award (1st, 2nd and 3rd places for Municipal Projects) and the XVII Volvo Award (City Category – National level).

It must be mentioned that, despite a 9.68% overall fleet exponential growth during 2008, including a 15.66% motorcycle growth, the above mentioned proactive actions led to a decrease of the main rate (deaths + serious injury per 10,000 motor vehicles) from 14.04 in 2007 to 12.49 in 2008. Such a result highlights the effectiveness of the proactive actions implemented during 2008 and increases the overall motivation to achieve a continuous decrease of this rate at municipal level.

Another great leap forward during 2008 was in the program for correct helmet use program by motorcyclists, where the increase jumped from 20% in 2007 to 50.6% in 2008. Such a proactive program is essential towards the reduction of deaths + serious injury. It is also due to enforcement operations as well as to road safety campaigns aimed at motorcyclists, leading to increased awareness and more responsible behavior concerning helmet correct use.

Efficient partnerships

Such overall results are simultaneously the result of the partnership signed between São José dos Campos and the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) which led to the implementation of the Proactive Partnership Strategy (PPS). Such a strategy also enabled the municipality, to gather a systemic model of crash data and services related to their prevention, with the establishment of targets.

GRSP, through the PPS, led to good coordination and partnerships between the various municipal departments - Transport, Health and Education – all dealing with some of the most important aspects of road safety. Such an approach also led to local community recognition as well as to international recognition, represented by the invitation, of the UNRSC (United Nations Road Safety Collaboration) to the Mayor of São José dos Campos, to present the overall road safety actions of the SJC PPS team, at WHO (World Health Organization) Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on the 17th of November 2008.

All the above mentioned projects, clearly demonstrate that the reduction of KSI (Killed and Serious Injury) is only possible, through the participation of all involved: the public sector (especially at local government level), the private sector and civil society including the overall local community.

Read also in this section:

- 2011-2020: A decade of action and hope for road safety
- Innovative technologies to improve road safety
- GRSP - Road crashes: An everyday humanitarian disaster
- Road safety: a major national issue in Ghana
- Sweden's Vision Zero: no victims or serious injuries in road traffic
- Road Safety: The World Health Organization defines five priorities

Categories: Sustainable mobility - Urban mobility - Public health - Road safety - Urban strategies - Vehicles

Keywords: Accidents - Brazil - Infrastructure - safety - Transportation