Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020

This plan is intended as a guiding document that will facilitate coordinated and concerted action towards the achievement of the goal and objectives of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020. It provides a context that explains the background and reasons behind the declaration of a Decade by the United Nations General Assembly. This global Plan serves as a tool to support the development of national and local plans of action, while simultaneously providing a framework to allow coordinated activities at the global level. It is directed at a broad audience that includes representatives of national and local governments, civil society and private companies willing to align their activities over the next decade with the global framework.

The guiding principles underlying the Plan for the Decade of Action are those included in the “safe system” approach. This approach aims to develop a road transport system that is better able to accommodate human error and take into consideration the vulnerability of the human body. It starts from the acceptance of human error and thus the realization that traffic crashes cannot be completely avoided. The goal of a safe system is to ensure that accidents do not result in serious human injury. The approach considers that human limitations – what the human body can stand in terms of kinetic energy – is an important basis upon which to design the road transport system, and that other aspects of the road system, such as the development of the road environment and the vehicle, must be harmonized on the basis of these limitations. Road users, vehicles and the road network/environment are addressed in an integrated manner, through a wide range of interventions, with greater attention to speed management and vehicle and road design than in traditional approaches to road safety.

This approach means shifting a major share of the responsibility from road users to those who design the road transport system. System designers include primarily road managers, the automotive industry, police, politicians and legislative bodies. However, there are many other players who also have responsibility for road safety, such as health services, the judicial system, schools, and non-government organisations. The individual road users have the responsibility to abide by laws and regulations.