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UNECE WP.6 Transport Statistics Meeting

On 17 June 2020, the Special Envoy delivered opening remarks at the UNECE Working Party on Transport Statistics (WP.6).

Throughout his speech, he focused on the issue of road safety data and high number of road fatalities, and encouraged to consider both comparable top-level data as the first goal and disaggregated data monitoring all sub-groups as a priority as well. The criticality of these data has been also obvious throughout the Covid-19 crisis, during which interesting trends have been noticed, such as a significant decrease in road traffic deaths in some countries but also an alarming increase in speeding and severe/deadly injuries, especially for the vulnerable road users.

Additionally, Covid-19 showed the key role of data in monitoring: with quarantine and social distancing measures recommended for the foreseeable future and potential similar outbreaks expected, choices in mobility have changed and therefore, transport planners are being forced to rethink the system and a city’s design. Timely and robust data in this regard would help to effectively build and manage the transformation in mobility and ensure that road users are indeed protected from conflicts on the road.

The Special Envoy also referred to the Stockholm Declaration’s call for governments to augment engagement and investment in road safety as well as to improve road safety data. The Special Envoy called for support of the representatives in New York for the introduction and adoption of the next UN General Assembly Resolution on Improving Global Road Safety, to prevent a halt on road safety progress.