Advancing Road Safety in a Latin American City Through the Implementation of Short Term Regulatory Measures

The Municipal Administration of Bucaramanga has gained national recognition for adopting the “Sustainable Development Plan 2012-2015” and the “Road Safety Plan 2013” to increase its competitiveness and visibility as a sustainable role model city for the country of Colombia. This paper presents the institutional initiatives, education and prevention campaigns, infrastructure improvements, and policy enforcement initiatives implemented by the city in the last years, and whether these measures are helping the city to reach the traffic fatalities and injuries goals established in its road safety plan 2011-2016. Motorcyclists are the most vulnerable road users. From 2009 to 2013, motorcyclists have been involved in 42% of traffic fatalities and 49% of injured people. The analysis of the city’s road safety trends points out that the vulnerability of motorcyclists is aggravated by their bad driving behavior. This analysis shows the social benefits brought to the city by the low changes, increased police enforcement, and road safety interventions in the last year. From 2012 to 2013, a 46% increase in traffic fines contributed to a reduction in the number of injured people but had a small impact on people killed in traffic accidents. Data from January to October 2014 shows that no motorcyclists were killed by traffic accidents between midnight and 4:00 AM. Although few data were available for the comparative analysis, the preliminary results point out the need for implementing other types of initiatives related to drivers’ behavior, road infrastructure, motor vehicles, and the recovery of victims of traffic accidents.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB10 Transportation Safety Management.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Victoria, Isabel C
  • Galvis, Oscar
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2015-1-11 to 2015-1-15
• Date: 2015

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 17p
• Monograph Title: TRB 94th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash injuries; Drivers; Fatalities; Highway safety; Infrastructure; Motorcyclists; Sustainable development; Traffic law enforcement; Transportation policy
• Geographic Terms: Bucaramanga (Columbia)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I73: Traffic Control; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01559028
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 15-5770
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 31 2015 9:09AM