At the end of winter 2016, a tragedy occurred on Nadrichna Street in Ivano-Frankivsk. A person died after being hit by a car. Nothing was reported about his identity, except that he was a man of about 55-60 years old who had left a political rally. We can assume that he had friends, children, grandchildren. He definitely had some plans for tomorrow, for this week. And now he is gone. Because he was crossing the street in the wrong place at the wrong time.
This publication was made on the Kurs website in February 2016 by Viktor Zagreba, founder of the Vision Zero NGO. It outlines key principles on which a successful zero mortality strategy can be developed for Ivano-Frankivsk, and for any other city.
This incident happened in front of many bystanders, journalists, and even patrol police. The man died at the scene, which was stated unemotionally by doctors and news sites. But no one has yet raised the question: is this an isolated "accident" or a systemic problem in the city? To answer this question, we need to turn to the numbers.
Photo of the response from the traffic police
To find out statistics for the city, you still have to write an official request and get a paper answer - everything is like 40 years ago. In response to my request a few weeks ago, the National Police reported that during 2015, 152 accidents were registered in Frankivsk that resulted in injuries to people. Pedestrians were hit the most tragically: there were 74 of them and they resulted in the death of 7 people and the injury of another 72. Car collisions and hits on obstacles (62 cases with victims) resulted in 105 victims and 6 deaths. 11 cyclists were injured when they were hit by cars; fortunately, none of them died.
The total number of deaths where the murder weapon was a car was 13 in 2015, and the number of injured was 198. Is 13 "two hundredths" and 198 "three hundredths" a lot or a little? We need to compare it with something. It's good that I sent a similar information request last year to the then traffic police. Upon request, I was informed that in 2014, the number of people killed in road accidents on the streets of Ivano-Frankivsk was seven, and the number of injured was 140. The year before, in 2013, there were 95 injured, and the number of dead was 9. This is not a long enough period of time and small numbers for a serious statistical comparison, but even with the naked eye it is clear that there is no trend towards improving the situation. Most likely, there is a trend towards worsening. The number of injured people in two years has essentially increased by 100%. 200 injured and 13 dead are too many for a small and peaceful European city, where there is no military action. This is a terrorist attack that is "always with you". This problem must be solved, and the best way is to set the goal of reducing mortality to zero . If you think it is impossible, then it is not. It is possible. At least 572 major European cities have achieved "Vision Zero" in the field of road safety. Data and graphics from the website http://www.dekra-vision-zero.com/[/caption] More than 700 fairly large cities in the world have already achieved this. One of the largest megacities in the world - New York - set such a "zero goal" (Vision Zero) several years ago and began confident movement towards it. It would be great if Frankivsk became the first city in Ukraine to set itself the goal of zero deaths in car accidents and achieve this goal.
Thus, it would create a safe environment for its citizens and set an example for other cities. We, public activists and road users, who have been dealing with the issue of urban mobility for several years, are initiating the development of a "Zero Mortality Strategy" for Ivano-Frankivsk. We have already previously discussed this idea with the mayor Ruslan Marcinkiv and the head of the city's patrol police Dmytro Mikhalets and heard from both sides interest and readiness for constructiveness. So we propose to start this work now. What exactly the strategy of actions for Frankivsk will be - we need to decide together on the basis of studying the problem and available resources, but, in our opinion, a successful strategy should be based on the following principles:
- Scientificity. We must constantly conduct high-quality collection, statistical and geographical analysis of all possible data on road accidents and traffic, on accident concentration areas, on the behavior and attitude of road users, etc. The goal is to identify the causes, accompanying factors, and trends in accident rates on city streets. To analyze data and choose optimal solutions, we must use not intuition or subjective opinion, but world experience, research by the best international universities, recommendations and standards of international organizations and European Union countries;
- Cooperation. The problem of road deaths and injuries is complex, it does not have one simple solution, and no organization or institution can solve it alone. World practice states that overcoming this problem requires meaningful, voluntary cooperation of different parties, a common strategy and coordinated tactics. The method of shifting responsibility will not work here, it is a shared responsibility. The police are not able to solve the problem of road deaths on their own, and neither are city governments. Not to mention activists. We must act together, with common success criteria (scientifically based figures) and a single focus on results.
- Balanced use of three types of tools – engineering, educational and legal. Safe and smart engineering solutions are high-quality and safe planning and arrangement of streets, intersections, crossings, cycle paths, bringing markings, road signs and parking spaces in line with safety and common sense requirements; The second is educational and awareness-raising activities , with clear target audiences and measurable effectiveness – for motorists, pedestrians, cyclists, children, etc. The third is effective law enforcement , i.e. inevitable and strict punishment for traffic violations, especially those that pose the greatest threat to the safety of citizens; focusing the attention of patrol police on key risk factors (campaigns) and/or on places with an increased risk of road accidents; similar placement of automatic recording cameras, etc.
This is an open initiative. We invite all interested organizations from the public, public, private and media sectors to participate. We also invite other cities to initiate similar strategies - we will look for solutions together, learn from each other, share successful solutions and technologies. It is time to end the war on the roads. Deaths from cars are not a necessary evil, most of them can be prevented. All the tools for this have been known for a long time, they are all in the public domain and do not require large capital investments. If this is still not understood on the hills of Kyiv, then let's do it "bottom-up". We are starting. Get involved!
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Initiators of the development of the "Zero Mortality Strategy" for Ivano-Frankivsk: Viktor Zagreba - public activist and project manager, Master of Public Policy (University of Maryland, USA), author of the study "Measuring the Effectiveness of Traffic Safety Programs in the USA, EU and Ukraine", author of the pilot project " Road Safety for Patrol Police Officers ", member of the expert group of the National Police Cooperation Program with Schools. Andriy Koman - architect, transport planner, has experience of work and life in Germany (Stuttgart), graduate of the "CanActions" school of urban planning, author of projects for the reorganization of traffic on Galitska, Vasylyanok, Garkusha, Tychyna, etc. streets, member of the Road Safety Commission under the Executive Committee of the city of Ivano-Frankivsk, public activist, co-founder of the " Velo-Frankivsk " initiative. Andriy Chernikov is a programmer, analyst, participant in initiatives to modernize public transport and popularize bicycle transport, developer of online tools for analyzing and solving city problems ( maps.if.ua ), co-founder of the public restaurant Urban Space 100 , one of the patrons of the pilot project "Road Safety for Patrol Police Officers".