Archive: September 2016

We bring to your attention a live conversation with two co-founders of the NGO "Vision Zero". This conversation took place on September 22, 2016 in the studio of the channel "Chernivtsi Ray". After the television broadcast, we moved to the walls of the city council, where we held a presentation on the topic "What is wrong with our streets and how to fix it?" and eagerly discussed with the officials, activists and police officers present. Our visit to Chernivtsi was organized by the Bukovina Regional Development Agency with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation . Thank you very much for the invitation and for your concern and concrete steps to reduce accidents and deaths. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRAtKoG6_Xk[/embed]

On September 3-4, at the invitation of the city hall of Mykolaiv (population 500 thousand people), the NGO "Vision Zero" visited the " Urban Development Forum ". Our representative Viktor Zagreba had the opportunity to give two speeches in the city on the Bug - as part of the main plenary program of the forum and at the "City Workshop" in the central squares. 

 Forum organizers and speakers (not all). Both reports were devoted, of course, to our favorite things: a scientific approach to assessing traffic safety; smart and unsmart decisions in street design; the impact of infrastructure on user behavior; practical experience of high-quality projects in Ukraine. In Mykolaiv, we liked: 

• 1) Mykolaiv itself. A well-planned, green, spacious city with an ideal square-nest grid - reminiscent of Chicago or New York, and not at all Vienna or Ivano-Frankivsk. The streets are very wide, you can easily develop them and make them safer, friendly to cyclists and pedestrians. There is one beautiful, wide, pedestrian street in Mykolaiv. True, its pedestrianity is far from perfect, since it is constantly crossed by non-pedestrian streets with car traffic. But it is there, and it is pleasant and popular. And Nikolaev also has a wide expanse of water and endless kilometers of coastline. In such a city, you can live and live! 

Planning of Mykolaiv. View from space

• 2) Mayor of Mykolaiv Oleksandr Senkevych. A modern leader and an educated, thoughtful person who came to local government from an honest IT business, and, having won the elections, fights every day for a better city and a better country. It feels like it's hard, but he already manages to show results! In the first few months, the mayor created a Development Agency with an excellent team of motivated educated people who are rocking the creative class, successfully (and honestly) cooperating with businesses, and attracting international technical assistance and intelligence. It feels like thanks to this mayor and the Development Agency, Mykolaiv is becoming more ambitious and visible every month. And that the team that works with the mayor gets pleasure from work and from the fact that with this leader many ideas get the green light and full support. For a small class of civic activists and urbanists in Ukraine, an adequate mayor is like winning a lottery you didn't even play, so it's self-evident that the local proactive class with Senkevych is simply happy and even risks falling into a personality cult (and you shouldn't!). But even the average, that is, generally passive and skeptical, residents of Mykolaiv, interviewed by us in several taxis, in a bar, and on the beach, all respect their mayor and even, as strange as it may be for them to admit it, trust him. Although the sample is not representative, it's still an indicator for us. Oleksandr, go ahead! You yourself created these high expectations, now you'll have to plow like Elon Musk! Just take care of your health.

Zagreba couldn't help but take a selfie with Senkevych. 

• 3) The reaction of listeners to our messages and our approaches. People of all ages, genders, and professions understand and feel that the old "DAI" approaches to road safety do not lead to anything meaningful, that they have exhausted their potential, if they ever had it at all. People understand that new results cannot be achieved without doing something new, and that the city's streets should not be like those in Mykolaiv. We explain what is specifically "wrong" with them and what our streets can and actually should be in terms of safety, logic, comfort, and aesthetics. We state in which direction our cities need to move in the field of traffic safety - towards zero mortality. And we are pleased that these new ideas and approaches for Ukraine are positively perceived by local leaders, planners, architects, activists, police officers, and ordinary citizens.

"City Workshop". In place of the green area with yellow flowers, a granite Lenin recently stood. It should be noted that we mostly did not like the organization of traffic on the streets of Mykolaiv. Wide lanes that encourage speed. Long zebra crossings. A strange pedestrian street, on which, if you are inattentive, you can get hit by a car traveling 60-80 km/h. Questionable conditions for cyclists, a barely functioning tram network. But all these shortcomings are far from unique - they are in all our cities, this is our Soviet heritage. And they did not outweigh our positive impressions of the visit. In addition, having felt the dynamics that the city is gaining, we believe that its street infrastructure will also begin to change for the better in the next year or two. Thank you to Mykolaiv for the invitation, high-quality organization of events, hospitable reception, energy and ambition! Personal thanks go to Roland, Daria and Vasyl! We wish your warm city sustainable development and safety on the streets, and are always open to cooperation and further professional exchange. 

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The National Police plans to return to the use of hand-held radars on the roads. This news was spread by news agencies, such as "Ukrainian News" , citing the Deputy Head of the Road Safety Department of the National Police, Vasyl Bryantsev. The non-governmental organization "Vision Zero" expresses its full support for these plans for the reasons given below:

1. In Ukraine, since 2015, there has been an incomprehensible and socially harmful situation where there is a complete lack of speed control on roads and streets, and, in our opinion, this is one of the reasons for the worsening situation with accidents and injuries on the roads, despite the successful deployment of the Patrol Police;
2. The use of mobile (hand-held) radars is a standard modern practice in all US states and all European Union countries, as it has been scientifically proven to have a direct impact on the key risk factor - excessive speeding; there is nothing "Soviet" or "traffic police" about this practice that should be feared (see photo evidence below);
3. Since the National Police and the Ministry of Internal Affairs have not been able to provide the public with any concrete plans for the deployment of the automatic recording of traffic violations system for 8 months (after the creation of the so-called working group), we expect that the process of creating this system in Ukraine will take another 2 to 5 years. That is why hand-held radars must be returned to use as soon as possible in order to save hundreds or thousands of lives. Human lives should not be the price for delay or lack of competence in the National Police, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the government.

In view of this, we ask the National Police and the Ministry of Internal Affairs:

• As soon as possible, implement the announced intentions to return to the use of manual speed control devices, which should be equipped with Patrol Police departments, rapid response groups, and where they are absent, preventive activity units;
• By the end of September 2016, show the public and organize discussions with interested parties (stakeholders) of plans, concepts, sketches, models, strategies or any other documents developed over the past 8 months regarding the automated traffic violation recording system, including the technical, legal and financial components of this system and the criteria and standards for selecting locations for camera placement.

We call on the conscious part of society and the automotive community, local authorities, adequate public organizations, and the media to actively support any measures to return speed control to the roads and streets of Ukraine, because these measures will save hundreds of lives.

06.09.2016

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