Improving road safety is a critical issue for public health and for the development of all cities and urban communities. According to the latest Global Status Report on Road Safety, there are nearly 1.19 million road traffic fatalities occurring worldwide each year. The number of victims rises to 51 million if we consider injured people, representing a global economic cost of more than USD $3.6 trillion per year. Traffic collisions are still the leading cause of death among children and young adults, which disproportionately impacts those living in low and middle-income countries.

At the global level, there is growing demand for stakeholders in the public, private, and civil society arenas to assume the shared responsibility of improving mobility and safety for us all. By 2030, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals aim to halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents. To that end, a number of national efforts are underway around the world to ensure that decision-makers are taking ownership of these targets and are aligned with a holistic ‘safe system’ approach to road safety.

The ‘safe system’ framework recognizes that mobility is a complex issue resulting from varying interactions between humans, vehicles, and infrastructure. This approach includes a comprehensive perspective that aims to minimize the physical, economic, and social harm caused by road traffic crashes. Instead of focusing on individual behaviors, it recognizes that road accidents are a result of linkages between both systemic and individual issues.

For example, drivers may choose to drive at high speeds because of roadways designed to facilitate this action without adequate pedestrian protection, resulting in more crashes. Therefore, while road safety policies must account for human error, they must also recognize the responsibility of systems that make these errors possible. Stakeholders across all levels must take a proactive, holistic stance to ensure that safety and security on our roads is a priority.

A Vision for Road Safety in Mexico

In 2020, Mexico became the first country in the world to recognize in its Constitution the ‘Right to Mobility’ by stating that “…everyone has the right to mobility in conditions of road safety, accessibility, efficiency, sustainability, quality, inclusion and equality”. Since this landmark achievement, organizations like ITDP Mexico have joined multi stakeholder efforts to make city streets free of traffic deaths and injuries. As part of this movement, a comprehensive vision for road governance and evidence-based policies are forming a foundation for top- down changes.

To further enshrine this right to safe mobility, the Government of Mexico developed its National Strategy for Mobility and Road Safety (ENAMOV). The Strategy was published in 2023 and has a two-decade implementation horizon in recognition of the complex factors that need to be addressed to improve current conditions. It is structured around four strategic axes, each with specific objectives and lines of action: land use and territorial development; public transport services; active mobility; and road safety.

This Strategy marks a substantial step forward to improving and aligning policy implementation frameworks in a country where governing agencies are often disjointed. In the road safety axis, it proposes an alignment around the safe systems framework through the standardization of regulations, infrastructure inspections, traffic records and data, traffic calming interventions, emergency response, and beyond.

ITDP Mexico was involved in proposing and refining several of these lines of action. During the conception of the Strategy, partners participated in community engagement activities through regional and sectoral forums in cities across the country with a variety of stakeholders. During the implementation of the Strategy, ITDP also provided technical advice to public authorities to improve road safety criteria in Mexico’s regulations for motorcycle helmets and traffic record integration at a national level.

The findings show that such speed camera programs only have positive effects on road safety if deployed at scale. The efforts in Mexico have little coverage and limited expansion plans and, as a result, there are no statistically significant impacts to measure. Meanwhile, in São Paulo, the city’s robust program is continuing to grow and research revealed that, between 2016 and 2020, there was a reduction of between 31% and 54% in injuries and between 41% and 94% in fatalities on roads where they were in use.

Based on this evidence, it is crucial for transport agencies and city leaders to commit to expanding such solutions, especially in Mexican cities, that can have replicable and scalable effects. A handbook of best practices for road safety in Latin American cities was recently published by ITDP Mexico and partners to recommend more comprehensive measures for speed management. This includes the enforcement of more speed limits and fines, physical interventions at high-risk intersections, driver outreach campaigns, and actions to identify dangerous drivers.

Finally, an essential component of improving road safety is to invest in infrastructure that supports pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit users to decrease the need for cars and, thereby, the number of crashes. Public revenues from fines for speeding, for example, could also be directed towards funding better transit infrastructure for everyone. In any city, road safety and sustainable mobility are not issues that can be addressed in isolation.

Better streets depend on ensuring an adequate distribution of space for all types of users, minimizing traffic speeds, and encouraging shifts towards more active modes. Advocates for road safety must continue to promote a comprehensive safe systems perspective that targets both the high-level and direct causes of fatalities and injuries, beyond just individual actions. Only by using evidence-based, systemic approaches to protecting road users can cities in Mexico truly ensure everyone’s right to mobility

Managing Speed with Better Data

Taking a holistic view of road safety is necessary as there is no single cause of road incidents. However, there are risk factors that are more determinant than others, such as driving at excessive speed limits. Speed is a major factor involved in the probability and severity of road crashes, and its management is therefore fundamental for the formulation of effective safety policies.

As part of speed management strategies, some local governments in Mexico have opted for automatic speed control systems, known as speed cameras. These measures have been controversial for some sectors of society, who may believe their objective is to increase public revenue rather than improve road safety. To better understand their impact, ITDP Mexico conducted an analysis of the impact of speed cameras on the reduction of traffic fatalities and injuries across Latin American cities. We prepared a comparative analysis of the programs implemented in Guadalajara, Mexico City, and São Paulo (Brazil) and found different impacts for different levels of camera coverage.

The findings show that such speed camera programs only have positive effects on road safety if deployed at scale. The efforts in Mexico have little coverage and limited expansion plans and, as a result, there are no statistically significant impacts to measure. Meanwhile, in São Paulo, the city’s robust program is continuing to grow and research revealed that, between 2016and 2020, there was a reduction of between 31% and 54% in injuries and between 41% and 94% in fatalities on roads where they were in use.

Based on this evidence, it is crucial for transport agencies and city leaders to commit to expanding such solutions, especially in Mexican cities, that can have replicable and scalable effects. A handbook of best practices for road safety in Latin American cities was recently published by ITDP Mexico and partners to recommend more comprehensive measures for speed management. This includes the enforcement of more speed limits and fines, physical interventions at high-risk intersections, driver outreach campaigns, and actions to identify dangerous drivers.

Finally, an essential component of improving road safety is to invest in infrastructure that supports pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit users to decrease the need for cars and, thereby, the number of crashes. Public revenues from fines for speeding, for example, could also be directed towards funding better transit infrastructure for everyone. In any city, road safety and sustainable mobility are not issues that can be addressed in isolation.

Better streets depend on ensuring an adequate distribution of space for all types of users, minimizing traffic speeds, and encouraging shifts towards more active modes. Advocates for road safety must continue to promote a comprehensive safe systems perspective that targets both the high-level and direct causes of fatalities and injuries, beyond just individual actions.