‘Rules are the indispensable key’

Éva Molnár, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE):
‘Basic traffic rules are critical for preventing road crashes. Our goal is to achieve full global adherence to all UN road safety instruments’

As roads become increasingly safe in some countries they are becoming more unsafe in others, leading to a relative standstill in worldwide road safety development. To achieve safer roads all around the world, more countries need to sign up to the United Nation’s road safety conventions and implement their corresponding regulations.

UNECE’s Éva Molnár emphasizes that, although these regulations provide a framework necessary for minimising road crashes, even comparatively safe Western European countries still need to work on enforcement issues to maintain and further improve road safety.   

Rules to protect road users
Established in 1947, the Inland Transport Committee (ITC) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) provides the UN conventions on road safety. These conventions are designed to ensure that, from harmonisation of road signs to the enforcement of traffic violations, rules are in place to protect road users. The ITC aims to achieve full global coverage since its rules and regulations are essential for preventing road crashes and the social and economic costs they invariably bring. ‘Road safety continues to be in a state of crisis,’ says Éva Molnár, director of UNECE Transport Division. ‘Statistics show there was no overall progress between 2007 and 2010. At the same time demand for mobility is increasing fast due to population growth and rapid urbanisation. Successful poverty eradication has increased the size of the global middle class, thereby further increasing demand for individual mobility.’ 

Legal instruments

One of the ways the ITC supports governments in making roads safer is by providing legal instruments. ‘These legal instruments cover many aspects of road safety, including traffic rules, road signs and signals, transport of dangerous goods, construction and technical inspection of vehicles, and driving times and rest periods for professional drivers,’ says Molnár. ‘They are laid down in the 1949 and 1968 Conventions on Road Traffic, which form the basis for the majority of traffic rules around the world. Furthermore, the 1968 Convention on Road Signs and Signals sets up more than 200 commonly agreed reference road signs and signals, and prescribes common norms for traffic light signals and uniform conditions for road markings. 

Number of UN Transport Conventions and Agreements per country 

Vienna Conventions

The 1968 Conventions are shortly referred to as the Vienna Conventions. The homogenisation of road signs and signals and traffic rules facilitates smooth journeys between countries and internationalises road safety management beyond borders. The more countries adhere to these international legal instruments, the safer the roads will become.’

Main International Traffic Arteries
Going beyond the Vienna Conventions, the European Agreement on Main International Traffic Arteries offers a catalogue of technical standards to ensure roads of international importance are built to be safe. Molnár: ‘This agreement promotes the homogeneity of road infrastructure across much of the Euro-Asian continent by ensuring roads of the same classification category look the same, are built the same way and are equipped with road signs in a harmonized manner.’

Decade of Action
Altogether UNECE manages a total of 58 transport-related international legal instruments which are subject to regular review. Molnár: ‘Some 72 countries have now signed up to the 1968 Convention on Road Traffic, and 62 to the 1968 Convention on Road Signs and Signals. Eighty per cent of vehicle manufacturing countries have signed up for either the 1958 or 1998 vehicle regulations agreements. Our goal in the UN Decade of Action is to achieve full global adherence to all UN road safety legal instruments so that the legal and regulatory framework essential for fighting the road safety crisis is in place in all of the world’s countries.’  

Step towards saving lives
‘Within Europe, Western European countries are the most progressed in their implementation of the UN road safety legal instruments,’ says Molnár. ‘Our focus is now on improving road safety management in the low- and middle-income countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In other Asian countries, Latin America and Africa the priority is awareness raising and ensuring accession to the UN road safety legal instruments as a first step towards saving lives.

We are ready to cooperate

‘In low- and middle-income countries, the importance of road safety management is not recognised by institutions nor does it receive adequate funding. There are relatively few safe vehicles and a lack of safe infrastructure. Driving is also dangerous because there are either no appropriate rules or, if rules do exist, they are not respected or enforced. Rules are key. Even in countries such as Sweden, where good results have been achieved, rules are indispensable. We are ready to cooperate with governments and international organisations – governmental or non-governmental – to make a difference.’

 
Auteur: Joske van Lith