23/04/2021

Street for life

On our streets, all over the world, where we walk, enjoy and live together, we demand action against speeding. Streets that facilitate coexistence and have low speed limits are essential and urgent.

Urgent, because driving at low speed saves lives.

Urgent for the SDGs and for the environment, as the key to unlocking a virtuous cycle of active transportation with zero carbon emissions, by reducing car dependency and enabling efficient public transport, cleaner air and lower CO2 emissions.

Urgent for public health, by making walking and cycling safer and more accessible, enabling and encouraging healthy lifestyles. Streets as convivial spaces are more necessary than ever now that we are facing COVID-19.

Urgent for social and racial equity, as minority and lower-income communities are most exposed to high-speed traffic and the road hazards, environmental risks, and social exclusion that such traffic causes.

Urgent for the rights of the disabled, for the elderly and for all vulnerable people.

Urgent for our children and young people and essential for their well-being, as they are exposed to greater risk on the streets where they live, enjoy themselves or go to school. Every day 3,000 children and young people are killed or seriously injured on the world's roads. A child hit by a car traveling at 30 km/h (20 mph) can survive, while most children die if hit at 80 km/h (50 mph). Speeding kills.

The 2020 Stockholm Declaration, adopted by governments around the world, calls for a focus on road livability and, in line with existing evidence, a maximum speed of 30 km/h where vulnerable road users and vehicles coexist. Commitment to this approach must be ever present in the new Decade of Action for Road Safety to achieve the SDGs. Now is the time to urgently respond to this call to action by reducing, designing and implementing speed limits that are safe for everyone, everywhere, prioritizing streets with low speed limits in all residential areas and in the vicinity of schools.

Streets for health. Streets for the environment. Streets for people. We must act together to create #StreetsForLife.

Join us, and sign the Open Letter