WHO Global Status Report on Road Safety ignores safe roadway operations

Earlier this week, the World Health Organization published a Global Status Report on Road Safety financed by NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg's foundation (Bloomberg announced the findings). The report found 85% of the countries in the world need more government regulations to improve safety. Less than half have addressed "all the five key risk factors reviewed -- speed, drink-driving, helmets, seat-belts and child restraints."

It's not just the bias for regulations on citizen (driver) behavior, characteristic of the mayor's style that is making the Big Apple the epitome of nanny-statism in the U.S., nor can one disagree with the appallling toll of roadway deaths and injuries, many of which are entirely preventable -- no, the problem is that the focus is ONLY on the driver when the problem also involves vehicles and roadway conditions.

When it comes to vehicles, their operators are lumped into the category of "vulnerable road users." In short, roads built for commercial mobility and commercial competititveness but congested with animal-driven vehicles, pedestrians and all manner of tuk-tuk-type vehicles traveling at slow and variable speeds, are a given. They need protection.  They're victims, not part of the problem.  It's a flawed mentality.

With regard to roadways, unsafe conditions in roadway engineering, pavement maintenance, signing, marking and, yes, winter maintenance in areas impacted by snow and ice, are also totally ignored. Managing traffic incidents and other special traffic-impeding events like work zones and sporting event traffic is similarly absent.

The Report laments that poorer countries haven't learned the lessons of their more developed peers. Unfortunately, much of that sad-but-wiser experience won't be gained in this report.