Image credit: Vision Zero for Youth

Our congratulations to the Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, Claudia López for receiving the 2021 International Vision Zero for Youth Leadership Award.

The Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, Claudia López, has set specific goals to reduce overall fatalities and the number of youth fatalities (teenagers and young adults between 14 and 28 years old) in the city by 20%. Both goals are to be reached in the four years of the current government (from 2020 to 2024).

We are pleased to have supported local partners, through the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS), in their award-winning efforts to improve cyclist and school zone safety in the city.

As part of the BIGRS project, iRAP assessments of 936km in different scenarios, including:

• Infrastructure conditions under speeds during the night.
• Infrastructure conditions under speeds – equal or above the speed limits (60km/h)
• Infrastructure conditions under speeds – 50km/h.
• Review of barrier changes on the main road Av Circunvalar (14 kms in length).

These scenarios helped develop the argument to reduce speeds in the city area. iRAP also trained 75 people from the Secretariat of Mobility (SoM) to build their capacity to perform iRAP assessments.

Creating safer journeys to and from schools for children – using the Star Rating for Schools tool

In 2018, as part of the city’s Vision Zero approach, the Bogota Mobility Secretariat launched their 2,000th safe school zone. Given the results of the risk evaluation and local conditions, dangerous locations were prioritized, and as part of the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS), in partnership with the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility and NACTO-GDCI, the Mobility Secretariat started a pilot project testing countermeasures with temporary materials to verify their impact.

Cones and plants were introduced to create safe pedestrian crossings to the school, protect vulnerable users and enforce motorised vehicles to travel at a safe speed. After adjusting detailed designs and meeting with the community to discuss impressions and results, a permanent solution was implemented leading to improvements from 2- and 3-stars to 4- and 5-star safety.

Read the Bogota, Colombia Star Rating for Schools Case Study here

We congratulate Bogota and the SoM for their prioritisation of vulnerable road users, providing safer spaces for the community to walk and cycle.

#StreetsforLife

Read more on the Award here  https://www.visionzeroforyouth.org/stories/bogota-colombia/

Read more on iRAP’s contribution to the project here:

• https://irap.org/2018/07/safer-school-zone-launched-at-rodrigo-lara-school-bogota/
• https://irap.org/2017/12/successful-launch-of-road-safety-interventions-for-vulnerable-users-bogota-colombia/