Enabling safe mobility environment stressed upon at webinar in Amity University

A webinar on ‘National Road Safety Month-20201’ was conducted by Prof. Sanjay Gupta, Professor of Transport Planning, School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi who shared that road traffic injury is the leading causes of death across the globe & how the problem is more severe in developing economies. He stated that the growth of registered vehicles, especially cars have been growing at a fair pace and how safe transport mobility solutions is missing across cities in the country leading to an increasing number of accidents. Prof. Gupta added that more than 1.5 lakh deaths occurred in the country in 2019 with more than 10% of global fatalities occurring in India stressing on the need for a safer road environment. He also called for controlling the speed through technology, or by better driver training to bring down the number of fatal accidents in the country.  

Talking of India’s unique challenges, he added that the large population; mixed users of roads; missing safe crossing infrastructure make it tough for ensuring safety on the roads both in rural and urban areas. Further increasing urban sprawl results in more fatalities and called for compact planning of cities. Prof. Gupta also stressed on the need for behaviour modification by multi-prong action plan including improving driving skills; reducing unsafe behaviour and motivate for safe behaviour; increase knowledge of the rules of the road; target unsafe actions including distracted driving (mobile phones) and drunk driving & addressing specific population including teenagers. He also shared the need for people-centric approach to safe transport infrastructure having efficient, equitable & environment-friendly transport. He emphasized on improving the footpaths in the country to allow people to move safely and make them take up walking more frequently. To make road safety be more effective, he stressed on increasing road traffic safety education and training. He said that the government needs to come forward to fund research in road safety and have a dedicated agency set up. Prof. Gupta also laid thrust on having transport planning focus areas for improving road safety & enable safe mobility environment.  

Suggesting strategies for improving road safety, the speaker emphasized on carrying out road safety audits regularly; development of urban road speed management strategy through the creation of speed zones and better enforcement; the need for proper recording, collection and handling of data; strengthening primitive traffic management practices with the latest techniques such as intelligent transport system and set up City Road Safety Councils (CRC’s) in cities & establish dedicated Urban Road Safety Fund.  

Mr. A.P. Singh, Director, ASIBAS /Sr. Advisor (F.P.O) and VP, RBEF, Amity School of Insurance, Banking & Actuarial Science welcomed the gathering and shared with students how this year instead of "Road, Safety Week", a month-long campaign "National Road Safety Month" is being observed from 18th January 2021 to 17th February 2021 on the theme "Sadak Suraksha- Jeevan Raksha". He added that this month-long celebration will encourage youth engagement in this area. He averred that the role of bystanders is integral to prevent deaths due to road accidents by helping in getting timely medical care.  
Also, present on the occasion was Dr Kamal Gulati. Associate Professor. Amity School of Insurance, Banking & Actuarial Science along with hundreds of students, staff, and faculty members.