The Deputy Mayor for Prevention and Safety, Albert Batlle, and the Councillor for Mobility, Rosa Alarcón, attended the 26th edition of the Road Safety Forum this morning, addressing the human factor in road safety. The forum was also attended by Josep Mateu, chair of the RACC, Juli Gendrau, head of the Catalan Traffic Service, and Yolanda Doménech, psychologist and head of the P(A)T traffic accident prevention association.
This year’s forum, held today, placed the emphasis on the fact that road safety is closely linked to people’s daily lives and the gender perspective.
The Deputy Mayor Albert Batlle used the institutional opening to stress how road safety is closely linked to everything we do on a daily basis and that there are differential factors with mobility and road safety which have to do with gender. Batlle also explained that the inclusion of smart safety technology on board vehicles is already happening: “Systems for warning of distractions, emergency braking, sign detection, the elimination of blind spots, night vision and so forth are very useful instruments for preventing accidents and gauging and assessing accidents”.
Batlle added that during the forum the intention was to reflect on the use of technology and assisted driving systems: “Improving road safety involves the concept of smart mobility being introduced to serve people and their joint responsibility as drivers, as human error is behind 80% of traffic accidents”, explained the Deputy Mayor, adding: “Slashing this figure is one of our main priorities. The challenge for us all is to work with the vision of zero accidents, putting people at the centre and thinking about individual responsibility and victims alike”.
For her part, the Councillor for Mobility, Rosa Alarcón, closed out the forum by highlighting that people must be at the centre of all policies to improve road safety: “Everybody at the forum fully agrees that road safety with zero accidents is a citizen right, linked to the right to life, and that this is inalienable”.
The Councillor also explained that gender difference in road safety will only be overcome through education, awareness and cultural change, meaning that in the long term, cautious and sustainable conduct in mobility should be shared by men and women.
In terms of technology at the service of road safety and accident prevention, Alarcón noted that to be truly smart, more than anything mobility needs to be human, safe and sustainable: “Mobility which serves the needs of people and society and which is accessible to everybody”. In this respect, the Councillor highlighted the importance of working to reduce the digital divide, particularly among the most vulnerable groups for road safety: the elderly, infants and people with reduced mobility, because they are the ones who can benefit from the progress of smart mobility in road safety.
Round tables
In the first round table, entitled ‘Road safety with gender perspective’, all the speakers considered that there are different needs in the behaviour of men and women. Many prevention policies to date have only taken men into consideration, but the participants concluded that from now on there must be analysis and study to differentiate ways of reducing and preventing accidents.
The second session talked about technology to serve road safety and accident prevention. All three speakers concluded that technology does not solve the aggressiveness to be found on the road, but that it can help detect offences, bring together evidence and help reconstruct an accident. They also added that technology is fundamental for making progress in understanding what happened in an accident.
Other topics included young people’s vision towards technology and the impact of the pandemic on public transport and mobility.
After the round tables, Juan José Vilanova, Deputy Chief of the City Police, highlighted the importance of follow-up for traffic victims so that they feel they have support. Vilanova also expressed the commitment of the corps to keep working on road safety to make the city a safer place.
All the speeches are available on the forum website, along with the rest of the information for the 2020 edition and the conclusions and speeches from previous editions. The recording of the whole forum will be available soon.
Organisers: Barcelona City Council, the Catalan Traffic Service, P(A)T and the RACC.