Successful Ibero-American Virtual Colloquium "Laws that save lives. Reduction to 30 km/h on streets".

Details: Created: Monday, 27 May 2024 17:26

This colloquium, organized by Luchemos por la Vida, with the support of 10 Latin American NGOs, was held last Wednesday, May 22, and was attended by a large number of associations, officials and companies. More than 100 people from Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, El Salvador, Colombia, Costa Rica, México and Spain participated.

During the event, presentations were given by distinguished representatives from Spain, Costa Rica and Argentina, and experiences were shared from successful cities in the application of the 30 km/h reduction in the streets of three cities in Argentina. The enormous interest in this meeting is a demonstration of the need to move forward on this issue for the protection of the most vulnerable in traffic and for the environment, in short, for the promotion of safer, greener and more livable cities within the framework of a safe traffic system.

The speakers' topics

From Spain, Álvaro Gómez, Director of the National Road Safety Observatory of (DGT) Dirección General de Trafico, spoke about the process followed in the country since the implementation of the 30 km/h reduction in several cities, with excellent results, up to the change in the National Legislation of speed limits for all one-way streets to 30 km/h.

The expert Roy Rojas Vargas, Technical Manager of the National Road Council of Costa Rica, spoke about the challenge of reducing speeds, which should be part of a comprehensive program that takes into account the uses of zones or roads 30, the infrastructure changes needed to discourage higher speeds, and the need to measure results in the medium term.

The Mayor Luciano di Nápoli, from the city of Santa Rosa, La Pampa, Argentina, provided information on the design of a strategic mobility plan, agreed upon with the participation of officials and civil society actors, especially relatives of victims, and the process of regulating the 30 km/h reduction in the downtown area of the city and other streets with significant results in reducing mortality rates.

The Secretary of Mobility Planning of the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Antonio Cortes, spoke about infrastructure changes applied to speed reduction in two points of the city with very good results in reducing morbimortality.

The Legislator Silvina Rubio, from the city of Bahía Blanca, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, spoke about the experience of Bahía Blanca on the reduction to 30 km/h in the downtown and other streets with a decrease in the accident rate in the area.

Finally, Mr. Álvaro Nicolás, Technical Advisor of PAT-APAT, Spain, presented the vision of his association regarding the reduction of speed to 30 km/h on streets in the city of Barcelona, in force for almost 20 years, that achieved a halving of road traffic deaths and injuries in the six years following its application, which also coincided with the beginning of the application of the points-based license (Scoring).

Thanks to all the speakers and participants who joined us with great interest in this event.