Improving road safety through speed management in Bogotá

Improving road safety through speed management in Bogotá

The GRSF is part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS). The Program objectives are to reduce road crash deaths and serious injuries in 10 cities: Accra, Addis Ababa, Bandung, Bangkok, Bogotá, Fortaleza, Ho Chi Minh City, Mumbai, São Paulo and Shanghai and 5 countries (China, India, Philippines, Tanzania, Thailand).

In Bogotá, a network of approximately 200 km of roads has been assessed for road safety risks in the BIGRS program. The results show that over 40% of this network has an iRAP star rating of 1 or 2 for bicyclists, and over 60% is 1 or 2 stars for pedestrians.

Scenarios tested using iRAP, along with input from the BIGRS partnership, showed significant safety benefits from reducing the speed limit from 60 to 50 km/h in key arterial roads. The city of Bogotá gradually reduced speed limits in 10 arterial roads, along with manual enforcement and planned installation for the first time in the city of automated enforcement cameras.

This has resulted in a 22% reduction in traffic fatalities on those roads.

In order to complement the road safety recommendations provided through BIGRS and to increase the number of cyclists on the roads, the city requested World Bank and GRSF advisory services to improve data analytics on bicycle travel patterns; assist in the development of a personal security strategy; and advise on policy issues related to pedicabs.

Under this program GRSF and the BIGRS partnership has supported:

• 200 km​ roads surveyed and assessed

• 200 km​ roads where designs, scenarios or implementation have been star rated

• 77 km​ of construction completed or speed limits modified based on iRAP survey recommendations

• 1,565 professionals trained on road safety

• 6,410+ potential deaths and serious injuries to be prevented over 20 years