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Low-cost life savers

By Paul Constance

A traffic accident has to be truly horrific to make headlines in Latin America these days. Like the bus in El Salvador that recently plunged into a ravine while attempting to pass on a curve, killing more than 30 passengers.

The danger of driving on most Latin American roads has become a macabre cliché—and a drain on the region’s societies and economies. According to estimates compiled by the Danish Road Directorate in a study financed by the IDB, at least 100,000 people are killed in traffic accidents and 1.2 million are injured each year in Latin America. The cost of these accidents, measured in lost productivity, hospital bills and other factors, is estimated at $30 billion.

Traffic accidents occur far more frequently in Latin America than in most industrialized countries. For every 10,000 vehicles in circulation, the average Latin American country registers around 18 traffic fatalities per year. In the United States, Canada, Japan and several European countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCED), the average is only 2.4 fatalities per 10,000 vehicles.

But the most singular phenomenon on Latin America’s streets is the number of pedestrians who are hit and killed by vehicles. About half of all traffic accidents take place in the region’s cities, and between one-half and one-third of those killed are pedestrians—not vehicle drivers or passengers. According to Charles Wright, a senior economist and transportation expert at the IDB, this is due partly to the fact that the region’s cities are very densely populated and that walking is still the main form of transportation for most urban dwellers.

But the bigger reason for pedestrian fatalities, he adds, is that the traffic circulation system in most Latin American cities was designed with only vehicles in mind. In many cities sidewalks are narrow, poorly marked or nonexistent, forcing pedestrians to take their chances in the street. Stop signs are rare. Traffic lights at some intersections do not allow pedestrians enough time to actually cross the street. Poor lighting on many roads makes it difficult for drivers to see pedestrians at night or in the early morning hours when children are walking to school. Finally, a chronic lack of effective enforcement keeps drivers from obeying speed limits and other rules of the road.

Unfortunately, things are likely to get worse. Economic growth and liberalized trade over the last decade have led to a surge in the number of automobiles on the region’s roads. Though car ownership in the region remains low by international standards (about 100 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants, compared to nearly 500 for industrialized countries in the oecd), it is poised to grow. The world’s leading auto makers have invested billions of dollars in Mexican, Brazilian and Argentine production facilities during the last few years, hoping to capture a vast potential market for more affordable cars. The region’s cities, already choking with vehicles, will only get more dangerous to drive in.

Quick fix. When they are confronted with the reality of traffic accidents, many Latin Americans react with fatalism. Traffic accidents are often thought to be a matter of bad luck. Any significant improvement in traffic safety is assumed to be prohibitively expensive.

This is a tragic misconception. As Wright and other specialists continually point out, there are a number of relatively inexpensive measures that cities can take to quickly reduce pedestrian traffic fatalities by more than half. Several of these options are illustrated in the diagram on these pages. “When even a few of these measures are applied consistently and accompanied by effective public awareness campaigns, the results can be dramatic,” says Wright.

Consider the case of Belo Horizonte, capital of Brazil’s state of Minas Gerais, which until the late 1970s had one of the country’s highest traffic accident rates. The city’s roads, designed in the era of horse- drawn vehicles, funneled traffic from perpendicular and diagonal avenues and streets into a series of giant, multilane rotundas. As motor vehicle traffic grew, the rotundas became deathtraps for pedestrians and nightmares for motorists. In 1980 city officials decided to close the diagonal streets at the intersections and turn them into parking areas and pedestrian lanes. Sidewalks and medians at the intersections were extended in order to funnel traffic into just a few well-defined paths. Traffic lights were installed and programmed to give pedestrians adequate time to cross. Buses were rerouted and bus stops placed in protected areas. Traffic fatalities in Belo Horizonte dropped by 75 percent after these measures were implemented, says Wright.

A thorough approach to road safety requires much more than the measures illustrated on this page, of course. Pedestrian-oriented transportation plans, better traffic laws and regulations, more effective enforcement by the police and stricter requirements for driving licenses are all needed. “These are the key long-term objectives,” says Wright. “But in the meantime, cities can take simple steps that will save thousands of lives.”

For a detailed look at these issues, see “Traffic Safety: Using Engineering to Reduce Accidents,” by IDB consultant Philip Gold, available in English, Portuguese and Spanish. Call (202) 623-1753 or e-mail IDB-books@iadb.org.

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