Cycling itself is not dangerous; the danger lies in sharing the road with fast and furious drivers.
By Renata Falzoni — Urban architect and journalist specialized in active mobility.
May Yellow is the month of that festival of campaigns, focused on repeating little rules of good manners like “pedestrian cross at the crosswalk,” “driver wear a seatbelt,” “motorcyclist wear a helmet.”
The main reason why these campaigns have a low impact on traffic safety is that they do not focus on the system as a whole, they do not directly touch the emotions of the traffic participants, and they are not associated with structural changes in the streets. They do not provoke empathy and do not change people’s behavior. They are just more harmless noise in the citizens’ daily lives, and their results are meager and ephemeral.
Brazil was once a world leader in combating smoking, public policies for AIDS prevention, achieving vaccination goals, and having the Unified Health System (SUS) as a means of universal access to healthcare for the population. But there is another side to this coin: Brazil is the champion of preventable deaths due to the pandemic and has never been threatened as one of the top three countries worldwide in deaths and injuries from traffic accidents. It amounts to over 45,000 lives lost each year, with an estimated cost of 50 billion reais per year. (1)
It is known that the deadliest combination in traffic is drunk driving combined with high speed, and even today in 2023, here in Brazil, conversations in person or on social media still revolve around mocking jokes about the supposed right to drink and drive. In other words, for Brazilians, it is “cool” to break traffic laws and evade inspections, which are increasingly rare and ineffective. Deaths, including those of many close relatives, are brushed aside and accepted as if they were normal occurrences.
The fact is that Brazil is lagging far behind in this global war against traffic violence, which, according to the WHO, claimed 1.35 million lives in 2021 and remains the leading cause of death among young people aged 5 to 29. (2) This high mortality rate has been widely fought against worldwide, and one of the milestones in this battle began in 1997 in Sweden with Vision Zero, a method of managing mobility where no death or injury in traffic is deemed acceptable. (3)
Vision Zero starts from a logical premise: If there is a human being involved, especially males, who are the main victims and causes of deaths on streets and roads worldwide, human errors and recklessness will occur. Therefore, the entire management of mobility is based on the certainty that there will be human failure and transgressions. When this happens, as it is certain to happen, deaths and injuries must be prevented.
With this approach, the focus shifts from “blame” to “responsibility,” and this goes far beyond semantics. In Vision Zero, the entire urban environment is designed in such a way that a driver behind the wheel is encouraged to respect the rules and thus avoid accidents. Similar to what happens in aviation, where every incident is analyzed, and the sequence of events is modified to prevent its recurrence, in the case of urban mobility, designers, traffic managers, automotive engineers study the causes and modify the circumstances, including road infrastructure and vehicle design, brakes, and so on.
In short, Vision Zero has brought aviation practice to the streets and roads. It is a method that works on the entire system. It does not seek to blame an individual for an inevitable human error or misbehavior. In Vision Zero, the complexity of the system is recognized, and the authorities take responsibility and promote the necessary changes. This is a stark contrast to blaming the victim who died on the asphalt, as is often done here.
In this context, the main tool of Vision Zero is “Traffic Calming,” which involves reducing maximum speeds in urban environments, benefiting everyone.
Lower speeds not only increase the driver’s field of vision, allowing them to predict and avoid potential accidents, but also save lives and improve traffic flow.
Traffic calming goes beyond simply putting up a sign indicating a maximum speed. In order for people to follow traffic rules, there needs to be a logic in the urban space that guarantees the preference and safety of those who are actively moving and encourages motorized vehicles to respect that.
The design of streets, avenues, and sidewalks is reimagined in a way that encourages drivers to proceed calmly and attentively. The same applies to all other actors, such as pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, and the entire chain of participants.
Pedestrian routes must follow desire lines, and drivers should have clear visibility of pedestrians and cyclists. The street design and floor markings should prompt drivers to reduce speed during turns. Pedestrian crossings should be narrower. In short, traffic calming means much more than simply changing the maximum speed limit signs. The entire context is transformed so that all participants can share the urban space safely.
Taking a closer look at active mobility, connected sidewalks and bike paths are crucial. However, in cities where vehicles circulate closely and at high speeds, these infrastructures do not provide the necessary safety, especially for women and children.
The perpetual discomfort of living alongside high-speed automobiles leads to the desolation of cities. And it’s not without reason, as being hit by a vehicle traveling at 50 km/h, a speed still considered “safe” in Brazilian cities, only gives you about a 15% chance of survival. If the collision occurs at 40 km/h, the chances increase to about 70%. Being hit at 30 km/h raises the victim’s chance of survival to over 90%, as at this speed, drivers generally have enough time to brake and avoid the incident. (4)
When traveling at 50 km/h, drivers have a significantly reduced field of vision of their surroundings, making it impossible for them to avoid an accident at that speed. Therefore, Brazilian authorities, by allowing high speeds in their cities, are directly complicit in the daily death toll, yet the Public Prosecutor’s Office has not yet fully acknowledged this fact.
Returning to “Maio Amarelo” (Yellow May), instead of simply repeating the well-known traffic rules in ineffective campaigns or terrifying citizens with gruesome images of accidents followed by bloodshed, mobility managers should use “Maio Amarelo” as an opportunity to promote structural and effective changes in their cities and make these changes the focus of their campaigns.
In other words, what should be done is to use the month of May to announce new paradigms in mobility, changes that have come to save lives, and defend them in educational campaigns during “Maio Amarelo,” proving why change is beneficial for everyone.
There is still time to change the semantics as part of the method. Since January 2021, the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards (ABNT) has started referring to “accidents” as “traffic incidents” followed by their correct denomination, such as collisions and pedestrian accidents. This is absolutely correct, considering that 90% of traffic incidents are preventable, meaning they were not accidents in the true sense. (5)
(2) https://news.un.org/pt/story/2021/11/1771092
(3) https://visionzero.global/
(4) http://vias-seguras.com/os_acidentes/acidentes_com_pedestres
