Summary of a case study published in 2019
Mumbai is the world’s most densely populated city, and many of its millions of citizens rely on public transport. Yet in moving around the city pedestrians are exposed to dangerous road conditions, and tragically account for more than half of road deaths in the city. Citizens need safer roads and more public transport options.
To leverage Mumbai’s strong political will and increase local capacity for road safety, in 2015 the city authorities partnered with the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS). The collaboration brought a scientific approach to road safety and provided insight on some of the best practices from around the world. Under the leadership of the Municipal Corporation for Greater Mumbai (MCGM), various city and state-level agencies came together with global expert organizations to look at what could be done to improve the safety of the city’s roads.
By 2019, over 180 km of Mumbai’s roads had been assessed for safety improvements. Recommendations on immediate changes had been incorporated into existing infrastructure, demonstrating how roads can be made safer through simple changes. The assessments also looked at how to make improvements on future designs on roads scheduled for maintenance over the coming years.
Mumbai and BIGRS measured progress by gathering and analyzing data that had previously been difficult to access, such as victim demographics or environmental conditions in the areas where crashes occurred. They also evaluated infrastructure improvements, helping the government understand and quantify how interventions could save lives. Biannual observational studies – where researchers stand on street corners and monitor helmet wearing, seatbelt-wearing and other risk factors – also helped stakeholders take evidence-based intervention decisions.
Where high-risk behaviours were identified, police enforcement was enhanced through operating recommendations and training. Between 2015 and 2019, over 950 officials received training on key road safety risk factors including the enforcement of legislation related to drink-driving, speeding, helmet wearing, seatbelt-wearing, and safer infrastructure design. This helped improvement enforcement of existing laws linked to these areas.
Coordination was important. BIGRS had significant experience coordinating the work of multiple city, state and national government agencies with that of international and local NGOs. In Mumbai this involved designating focal points, holding an annual road safety forum and coordinating annual multi-stakeholder workplans. The collaborative approach was praised for creating a high-impact environment for road safety efforts. It also resulted in high-level officials from the state and city governments being involved at different moments of the work, lending visibility and political support.
Finally, public perception of the safety measures was considered critical. Reduced speed limits, increased fines and enforcement could have created resistance to the changes, but mass media could help build understanding of why they were needed. Through a journalist training course, the initiative worked to change media perceptions of these issues to help them understand that road deaths can be prevented through the right laws, programs and infrastructure. Since 2015, BIGRS and the MCGM have measured over 260 positive media reports highlighting the city’s road safety progress.
As a result of this work, lives have been saved by the city. According to observational studies, the city has seen a drastic improvement in helmet wearing and the number of road crash fatalities in Mumbai reduced by 22% since 2015.