Indian road safety strategies backed by datasets: Bloomberg Philanthropies director

Hindustan Times

29-05-2025

New Delhi: Although we know that too many people are still dying on Indian roads, it is vital to showcase some initiatives that can be role models for the rest of the country, Bloomberg Philanthropies director Kelly Larson said.
According to the Bloomberg Philanthropies, which began implementing safety initiatives in Indian cities in 2010, Mumbai saw a 39% reduction in road crash fatalities and a 52% reduction in pedestrian fatalities in the last 10 years. Pune recorded a 35% reduction in cyclist fatalities in 2023, compared to 2022.
Notable interventions include ensuring two-wheeler riders in the national capital wear helmets correctly, reclaiming pedestrian space by cordoning off busy intersections in Delhi and Mumbai, and prioritising school safety zones in cities across Maharashtra. She said that the national focus on addressing larger systemic issues by amending the Motor Vehicle Act after 31 years and ensuring strict enforcement of the new law by states has made a significant impact.
Larson said the traffic police in Delhi have only recently begun to actively enforce the helmet-clasping provision, a rule that has been part of the Motor Vehicle Act since 1988. This is an important intervention because two-wheeler riders are among the most vulnerable road users, and head injuries are the leading cause of death in crashes involving them.
Data from the ministry of roads and transport shows that out of 74,897 two-wheeler riders who died in 2022, as many as 50,029 (66.7%) were not wearing helmets. Moreover, there is no record of individuals who wore poor-quality helmets or ones without clasps. Well-fitting, high-quality helmets, according to the World Health Organisation, can reduce the risk of death by more than six times and the risk of brain injury by up to 74%.
In Mumbai, WRI-India, a Bloomberg Philanthropies 'safer streets partner,' experimented using planters and paint to demarcate pedestrian spaces at the busy HP intersection in Bandra, Mumbai. The changes have been made permanent since 2018 and replicated in other parts of the city. Similarly, in 2023, WRI, along with the traffic police, redesigned a traffic junction at Delhi Gate by reallocating the under-utilised space to pedestrians and scaling up the transformation to many other junctions in Delhi.
Larson, who attended multiple stakeholder meetings in India last month, said the current set of road safety strategies is evidence-based and backed by detailed datasets that record when crashes occur, who the crash victims are, what periods most crashes occur in, and most importantly, where the blackspot locations are and identifying leading risk factors such as speeding.
In 2015, Mumbai was one of the 10 cities globally that started working with Bloomberg Philanthropies and its partners on the road safety agenda. In 2020, the partners began supporting Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru, and the state of Maharashtra, and currently, the network includes 27 cities and two Indian states.
Quoting various datasets on how India has only 1% of all the vehicles globally, and yet 13% of all road fatalities occurred here in 2021, Lievanta Millar, who works on public health at Bloomberg Philanthropies, said it was essential to prioritise the needs of pedestrians and cyclists in urban design. 'When discussing road infrastructure, we need to amend the Indian Road Congress guidelines (that lay down design standards) …and ensure that there are wide enough footpaths where small businesses can operate and people can be safe.'
Larson said the Motor Vehicle Amendment Act of 2019 and the focus on enforcement were the key milestones in India's road safety efforts. The new law's provisions were in line with the standards prescribed by WHO on speed, helmet and seat-belt use, and drink driving, but child restraint laws still needed to be strengthened.
She also emphasised safer speed limits on Indian highways, where some of the worst road crashes are reported. She said they should be designed not for speed but for safety, recommending the WHO standard of 80 km per hour as a best practice for expressways.