Road Safety Challenges in LATAM

As part of the ITS 50th anniversary celebrations, we welcome back alumnus Alvaro Guzman, MSc Sustainability in Transport 2010 and PhD 2016 as our guest speaker today.

To join the online seminar visit: https://universityofleeds.zoom.us/j/88215450303

Alvaro Guzman graduated from ITS with his MSc Sustainability in Transport in 2010 and later returned to complete his PhD in 2016. After graduating from ITS the first time Alvaro was invited by the Association of Municipalities of Ecuador to provide advice on a good practice guide for local transport planning and methods of policy implementation. He later collaborated with the Municipality of Quito and the Ministry of Transport in the design of 80 km of bicycle ways. After completing his PhD at ITS, Alvaro was invited to be Undersecretary of Road Transport and later Executive Director of the National Transit Agency, where he led important transport planning and safety reforms. This contributed to fast decrease of road deaths in intercity public transport, 78% less deaths on the roads and a 45% decrease in bus accidents. He also developed a base needs national transport plan, IRMOVA, in which with the use of census and mobile phone data and constant participation of different stakeholders, he designed a transport plan that aimed at satisfying transport needs of the most vulnerable sectors of Ecuador. He currently works as a Road Safety Advocacy and Grants Consultant for Latin America, Global Road Safety Partnership. 

Abstract:

Over 1.2 million people die each year on the world’s roads, and between 20 and 50 million suffer non-fatal injuries. Over 90% of the world’s fatalities on the roads occur in low-income and middle-income countries, which have only 48% of the world’s registered vehicles.  Governments in LATAM have failed to achieve the reductions planned in the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety. Recent development led by civil society is bringing new hope towards reducing this sad reality in Latin American Countries. In this seminar Alvaro will share how the work of local NGOs are leading the way to having safer roads in these countries.

There will be a Q&A session at the end of the presentation curated by Prof Samantha Jamson, Professor of Transport Psychology and everyone is encouraged to participate.

Please ensure your camera and microphone are switched off during the presentation to help preserve bandwidth and minimise any disruptions.

If you have any queries please email J.Cleaver@leeds.ac.uk

We look forward to seeing you.