The Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) is a 12-year multi-partner initiative that aims to reduce road traffic fatalities and injuries in low- and middle-income countries through a comprehensive data-driven approach.1
This is a key driver in improving global traffic safety, as “93 percent of the world’s fatalities on the roads occur in low- and middle-income countries, even though these countries have approximately 60 percent of the world’s vehicles.”2 Initiative partners representing the world’s leading road safety organizations coordinate with in-country governmental and non-governmental stakeholders to implement road safety activities, focusing on four primary risk factors: speeding, impaired driving, helmet use, and seatbelt use. As a partner on the initiative, the IACP’s primary role is to work alongside in-country law enforcement agencies to implement evidence-based interventions that have been proven to reduce road traffic fatalities and injuries.3
IACP’s Role
The IACP’s involvement with the initiative began in 2017 through supporting enforcement efforts in São Paulo, Brazil, and has expanded to 14 cities in 6 countries. Currently, the IACP is involved as an enforcement partner in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, India, and Mexico to reduce road fatalities and save lives through data-driven enforcement measures. One of the guiding principles of the initiative is the Safe Systems Approach, which is an internationally recognized framework that considers five elements of a safe transportation system in an integrated and holistic manner: safe road users, safe vehicles, safe speeds, safe roads, and post-crash care.4 As a partner on the initiative, the IACP educates traffic enforcement authorities on this approach by improving the officers’ or traffic agents’ understanding of the role of speeding in road deaths and injuries and the importance of traffic enforcement in changing road user behaviors—specifically through increased visible enforcement measures. This approach not only elevates the public’s perception of increased enforcement but deters overall speeding that may lead to injuries or fatalities on the road.
Many of the countries that the IACP is involved with for this initiative have specific police or civil agencies that are responsible for traffic enforcement that can benefit from the Safe Systems Approach framework. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, the main traffic enforcement agency is the Dirección General Cuerpo de Agentes de Control de Tránsito (DGCATRA), or the General Directorate of the Body of Traffic Agents. Prior to the IACP’s involvement, the city exclusively used fixed automated speed cameras to cite vehicle owners through the mail. This method, although useful in reducing speeds on specific stretches of roads, failed to prevent overall speeding in the city or significantly decrease serious injury and fatal road crashes due to limited detection and deterrence capabilities. Based on the IACP’s assessment and work with the DGCATRA, the need for handheld speed cameras was identified as a way to allow the city to expand their speed enforcement operations to various hot spot locations in support of the Safe Systems Approach. These actions resulted in equipment recommendations and ongoing discussions between the IACP and the DGCATRA to improve their enforcement efforts to reduce road crashes.
As a result of the recommendations from the IACP, the city of Buenos Aires purchased nine handheld speed devices to begin roadside speed enforcement operations and requested assistance from the IACP in creating a standard operating procedure (SOP) for roadside speed enforcement operations. Once the SOP was approved by the city in early 2022, the nine speed devices were put to use along with road safety equipment that the IACP donated to the DGCATRA. As a result of the IACP’s guidance, the DGCATRA began implementing speed checkpoints using their handheld speed devices to cite motorists exceeding the speed limit without stopping vehicles at the time of the infraction, sending citations to the vehicle owner later by mail. The presence of on-site officers leads to the public’s increased perception of enforcement, thus creating a deterrent effect in which drivers reduce speeds to avoid a citation.
Vulnerable Road Users
“More than half of all road traffic deaths are among vulnerable road users: pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.”5 In April 2022, the DGCATRA started including motorcycle speed enforcement in addition to four-wheel vehicles; however, they faced a new challenge in this endeavor. Because the checkpoints were set up in a manner that only allowed the agents to capture images of the license plate on the front of the vehicle, motorcyclists were often able to evade this form of enforcement due to the lack of front plates on motorcycles and because the agency was not stopping vehicles on site. Enforcing motorcycle speeding is especially crucial for the DGCATRA because data from the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit showed that motorcycle speeding in Argentina increased 23 percent from December 2020 to May 2022, and motorcycle fatalities increased 26 percent in 2022 compared to the 2019–2021 average.6 Once this obstacle regarding motorcycle speed enforcement was identified, the IACP worked with the DGCATRA to adapt their enforcement efforts to include motorcycles as part of regular speed checkpoints. This collaboration resulted in revised practices in line with the approved SOP that included taking photos of the rear license plate and stopping vehicles and motorcycles at checkpoints immediately after an infraction was identified.
Conclusion
The main premise of this style of enforcement is to deter speeding across the city and to change driver behavior. In cases where the driver is going up to 20 km/h (about 12 mph) over the speed limit, the driver is verbally notified of the violation and the citation is sent by mail to the owner of the vehicle. Conversely, in cases where the speed detected is in excess of 20 km/h over the speed limit, the driver receives a written citation on site, and their license is revoked at the checkpoint. The driver is then given a 48-hour driving permit to return to their home. Similarly, if a driver is traveling at 40 km/h (about 25 mph) or higher over the speed limit, the vehicle is seized by the DGCATRA. As a result of the IACP’s collaboration with the agency, the DGCATRA in Argentina shifted from using only automated fixed speed cameras, to incorporating both automated and manual handheld speed-measuring devices that allowed them to cite some drivers on the scene of the infraction.
Even after these advancements, the IACP continues to support the efforts of the DGCATRA through ongoing train-the-trainer sessions for the Safe Systems Approach to create a self-sustaining approach to allow the agency to continue the trainings after the initiative has ended. Furthermore, the IACP is monitoring the speed operations to identify needs for additional equipment donations that would aid agents in the facilitation of the speed checkpoints. In addition to the work that the IACP has already done regarding speed enforcement in Buenos Aires, the IACP is working to deliver an exchange program for the traffic agents from the city of Córdoba, Argentina, that would share promising practices and support Córdoba in building their local speed enforcement capacity. The speed enforcement measures and observations are also being used to assist other countries under BIGRS to establish and revise their speed operations and enforcement capabilities. Even though this case occurs in Argentina, the practices can be extrapolated to police and traffic agencies around the globe.d
Notes:
1Bloomberg Philanthropies, “The Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety.”
2 World Health Organization (WHO), “Road Traffic Injuries,” June 20, 2022.
3 IACP, “The Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS).”
4Mark Doctor and Chimai Ngo, “Making Our Roads Safer through a Safe System Approach,” Public Roads 85, no. 4 (Winter 2022): 3–7.
5WHO, “Road Traffic Injuries.”
6Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety, “Regional Meeting for Latin America,” June 7-8, 2023.
Please cite as
Maria Pittella, “Reducing Traffic Fatalities through Speed Enforcement,” IACP@Work, Police Chief 90, no. 10 (October 2023): 78–80.
