Publications

The WHO, World Bank, FIA Foundation and Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) produced a series of good practice manuals, following the publication of the World report on road traffic injury prevention in 2004, which provide guidance on implementation of interventions to address specific risk factors in road safety. The topics covered in the initial series of manuals were: helmets (2006), drinking and driving (2007), speed management (2008), seat-belts and child restraints (2009), data systems (2010), pedestrian safety (2013), road safety legislation (2013), powered two- and three-wheeler safety (2017) and cyclist safety (2020).

Since the series of manuals was first published, the scientific evidence base relating to various risk factors and the effectiveness of interventions have continued expanding. Contemporary research has refined our knowledge about specific risk factors, such as distracted driving, and vehicle impact speed and risk of death for pedestrians. New issues and practices have arisen, such as a tropical helmet standard and an anti-braking control standard for motorcycles. New and existing interventions have been implemented and evaluated, with increasing application in LMICs. Research attention and policy response have also increasingly been applied to emerging road safety issues including e-bikes, drugs other than alcohol, fleet safety, urban mobility, micro mobility options, air and noise pollution, public transport and technological advances.

As a result of these developments, the good practice manuals required revision so that they can continue to be key references for road safety policy implementation and research. This is particularly important, given the emphasis placed on road safety within the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and because of the global impetus to reduce road deaths and injuries, resulting from the declaration of the two United Nations’ Decades of Action for Road Safety (2011–2020 and 2021– 2030). The manuals have been revised to reflect these developments as they continue to be valuable resources providing evidence-based and cost-effective solutions to save lives and reduce injuries.

The management of speed remains one of the biggest challenges facing road safety practitioners around the world and calls for a concerted, long-term, multidisciplinary response. The speed at which a vehicle travels directly influences the risk of a crash as well as the severity of injuries sustained, and the likelihood of death resulting from that crash. This manual advocates for a strong and strategic approach to creating a Safe System, with speed management at its heart. Reducing motor vehicle speeds in areas where the road user mix includes a high volume of vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and cyclists, and on non-divided rural roads, is especially important.

Across the developing world, countries are experiencing rapid growth in urbanization and motorization. While high motorization rates potentially meant hat more people will be able to claim the benefits of improved accessibility to goods and services as a consequence of enhanced mobility, there are questions about the sustainability of this future. Will countries be able to build and maintain infrastructure to accommodate increasing numbers of vehicles? Will the increasing number of vehicles and their characteristics support attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Will they put in jeopardy countries’ ability to meet their climate commitments under their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)? From a development impact standpoint, the nature of a country’s motor vehicle stock and how it grows affects three key and tangible outcomes.

First, the quality of the motor vehicle stock affects road safety outcomes—that is, the number of people killed or seriously injured in motor vehicle crashes. The characteristics of vehicles and their fitness or roadworthiness can affect fatality and serious injury outcomes. Second, the quality of the motor vehicle fleet affects air quality, particularly in cities. Motor vehicles are a key source of harmful air pollution, including carbon monoxide (CO), fine particulates (PM2.5), sulfur oxides (SOx), and ozone precursors (oxides of nitrogen and various hydrocarbons), and the amount of these pollutants they emit is directly related to how the vehicle was built and how well it is maintained. Finally, the profile of the vehicle fleet—what is the size and weight of vehicles in the fleet, how big are their engines, what kind of power control technology do they use, and how did their manufacturers engineer the technology of the vehicle to balance power with efficiency—affects the (fossil) fuel consumption of the vehicle stock as a whole, and, consequently, the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions profile of the road transport sector.

This report presents the World Bank’s Motorization Management (MM) framework, which is intended to support client countries in the development of policies and measures aimed at managing vehicle stocks in a proactive, phased, and systematic manner to make them safer, cleaner, and more fuel efficient. The MM framework reflects a series of policy considerations and programs that can be implemented to improve the quality of fuels and vehicles in a country’s stock.

This manual provides guidance and evidence for decision-makers and practitioners that should lead to an increase in the use of vehicle occupant restraints, such as seat-belts for adults and car seats for babies and children. It draws on experience from countries that have succeeded in achieving and sustaining high levels of vehicle occupant restraint use, and builds on new evidence, including from low and middle-income countries.

Safe, quality helmets reduce the risk of death in a road crash by over six times, and reduce the risk of brain injury by up to 74%. Head trauma is the leading cause of death for riders, and motorcycles continue to proliferate rapidly. Yet the use of helmets in many low and middle-income countries remains low. 

The second edition of the Helmets Manual offers guidance to help decision makers and practitioners put in place the comprehensive set of laws, regulations and actions needed to increase the use of safe, quality helmets to save lives.  

This manual provides guidance for decision-makers and practitioners to reduce the prevalence of drink driving and associated road trauma. It draws on experience from countries that have succeeded in achieving and sustaining reductions in alcohol-related road trauma, and includes recommendations for developing and implementing drink driving legislation, and advice on how to monitor and evaluate progress. 

In developing countries with inadequate public transport and road infrastructure, motorcycles present a fast, cheap, and efficient transport alternative. Motorcycles are widely used in many African countries for personal and public transport, as well as for service delivery. In some African countries, motorized two and three-wheelers constitute the largest proportion of the motorized vehicle population. However, despite their benefits, motorcycles expose their riders and passengers to a high risk of serious injury or death in the event of crashes. Motorcycle safety is therefore a significant problem in Africa. On average, 22.5% of road traffic deaths in 2016 involved riders/passengers of two- and three-wheelers, according to the last data published by World Health Organization (WHO, 2018).

This research study presents comprehensive strategic recommendations on how to improve motorcycle safety in Africa. The study will serve as policy advice and technical assistance to the Bank’s regional member countries (RMCs). The study focuses on motorcycle safety conditions in Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Rwanda, and Uganda, where the use of motorcycles for daily activities is reputedly high. Recommendations are predicated on an examination of the major causes of motorcycle crashes and injuries, as well as an extensive body of knowledge from various sources, notably:

• international literature and good practices on motorcycle safety;
• assessment of motorcycle crashes, regulations, risk exposure data, risk indicators in African countries (with more detailed analysis of Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Rwanda, and Uganda); and
• consultations with stakeholders.

What is the real cost of speeding on people and the environment? These 6 graphs tell the story ⌵︎

The impacts of speed on the safety of road users, on congestion, on pollution, and on total costs of road travel are broadly misunderstood: often based on wrong assumptions, with effects taken as self-evident, failure to consider multiple impacts, externalization of costs by many stakeholders, and under-estimation of impacts (especially economic costs of higher speeds). The purpose of this brief note is to provide information on these relationships relevant to fundamental road transport policies, design, and operation. Well-established evidence shows the importance of managing travel speeds for road safety, for efficiency, for improved inclusion, and for greenhouse gas (GHG) and other emissions. Thus, speed management is a strong policy lever for the breadth of issues which must be addressed for sustainable mobility.

Reduced speeds of travel represent a major, yet under-appreciated, opportunity to improve safety, climate change impacts of travel, health, inclusion, the economy, and in some circumstances, congestion. Speed management can be achieved through a range of interventions including road infrastructure and vehicle technology, as well as enforcement and promotion.

The six graphs presented in this note tell a powerful story, across the range of these benefits of speed management.

This publication is also available in:

Spanish

Vietnamese 

This guide has been prepared to assist a jurisdiction to determine the level of readiness to move to automated enforcement (AE). Speed cameras enforcing speed limits are a common application of AE and there are many systemic legal and operational elements that must be in place before AE can be effective. For example, an accurate image of a speeding vehicle, in the absence of robust driver licensing and vehicle registration systems, is of little road safety value. Importantly, automated speed enforcement should be considered as one part of a comprehensive speed management approach that includes road infrastructure and roadside policing as well. The management of speed is a fundamental element of the Safe System.

Aims of this document:

• To briefly identify the powerful practical value of AE in saving lives and reducing injuries.

• To identify issues and criteria to be considered before commencing automated enforcement. To identify steps to be taken to achieve readiness for automated enforcement. To identify issues to improve existing automated enforcement systems.

• To provide a checklist to ensure adequate consideration is given to issues to assess readiness to implement an AE system or improve an existing system.

Other illegal behaviours, including disobeying a red light signal, mobile or cellular phone use, incorrect lane use, and non-restraint use can also be detected using an automated enforcement approach. However, this document applies specifically to automated speed enforcement, because speed management requires significant attention worldwide and plays a critical role in reducing road traffic deaths and injuries.

Document also available in French, Portuguese, Vietnamese and Spanish.