Global Ministerial Call for 30 km/h

The Third Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Sweden resulted in the Stockholm Declaration. Representatives of over 140 countries gathered on this two-day event and acknowledged the need for broad stakeholder cooperation when it comes to road safety. The Stockholm Declaration consist of eighteen resolutions among which the call to reduce maximum speed to 30 km/h in areas where vulnerable road users and vehicles mix.

The Stockholm Declaration is the outcome of a conference that connects road safety to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Eighteen concrete steps have been put forward in this political agreement based on the recommendations of experts and their scientific assessments.

Find below, some of the eighteen resolutions.

• R3: call to reduce road traffic deaths by at least 50% from 2020 to 2030.
• R8: call to speed up the shift toward safer, cleaner, more energy efficient and affordable modes of transport and promote higher levels of physical activity such as walking and cycling as well as integrating these modes with the use of public transport to achieve sustainability.
• R11: call to limit maximum speed to 30 km/h in areas where vulnerable road users and vehicles mix.

From a European perspective. This plan could help to meet the goals set out by the European Commission on road safety. One the long-term targets is to reduce road traffic fatalities almost to zero by 2050. A goal which has been put forward in the Swedish ‘’Vision Zero’’ and also have been put forward in this document.

Background information on the Swedish  ‘’Vision Zero’’. In 1997, the Swedish Parliament adopted a new long-term goal and strategy for road safety, Vision Zero. The goal is that no one should be killed or seriously injured through a road accident. From a global perspective, Sweden back then had already a ‘low figure’ of fatalities by road accidents of 7 per 100000 inhabitants. Since the implementation of this policy, the number of traffic fatalities have been halved.

Find all the information on Road Safety Sweden