The year 2020 will go down as historic for a lot of reasons. Less traffic on our roads was one of them.
The COVID-19 pandemic shattered the norms of how we move as a society on a day-to-day basis. Fewer cars in use led to declines in congestion and improvements in air quality, two things that we clearly have been â and should be â striving for.
âThe longtime goals of reducing the number of cars on the roads and unacceptable levels of air pollution [were] achieved in a few weeks,â said Claudia Adriazola-Steil, director of health and road safety at the World Resources Instituteâs Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, in a June 2020 New York Times report. âYou can see the Himalayan blue skies for the first time in 25 years.â
Bobby Ramakant – CNS
Thailand was among the countries globally that promised last year to reduce the maximum speed limit to 30 kilometre per hour (30 kph) to reduce road traffic crashes, and thus, save lives. More importantly, the government of Thailand played a major role last year as part of the International Advisory Committee to 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety held in Stockholm during 19-20 February 2020.
But according to a news, the Thai government is set to increase the maximum speed limit on major highways (with four or more lanes) from 90 kph to 120 kph. In addition, the rightmost lane or ‘fast lane’ will also have a minimum speed limit of 100 kph to reduce the risk of rear-ending collisions.
Accra, Kumasi Selected For $240m Road Safety Fund peacefmonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from peacefmonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Accra and Kumasi have been selected to benefit from a $240-million fund earmarked to curb road accidents within the next six years in 30 cities in 15 countries around the world.
The project, which is an initiative of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS), is expected to prevent road traffic deaths over the six-year period spanning 2020 to 2025.
Kick-off
In a virtual ceremony to unveil the partnership between BIGRS and the government yesterday, the Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA), Mr. Mohammed Adjei Sowah, said past collaborations between BIGRS and the AMA targeted at similar interventions had contributed to the reduction of road accidents in the capital city.