An intersection in Hoboken, New Jersey, that was redesigned to make pedestrians more visible. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Reducing the number of people killed in traffic should be uncontroversial. Indeed, yesterday the United Nations’ General Assembly passed a near-unanimous declaration of this, following a two-day meeting on improving global road safety.
It was near unanimous because while 162 member states voted in favor, there was one holdout. The U.S. was the single country to cast a vote against. Even Argentina, which has followed the U.S. lead in attempting to pull out of the UN’s World Health Organization, voted for the declaration (while delivering a caveat about national sovereignty).
The declaration reiterates a global goal: to at least halve road traffic deaths and injuries between 2021 and 2030. It also calls for governments to assign and fund a lead agency for coordinating road safety, to improve public transport systems, and to make other pledges for safer roads (48 in total). The document draws attention to the people who are most exposed to traffic violence, including those walking, wheeling, cycling, working, and heading to or from school on the roads.
Dan Negrea, a U.S. representative to the UN, had harsh words for the assembly. Negrea sought asylum in the U.S. after leaving Romania, where he had been a government official; he then spent decades on Wall Street. At the UN General Assembly yesterday, he charged that this type of global road-safety effort was being mixed with climate action.
