Reduce speeding in times of COVID-19 in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract

Abstract Buenos Aires has a mortality rate due to road crashes of 3.6 per 100,000 habitants. 6/10 fatal incidents are due to speeding. Unfortunately, the City has an outdated electronic control system and a small, corps of traffic agents oversees the execution of mobile speed controls. Under the part of Partnership for Healthy Cities, the city implemented a speed reduction policy to strengthen the existing speed management by measuring speeds. The observation points were established from the sampling of 567 avenues segments according to their level of danger and # of traffic lights. 74 observation points were selected. The final sample (1,572,879 observations) obtained a representative balance of the vehicular circulation arteries according to the territory's geographical zones. 92.1% of the vehicles that circulate on the avenues respect the speed limits while 7.9% exceed the speed limit. In passenger transport and trucks, the average number of exceeding the speed limits more than doubled. During COVID-19 lockdowns, the vehicles that exceeded the maximum speed reached 9.1%. As movement and mobility changed in Buenos Aires due to COVID-19, they used this opportunity to reduce the speed limits and add cycling lanes. At the start of 2020, there were 300,000 daily trips by bicycle and during lockdown, trips rose between 24% and 114%. It is expected that by next year they will be 500,000 per day. 17 km of bicycle lanes were built in two of the largest avenues in the city and the speed limit was reduced to 50 km/h on these avenues. In addition, it was detected that both avenues were the ones on which the most trips were carried out outside the formal network of bicycle lanes, which is 250 kilometers long. On journeys that are made outside this circuit, the risk of a road accident increases by 86%. The planning process must carry out, even when in an emergency. Training and socialization of interventions for all road actors are necessary to promote road awareness. Key messages Cities are catalysts for actions to promote public health interventions on the front line to emergencies and they have the responsibility of continuing to manage the NCDI and injuries. Healthy, safe, and sustainable mobility are parameters to be met in interventions that promote road safety.