Company initiative yields safer roads, more responsible drivers
“Together for Safer Roads”, a company initiative dedicated to improving road safety, said its programs in Shanghai in the past three years have yielded positive results.
The non-profit initiative issued a report about its work on the occasion of China’s Traffic Safety Day which falls on December 2.
A key program so far targeted improving road infrastructure on major streets and expressways where traffic accidents more frequently happen so as to make them safer for all traffic participants.
Experts from Tongji University who are researchers on the program have identified a few projects and provided solutions for six in the past two years.
The six projects were distributed in suburban districts in Shanghai including Baoshan, Qingpu and Chongming as well as suburban areas in Pudong.
By adding fences in the middle of the street, markings on the ground, traffic lights and vehicle waiting areas at the crossroads among other changes, the number of accidents and those involving deaths was down 25 and 90 percent, the report said.
Another program addressing bad driving habits of commercial vehicle drivers has resulted in a safety education guideline for the drivers which has been submitted to Shanghai Transportation Commission.
Study on the program found that using mobile phones when driving, driving under fatigue, risky overtaking and rushing through green lights are some of the top bad driving habits of drivers of trucks as well as public transportation and interprovincial tourist buses.
On the program, the four bad habits were reduced 32 percent among the drivers who were educated on their perils, according to the report.
“Together for Safer Roads”, which gathered 10 international companies, was established in Shanghai on the same day in 2015 under the first initiative from AB InBev.
Shanghai traffic police and district traffic police held a few public education events on Friday and Saturday to mark the national Traffic Safety Day which was introduced in 2012 by China’s Ministry of Public Security.