death-by-motor-vehicle, global perspective
De Clarke <
de@...>
2007-05-15 21:32:04 GMT
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/15/1205/
[... EXCERPT]
Three weeks ago, the racing driver Michael Schumacher wrote a
column - quite a good one - for these pages to mark Global Road
Safety Week. He described himself as a member of the
\u201cindependent Commission for Global Road Safety\u201d. The
commission launched the Make Roads Safe campaign, which is
modelled on Make Poverty History. But how
\u201cindependent\u201d is it?
It was established by the Fédération Internationale de
l\u2019Automobile Foundation, which is run by motoring and
motorsports associations. Of the eight commissioners, one is an
executive of General Motors, one runs the Bridgestone Tyre
Corporation, one is a trustee of the FIA Foundation, one is
chairman of the FIA Foundation and a president of the
Automobile Club of Italy and one is Michael Schumacher. The
commission\u2019s secretary is the director general of the FIA
Foundation.
Its report is better than the material published by the Global
Road Safety Partnership. There is more emphasis on speed
limits, road design and traffic management. But there are some
odd gaps and contradictions. It complains that
\u201cparticipation by middle- and low-income countries in the
existing international road safety organisations \u2026 is
low\u201d and that there is a \u201clack of ownership\u201d of
road safety programmes by the governments and people of
developing countries. So why do all its own members come from
the G8 nations? The commission prescribes an \u201caction
plan\u201d for global road safety, to be run by something
called the Global Road Safety Facility. This - surprise,
surprise - also turns out to have been launched and partly
funded by the FIA Foundation.
Most importantly, it calls for the developing nations to follow
the path taken by richer countries in reducing deaths and
injuries. But at no point does it mention that much of this
reduction was the result of cyclists and pedestrians being
driven off the roads. This is a much bigger issue for poor
nations - where the great majority of people who use roads do
not own cars - than for rich ones. Is this the vision:that the
space now used by pedestrians and cyclists and ox carts and
rickshaws is surrendered to car drivers? If so, it might reduce
fatalities, but it would also represent a classic act of
enclosure, through which the rich are able to secure the
resources of the poor.
------------------------------------------------------
ah, "self-regulation" by the barons of industry... a *noble*
concept indeed, as in "it works for the nobles, the rest of
us are SOL".
de
............................................................................
:De Clarke, Software Engineer UCO/Lick Observatory, UCSC:
:Mail: de@... | Your planet's immune system is trying to get rid :
:Web: www.ucolick.org | of you. --Kurt Vonnegut :
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