Almaty’s executive committee adopts an action plan to reduce the road fatalities

Since 2016, the city has been conducting a comprehensive reform of public transport, increasing the number of pedestrian zones, expanding the network of bicycle lanes and reducing the speed limit on the main roads. All this has reduced the number of fatal accidents, but the statistics on road mortality remains high. Thus, in 2018, 133 people died on the roads of the city, and 5,200 people were injured. In this regard, Almaty’s governor Bauyrzhan Baybek instructed the Office of Urban Mobility to develop a program to reduce road fatalities and injuries, taking into account the best international practices.

The analysis showed that the main number of accidents occurs on trunk roads with four or more lanes, in residential areas with a small number of maneuvering options for road users. At the same time the accident the largest number of accidents involving pedestrians occurs on Friday, from 10.00 to 20.00.

According to the global concept of Vision Zero, a pedestrian is a priority participant in road traffic. The city should be developed in such a way as to minimize the movement of people on an individual car and increase mobility through the development of various types of public transport, which should be given a clear priority. According to studies, people from areas with developed public transport have five times less chance of getting into an accident than those who live in an autonomous area. Expanding the BRT, LRT, and Metro lines is one of the primary tools in reducing crashes.

The action plan “Vision Zero Almaty” implies a change and adaptation of roads, streets, signs to the peculiarities of the behavior of citizens and consists of such steps as “Safe City”, “Safe Streets”, “Safe Speed”, “Safe Public Transport”, “Intellectual traffic control system”, “Coordination of all services”, etc.

These steps involve a survey of sites with the most accidents and the reorganization of traffic at problem intersections. Changing the current planning of roads due to the introduction of openings, sluices, stopping protrusions, ledges of sidewalks, artificial irregularities, bollards, etc. Reducing the number of blinding visual elements.

As part of the adopted action plan, pedestrian safety will be enhanced by introducing new approaches for organizing land crosswalks, equipping crosswalks with LED lighting, installing push-button traffic lights at crowds of citizens, reconfiguring traffic lights for pedestrians, etc.

In addition, it is expected to increase the number of users of public transport by reducing the travel time of the rolling stock and increase the length of allocated public transport lanes. It is planned to continue the development of the network of bicycle paths with the installation of a physical barrier for the separation of automobile and bicycle traffic.

Special attention will be paid to the creation of an accessible network of pedestrian routes associated with public transport and a comfortable environment for the movement of people with disabilities.