Introduction
On the occasion of 8th UN Global Road Safety Week (12–18 May 2025), Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre organised an event “Data to Action for District Road Safety - Making walking and cycling safer”. The event was held at IIT Delhi, in a hybrid format, and included discussion on district reports for all 11 districts of Delhi. The event attendees included members from WHO SEARO, WHO India, Supreme Court Committee of Road Safety (SSoRS), District Magistrate – South, members from report team led by IIT Delhi- SGArchitects - HumanQind, NGOs, Civil Society, School principals, teachers and students.
Course Objectives
Key Highlights
1.Prof. Deepty Jain, Coordinator - WHO Collaborating Centre at TRIP Centre, IIT Delhi welcomed all panellists and attendees in the room as well as those joining remotely. She highlighted that TRIP Centre aims to improve mobility for all and safety of the most vulnerable road users. TRIP Centre collaborates with government agencies, funding agencies, communities, and CSOs to improve road safety.
2.Mr. Tashi Tobgay, regional Adviser, WHO Regional Office for SE Asia in his opening remarks, emphasized the urgency of road safety, noting that India loses over 200,000 lives on roads annually, including many children and advocated for a safe system approach focusing on road and vehicle design that protects all users. The UN Road Safety Week's theme of making walking and cycling safe is timely. Prioritizing walking and cycling promote physical activity, reduces air pollution, improves mental health, and helps achieve sustainable development goals.
3.Prof. Rahul Goel (TRIP Centre) made a presentation on the highlights of the District Road Safety Report (led by IIT Delhi), which includes District specific crash data analysis (2019-2022) and Detailed design and estimate for proposal implementation of two high risk junctions and 1 school zone. The interventions in these reports could help districts formulate their own district road safety plans. Three of the 11 reports were prepared in collaboration with Vital Strategies (Global public health organisation) , and the remaining 8 were completed by TRIP Centre in collaboration with SG Architects and HumanQind. Delhi traffic crash data was provided by Delhi Traffic Police for years 2019 – 2022. Access to e-DAR ( e-Detailed Accident Report) was not available to the research team.
4. Ms. Ruchi Varma (CEO, HumanQind) explained the experiential learning approach to prepare the process in 11 schools, one every district. In collaboration with the Lead agency for Road Safety, the Safe School Zone Initiative included establishment of road safety clubs, constituted by Directorate of Education in 2022. Using the innovative six step method, evidence-based safe school zone proposals were developed with respective road safety clubs. One school zone (District South) has been implemented and other 10 locations are pending implementation. The District Road Safety Committee (DRSC) helps in coordination through the education department, the road owning agency, the traffic police and other department in implementation and management. She showcased District West and District South school zone proposals as a case study.
5. Prof. Rahul concluded by showing impact of implementation of 22 intersections and 11 school zones. The 33 locations cover all street typologies, 11 districts, all school type and different agencies involved to anchor road safety stewardship. With implementation of 10 locations, Delhi will positively impact 25 schools and 100,000 student & families. All designs are compliant with Indian Road Congress guidelines and estimates are prepared using DSR 2023. DRSCs, schools and local road owning agencies can use these designs as templates to improve other high-risk locations in the district.
The reports have been shared with all DRSCs and also available on TRIP Centre website for feedback and comments from District Road Safety Committee
Participants
Host Institution
- Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.
- HumanQind
- SG Architects
Course Outline
Workshop Outcome Report
