EASST partners mark the eighth UN Global Road Safety Week
12-18 May 2025 marked the eighth UN Global Road Safety Week. The theme for this year focused on the pedestrian and cyclist safety noting that despite overall reductions in road casualties globally – deaths and serious injuries amongst vulnerable road users are increasing in almost every world region, including across EASST partner countries.
Activities for the week were kicked off with a global webinar organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) featuring a case study example of our work with the Automobile Club of Moldova (ACM) to make pedestrian crossings safe and accessible for road users in central Chisinau. During the webinar, the WHO also launched their new toolkit of policy options on promoting walking and cycling.
Commenting on the new toolkit, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said “Walking and cycling improve health and make cities more sustainable. Every step and every ride help to cut congestion, air pollution and disease. But we must make walking and cycling safe, so more people choose these healthier, greener options.”
Throughout the week, this message was passed on to local and national governments in our region through the work of our EASST partners: many focusing on the need for reduced urban speed limits as a facilitator of active travel and segregated, safer infrastructure to protect vulnerable road users from motorised traffic.
Across Moldova, the ACM organised street marches, flashmobs, and public activities to raise awareness and enhance visibility of the week. At the same time, they took the opportunity to launch their new 30km/h School Zone Implementation Guide for Local Authorities (developed with EASST) to support the practical introduction of 30km/h speed limits and supporting infrastructure as now mandated by the National Road Regulations.
In Kyrgyzstan, Public Association ‘Road Safety’ (PARS) used road safety week to engage the Traffic Police and work with them to advance a people-centred approach to road safety and administration. Following a presentation on the new WHO toolkit, the training covered the important need to develop and advance the collection and recording of road crash data to account for pedestrian and cyclist fatalities, and in particular, to monitor location data and incidents around schools – where many child pedestrians are at risk. These discussions tied in to PARS’ latest mission to enhance road crash statistics, developing crash reporting cards, to enable more evidence-based interventions and targeted road safety actions.
In Armenia, National Road Safety Council NGO (NRSC) worked with the Traffic Police to implement a huge school zone transformation – reducing speed limits to 30km/h and installing ‘Belgian Style’ infrastructure to demark the start and end of the new safe school area. This was a huge step forward for Armenia where the draft National Road Safety Strategy, which recommends 30km/h and safer infrastructure, is under review. It is hoped that the demonstration will showcase what is possible if the Strategy is passed and the impact small but targeted interventions can make to reducing overall road casualties.
Finally, in Georgia, Partnership for Road Safety (PfRS) organised a national road safety conference to facilitate increased multi-sectoral collaboration to improve road safety. The conference enabled a full day of in-depth discussion, with PfRS speaking specifically about the importance of reduced urban speed limits (particularly around school) for ensuring safety of vulnerable road users. Representatives from the newly established Road Safety Department spoke of their intention to legislate for improved speed management in the country. The Head of Tbilisi City Hall’s Transport Department noted the work that has already been carried out in the city to improve pedestrian crossings, sidewalks, and cycle paths and re-iterated their intentions to develop this further.
Overall, the UN Global Road Safety week has once again offered a useful occasion for NGOs to bring together national stakeholders, and mobilise social and political capital to move the road safety agenda forward. It also served as an opportunity for EASST to share and showcase its work across a number of international fora. Throughout the week we participated in a global webinar organised by the International Road Federation (IRF) and attended the Start with Children Summit in Bratislava to showcase our work and how we are supporting road safety at a regional level. Our Executive Director was also able to raise the issue at the Annual Meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London where, leading the discussions on civil society engagement, she was able to catch a selfie with EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso holding the UNGRSW call to action.
We look forward to seeing how all of these actions and opportunities develop over the coming months but it is safe to say, momentum has been established!