Buenos Aires: Confronting drink driving and speeding
The city has since implemented a number of interventions with support from the Partnership for Healthy Cities, including new breathalyzer technology and checkpoint improvements.
Overview
Published: October 2021
In 2016, Argentina reported 5,530 road traffic fatalities.1 City roads can be high-risk areas for road traffic crashes, particularly in zones where there is close proximity between vehicles and pedestrians.
The Autonomous City of Buenos Aires has been working with the Partnership for Healthy Cities and other local partners to improve the safety of its roads since 2017. The latest project focuses on the high-density Saénz Avenue transport area in the south of Buenos Aires, because of its relatively high rate of pedestrian fatalities. With support from the Partnership, and in collaboration with the World Resources Institute, a series of anti-speeding measures were gradually introduced after the city conducted a 2020 speeding patterns study that identified Saénz as one of four points in the metropolitan area with the highest number of incidents involving pedestrians and vehicle users. The study concluded that approximately 8% of drivers exceeded speed limits and that buses and trucks were more than twice as likely to speed as other vehicles.
Read the full case study: Buenos Aires: Improving safety by reducing speeding
In Buenos Aires, Argentina, the city's work to introduce anti-speeding infrastructure, supported by the Partnership for Healthy Cities, has helped reduce road crash deaths by 35%. Learn more about how increasing testing for drunk driving and public education campaigns have helped create safer streets.
Related
The Global status report on road safety 2023 shows that the number of annual road traffic deaths has fallen slightly to 1.19 million.
Read how the Partnership is supporting policies and interventions that reduce road traffic fatalities and injuries, creating safer streets for everyone.
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