Luxembourg's Minister of Sustainable Development and Infrastructure, François Bausch, is in Washington, DC to represent the Grand Duchy in discussions of 'Transforming Transportation' at a two-day conference.
The conference, taking place on 14 and 15 January 2016, has been co-organised by the World Bank Group, the World Resources Institute, the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities and Embarq Corporation.
The Minister is spending Thursday attending several panels featuring political and economic actors from around the world specialised in sustainable development. Topics included national transport planning; shared mobility, such as car sharing or pooling; road safety promotio; public transport security strengthening; and the role of government agencies and their interactions with the private sector in organising mobility.
On Friday, Minister Bausch will form part of a panel discussion devoted to 'Road Safety and the UN Sustainable Development Goals', where he will present the government's project in the field of road safety, known as 'Vision Zero', which aims to create an environment of zero deaths and zero serious injuries.
This ambitious goal was developed through a 2014 action plan comprised of 29 measures based on the three pillars of prevention, education and enforcement. Spanning four years, the plan takes into account a number of clearly defined preventive measures, including vehicle equipment; driver training; general speed reduction; and appropriate infrastructure, such as the introduction of 30 zones on state roads.
Since its establishment, the Action Plan has seen strengthened penalties for speeding and driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and will also look to promote soft mobility, carpooling and vehicle sharing as another means of ecologically improving road safety for residents. Last October, Luxembourg Police received an award from the ETSC 2015 PRAISE Awards for their road safety programme.
Photo by ETSC
