Team “Vision Zero” – on the pros and cons of road safety in Uzhgorod

Co-founders of the NGO "Vision Zero" Victor Zagreba and Andriy Koman shared their impressions of the trip to Uzhgorod on their page in Facebook. Recall that they visited our city on Tuesday, October 25, inspected the road infrastructure and conducted a "round table" on road safety in the city counci.

The team "Vision Zero" represented by Viktor Zagreba and Andriy Koman made a one-day introductory visit to Uzhgorod. It was an eventful and pleasant visit! We made a presentation in the city council, saw the city and its people, shared our knowledge of scientific approaches and infrastructure solutions, received positive emotions. Travel notes are below.

About the city:
– Uzhgorod is a compact European city. In terms of safety, it has natural advantages over other cities of Western Ukraine (not to mention Eastern) – narrow streets, cobblestones, low speed, a lot of cyclists.
– Number of deaths per year is around 5. A very short distance to zero. With this baseline, Uzhgorod may well become the first regional center, which will reach zero mortality! Let’s say, by 2020. 

– No underpass or two level interchange, and it is good for people!  
– The city has many roundabouts, it is also good! Roundabouts are proven and highly effective solution in terms of safety, because they: (a) reduce the speed (b) reduce to zero the risk of the most traumatic collision scenarios – frontal and lateral. We are fans of roundabout! 
– Despite the short visit, we had the time to study the use of seat belts. Here, it was even lower than in Frankivsk, and there it was at 15%. The exact result will be published separately. The sample was more than 1,300 drivers at 4 points of observation.

About the people:

– Uzhgorod municipality deals with the problem of safety seriously, at the highest level! Our presentation was held in the main hall of the City Council, and the Mayor Bohdan Andriyiv, his first deputy, the chief architect, heads of relevant departments took part in the event. Thank you for that, Mr. Mayor and other officials!
– Patrol police of Uzhgorod and Mukachevo, like in nearly all cities are very active and open for cooperation and learning – thanks to the chief of the police Yuriy Martsenyshyn for that!
– The meeting attended by many activists and journalists, there was an interesting discussion, apt and thoughtful questions. Thanks for that!
– The initiator of the visit was Marianna Sobran – public activist and advisor to the Mayor. She found us on Facebook, invited, and organized everything. It is very good that the Mayor of Uzhgorod, as well the mayors of several other cities, see value in these "agents of changes" and listen to them. It is a good practice, which was initiated by Andriy Sadovy (who invited Oleg Schmid), Volodymyr Groysman, the mayor of Vinnytsia and Vitali Klitschko in Kyiv (advisor Ksenia Semenova). Finally, this practice came to other cities!