Brazilian Cities Save Lives by Improving Road Safety
Summary
A case study on the São Paulo Complete Streets Network, a partnership between the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) to reduce traffic fatalities in Brazilian cities through road redesign and speed reduction.
Key insights
- Brazil has a national goal to reduce traffic deaths by 50% by 2030, with 2022 road deaths already showing a 17% decrease compared to 2021.
- The São Paulo Complete Streets Network provided resources, mentorship, and technical support to 20 cities, with over 800 people attending workshops and trainings based on WRI research.
- Between 2020 and 2023, 10 cities in the network—representing over 6 million residents—implemented safety measures including cycle lanes, accessible bus stops, increased walk signal times, and extended sidewalks.
- Speed reduction efforts in cities such as Jundiaí, Guarulhos, and São José dos Campos lowered average car and motorcycle speeds by 10-30 kilometers per hour on tracked streets.
- Targeted interventions for vulnerable users included the 'Rua da Gente' program in Diadema for low-income neighborhoods and street redesigns in front of schools in five other cities.
- The network's interventions led to a measurable impact: while network cities had higher traffic deaths per 100,000 people than the state of São Paulo in 2021, their crash mortality rate fell below the state average in 2022.
Cite the original document
- APA
- World Resources Institute (2024). Brazilian Cities Save Lives by Improving Road Safety. https://www.wri.org/outcomes/brazilian-cities-save-lives-improving-road-safety
- Chicago
- World Resources Institute. Brazilian Cities Save Lives by Improving Road Safety. 2024. https://www.wri.org/outcomes/brazilian-cities-save-lives-improving-road-safety.
- Wikipedia
- {{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Brazilian Cities Save Lives by Improving Road Safety |date=13 February 2024 |url=https://www.wri.org/outcomes/brazilian-cities-save-lives-improving-road-safety |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}
- BibTeX
- @techreport{worldresourcesinstitute2024brazilian, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Brazilian Cities Save Lives by Improving Road Safety}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2024}, month = feb, url = {https://www.wri.org/outcomes/brazilian-cities-save-lives-improving-road-safety}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }
Full text
Collected · Record updated