UN Global Road Safety Week, observed from 12-18 May 2025, focuses on the theme “Streets for Life: #MakeWalkingSafe and #MakeCyclingSafe”. Our SR4S Programme is proud to join this global effort to raise awareness and promote advocacy and action for safer road infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists with a suite of free evidence-based tools and data insights.
Road traffic injuries are a leading cause of death and disability worldwide, with nearly 1.2 million people killed and as many as 50 million people injured each year. They are the leading killer of young people aged 5-29 years. Globally, more than one in four deaths occur among pedestrians and cyclists
We are proud to support this important global effort. We believe that every child deserves a safe journey to and from school, whether they walk, cycle, or take other forms of transport.
Why is this important for school environments and journeys?
Road traffic injuries are a serious threat to children worldwide. Sadly, they are the leading cause of death for young people aged 5-29 years, and a significant number of these incidents involve pedestrians and cyclists.
The UN Global Road Safety Week highlights that making walking and cycling safe is not just about preventing accidents. It also encourages more students to choose these active and healthy ways to travel, contributing to:
- Healthier Students: Walking and cycling provide valuable exercise.
- Sustainable Communities: Active travel reduces traffic congestion and air pollution around schools.
- Equitable Access: Safe walking and cycling routes ensure all students can reach school.
Adapting to climate change also requires efforts to shift travel to less carbon-intensive travel modes. Safety is a key factor in creating this change. When children feel that an environment is safe, they are more likely to feel comfortable walking and cycling and using public transport. The following tools are available to help planners and designers ensure that pedestrian and cycling facilities provide 5-star journeys for school children across the world..
Tools available to #MakeWalkingSafe and #MakeCyclingSafe for all children across the world:
Star Rating for Schools (SR4S): This tool assesses and improves the safety of journeys to and from school for children, many of whom walk or cycle. It has already been used to assess the safety of nearly 2,000 schools in 76 countries.
Youth Engagement App (YEA): The YEA App empowers young people to contribute their perspectives on road safety, including where they feel safe and unsafe on their journeys, and design preferences for pedestrian and cycling infrastructure.
CycleRAP: An easy, affordable and fast method of evaluating road and bicycling infrastructure for safety. It aims to reduce crashes and improve safety specifically for bicyclists and other light mobility users by identifying high risk locations without the need for crash data. CycleRAP assessments have been undertaken in more than 20 countries.
Global Alliance’s Mobility Snapshots: Mobility Snapshots leverage the iRAP Star Rating methodology to provide valuable insights into mobility patterns, challenges, and road safety opportunities for vulnerable road users at intersections, for example by counting pedestrians, and identifying the presence or absence of safety features. Mobility Snapshots have already been undertaken in 44 countries at intersections across Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, and North and South America.
Working Together for Safer Streets
The message of UN Global Road Safety Week is clear: we all have a role to play in making our streets safer for everyone, especially our children. By using tools like Star Rating for Schools and engaging with initiatives like the Youth Engagement App, schools, parents, and local communities can work together to implement practical solutions that protect our students.
Let’s join the global movement to create “Streets for Life” and ensure that every journey to and from school is a safe one.
For more information about UN Global Road Safety Week, please visit the official webpage.
For more information on what other tools are available to iRAP partners globally, go here.
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