Creative Speed Reduction Solution

Pedestrian Road Safety Partnership

My Speach at Jotrans 2008:

"I am delighted to speak at this strategic conference which represents a key convention for all agencies working toward the one thing that they all care about… building livable safe cities.
Successful transportation strategies endorse road safety education and promote programs toward further improving road safety outcomes, at all levels of every community

However, if we continue planning our cities for cars and traffic, we will get more cars and traffic; but, if we start planning our cities for people and places, we will get more people and places.

Streets are more than just car corridors; they are valuable civic spaces and resources that need to be wisely allocated. We need to start thinking about a campaign to re-imagine our streets as lively safe public places.

In 2007, 992 people died in Jordan as a result of 110,630 road accidents with an estimated monetary loss of 281 Million JOD. The average growth rate in the number of killed and seriously injured as a result of road accidents was 12% in the last five years.

January of 2008 witnessed an alarming rise in the number of lives lost to road accidents which caused a national call for action following His Majesty king Abdullah The Second’s directions that we must put an end to this trend.

In 2008 compared to 2007, the collaborative efforts of both the public and the private sectors resulted in a 12.1% decrease in accidents, 27.42% decrease in injuries, and 39.27% decrease in deaths.

We feel and We forget. We Hear and We Remember. We Do and We Understand.

We still have a very long way to go and the results achieved so far are a living proof that together government and people can address national challenges. Sustaining this positive progress is key and requires even more effective Public-Private Partnership.

Forming such alliances need a lot of commitment by all parties involved; each needs to understand the limitations and strengths that their side brings to this undertaking. They need to communicate with each other, ensure that all involved parties contribute to and benefit from the relationship in ways appropriate to their organizations, ensure that all partners participate on a more equal basis and to accept responsibility not only for their role in decision making but in the outcomes of the alliance as well.
Successful alliances were forged all over the world to tackle issues that were deemed of importance to the people of that country. The private sector and the non profit sectors played an important role together with the governments in raising the awareness on road safety, improving the infrastructure, instilling a culture of road safety among their community, financially supporting campaigns and activities promoting road safety, and training and building the capacity of individuals and organizations on road safety measures and related issues.

The RSCOE is an example of such a partnership between the Public and Private sector. Established in June, 2008 between the GAM, the GJU, Hikmat Road safety , and in October the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs joined this partnership.

"A livable city is a road safe city," the center main aim is to promote the level of road safety in Jordan and To Build World Class Road Safety Capacity by Integrating (learning, applied research, advanced know-how & tools) in an outcome oriented way to support the effective execution of the National Road Safety Strategy.

The Road safety center of excellence aims to: Certify Road Safety Officers, Study and understand vital issues, Develop Solutions, Influence implementation, and Publish standards and best practices

The center is introducing the concept of road safety audit into Jordan and plans to Make road safety audit a common concept where: practitioners are familiar with it , know how to do it, adopt a standard, use tools and methods, and are striving to become certified.

A road safety audit (RSA) is a formal safety examination of a future roadway plan or project or an in-service facility that is conducted by an independent, experienced multidisciplinary RSA team.

The RSCOE conducted the first workshop to certify Road Safety Officers that took place on the 3rd of August, 2008 for a period of 2 weeks and covered the topic of how to assess current roads and how to conduct a road safety audit. The workshop was delivered by two German Experts at the German – Jordanian University and was attended by 27 participants from various governmental entities related to road safety.

Each participant was required to prepare a comprehensive report on the results of their studies and site visits in addition to preparing an action plan for implementing future road safety activities. The participants are expected to take full responsibility for these initiatives.

Moreover, before the end of this year, the RSCOE is planning to launch the first Pedestrian Road Safety Audit Guidelines Manual that provides transportation agencies conducting a RSA and pedestrians with a better understanding of the needs of pedestrians of all abilities.

The pedestrian Road Safety Audit Guidelines Manual provide an easy to understand comparison between what’s right and what’s wrong and provide a general listing of potential pedestrian safety issues.

The intent of the guidelines is to familiarize practitioners and citizens with potential pedestrian issues and to help them identify specific safety concerns related to pedestrian road safety.

Prompt lists are provided at the end of the manual to identify the types of pedestrian-related issues that the RSA team should be aware of to promote pedestrian safety in the audited project. Another successful partnership between the Public and Private sectors is the Safer Schools Program, 100 schools were designed inside & outside of Amman to improve road safety in their zones. The designs were completed in cooperation with Arabtech-Jardaneh design office. As of today, 74 schools were maintained to be safe for total number of 56,289 students. By the end of the Year 100 school will be completed, in Amman, Madaba, Balqa, Ma’an, Karak, Tafeleh, Zarqa and Irbid governorates.
While we continue working on the Safer Schools program, another program started to extend the efforts to build safer home Zones.

Today, the 23rd of November marked the opening of the first Safe home-Zone project “Haretna” in Al-Zuhour Area in Amman. Another cooperation between GAM, and HRS. The Project donation came from Al-Ard Company and designed by Turath consultants.
The center strategy is to “Train the Trainers” to become a road safety ambassador each in his agency.

In 2009 we will: Certify 100 Road Safety Officers, Build 100 Safe Schools, Build 100 Safe Home Zones, Develop and Publish more Road Safety standards, and build more partnerships.

We are Stronger, More capable, smarter, More righteous, More aware, better, more interactive, more creative, more practical, more solid, achievers, more effective, more trust worthy, more interesting, more stable, more sustainable, able to contribute more, more logical, more aware

Than Me Alone.

Thank you "

By: Arch. Emad A. Salameh
Road Safety Center of Excellence
General Manager

Road Safety Center Workshop

By Pro. Heckman, edited by Emad Salameh

Road Safety Center of Excellence aims to promote the level of road safety in Jordan and To Build World Class Road Safety Capacity by Integrating (learning, applied research, advanced know-how & tools) in an outcome oriented way to support the effective execution of the National Road Safety Strategy , the center's plan is to introduce the concept of road safety audit into Jordan and to Make road safety audit a common concept in Jordan where: practitioners are familiar with it , know how to do it, adopt a standard, use tools and methods and are striving to become certified. As a start the center began establishing a database by developing standards and guidelines for road safety auditing adopted from other countries but they were adjusted and modified to suit Jordan's regulations, then study-cases and examples were built and several sites in Jordan were visited by the center's teams and some examples were done with the help of traffic engineers from GAM , all of the cases and examples were documented into reports and as a second step the center launched a workshop named " Road Safety Auditing level 1 " ; the workshop took place at the facilities of GJU and on the streets of Amman from 3rd to 14th of August. Case studies of some relevant streets and intersections have been prepared in advance by local experts and students, organized by RSCOE.

The Center invited participants from ministries, municipalities and other bodies, and also non-governmental organizations – about 25 participants took the opportunity to be trained on a method, which is established in many countries all over the world. Two experts from Germany – an engineer for transport planning and safety and a traffic psychologist – have been invited to assist and to supervise the developmental processes during the workshop.

The workshop started with two days of theory with regard to safety risks due to the street design and operations and another two days of theory with regard to safety risks due to behavioral aspects of drivers and pedestrians participating in public traffic each day was divided into 3 sessions from 10 am till 3:30 pm (1.5 hour for each session).

The two experts based on research data, which have been collected in Germany and internationally, but confronted these data with the experiences of the local experts in the workshops. The adaptation of general observations, conclusions and points of view to the Jordan culture, traffic conditions and experiences was a constitutive element of the workshop tasks. Also the integrated perspective on both behavior and street environment was practiced. Both experts encouraged interaction spirit and the sessions were more like discussions and exchanging experiences among the participants and the experts and among the participants themselves.

On the second week three field trips were conducted to three different street s each one consisted of a site visit and a discussion session about the observations and the remarks that were taken on site ,The participants were divided into two groups each one was under the supervision of one of the experts and along the three days the participants were regrouped so that each one of them participates in different activity . And before the second field trip an introductory session about RSA was delivered to the participants. On site each expert divided them into subgroups and checklists and google maps with a copy of the report that was prepared before were delivered to all participants , then each subgroup was responsible of fulfilling a specific task.

On the discussion session the data from all participants is collected and discussed among each group by itself , then exchanged between the groups so that each participant understands other quests that he didn't conduct. The observations from the field are discussed among all groups and
critical safety issues are pointed out then initial solutions are proposed.

On the 2 days after the field trips all the data from the three site visits and all the results of the discussions were collected and all participants under the supervision of the experts built together
the final report of this workshop.

Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs Join the Road Safety Center of Excellence

Tuesday 16 September 2008

The Ministry of Municipal Affairs will join the German-Jordanian University (GJU), Greater Amman Municipality, and HIKMAT Road Safety foundation to become the fourth party in the Memorandum of Understanding singed last June for the establishment of the Road Safety Center of Excellence, located at the German-Jordanian University. The parties signed on 16 September 2008 an addendum to the original Memorandum of Understanding, stipulating the addition of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs as a fourth party. The four sides were represented by: His Excellency Eng. Shehade Abu Hdeib/ Minister of Municipal Affairs, Prof. Labib Khadra/ President of GJU, His Excellency Eng. Amer Al-Bashir/ Deputy of Amman Mayor, and Mr. Maher Qadura/ President of HIKMAT Road Safety foundation.

Through this addition, the Ministry will offer technical support to the Road Safety Center by providing documents, information, and blueprints needed for its road safety activities, in addition to offering financial support. The Ministry will also nominate specialized staff to participate in the courses offered by the Center.

It is noteworthy that the Road Safety Center of Excellence was established at the German-Jordanian University with the aim of qualifying specialized personnel in the field of road safety, conducting studies and research about road safety vital issues, coming up with solutions to road problems, and enhancing positive public attitudes and practices. It will offer a professional diploma program in road safety, in addition to short training courses and workshops. .


Already, the Center began its activities at the German-Jordanian University last August by organizing a two-week workshop entitled "Road Safety Audit – level one". Numerous specialists took part in the workshop representing various official bodies, such as Greater Amman Municipality, Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Municipal Affairs, Transport Regulatory Commission, Public Security Directorate, Jordanian Engineers Association, Ministry of Education, insurance companies, and other bodies. German professors who are international experts in this field were especially invited by GJU from Germany to give the lectures of the workshop.

Car accidents in Jordan

I have to write this before I head to the hospital. I just got a phone call from my Mother that my aunte had a car accident and was seriously injured.

As we said before, and according to the car accidents and injuries statistics in Jordan, don't you ever think that YOU or someone in Your family is safe in the street, not in Jordan streets.

It's hilarious that we are proud of building towers and creating a master plan for high rise buildings while we don't have a safe street or a pedestrian to walk in.

Comparing terrorism, last year more than 900 citizen died from car accidents in Jordan, compared to palestinians killed by the Israelies, our streets is even more dangerous.

Unfortunatly, we are paying a serious price. For how long!

Through the Road Safety Center of Excellence (RSCOE) we need to work hard before it's too late. This only can happen if we all took this tragedy as a national cause for protecting the citizens.

Not only we need to let the government do it's part, we shall be a major role in collaborating the efforts to make Amman and Jordan a " Livable country with safe roads"

Type rest of the post here

Road Safety Center of Excellence

Signing of the agreement for Launching The Road Safety Center of Excellence between the Municipality of Greater Amman (MGA), German Jordanian University (GJU) and Hikmat Road Safety (HRS).

Proceeding from the role of the Municipality of Amman in road safety and to complement the preceding initiative, the agreement for launching the road safety center of excellence has been signed by the municipality of greater Amman represented by Engineer Omar almaani secretary of Amman and with the German Jordanian University (GJU) represented by Prof. Dr. Labib Al-khadra also with Hikmat Road Safety (HRS) represented by Mr. Maher Qadoura, during a press conference held on the 3rd of the current month of June at the headquarters of the Municipality of greater Amman

The center aims to rehabilitate & qualify specialized staff in the road safety, study & understanding the vital issues in addition to set appropriate solutions for the road problems and to develop them through circulating of standards & best practices, which in turn affect positively on the practical & applied aspects

The center will provide a various activities which will be the creation of professional diploma program in road safety, to qualify specialists in road safety to begin in 2009-2010 as well as holding a short duration training courses ranging between 2-4 weeks to be started in the summer of 2008. The center will also hold other specialized workshops and researched in road safety.

The tuition fees will be determined in a manner commensurate with the courses and teaching program, where students or the deputed party will bear the entire tuition fees required.

The center already started operating to produce in 2008 a Road safety audit guide, a pedestrian road safety guideline, and a work zone safety guide. I was appointed as the general manager of the center by HRS and GJU. Hikmat Road Safety will fund and manage the center.

In June we will have the first Road Safety Audit workshop at the GJU. More details about the course will be published soon.

Road Safety Center of Excellence logo