11 June,2017 06:57 AM IST | Mumbai | Kusumita Das
Bloomberg Philanthropies, a US-based non-governmental organisation founded by Michael Bloomberg, has selected Mumbai among ten cities in the world to be a part of the its initiative on global road safety programme
Dr Kelly Henning
Bloomberg Philanthropies, a US-based non-governmental organisation founded by Michael Bloomberg, has selected Mumbai among ten cities in the world to be a part of the its initiative on global road safety programme.
Mumbai has been under observation for two years now and a considerable amount of data has been collected as regards the problem areas in road safety, says Dr Kelly Henning who has, since 2007, led Bloomberg's Public Health program under which falls road safety. "It's a five-year-long programme. Our goal is to reduce deaths and injuries from road crash. We try doing this by developing protocols to track immediate endpoints such as how many people are wearing helmets, seat-belts (front and back) and whether they are properly strapped or clipped. The John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is a partner that works with local organisations to identify these factors, where they carry out these observations twice a year, six months apart, so that it's comparable."
That road crash deaths have been on the rise in Mumbai, was reason enough for the city to be chosen as part of the program, Henning points out. "The physical structure of Mumbai is intriguing and interesting, in that it is not spread out. And because it is a congested city, speeding is not the overarching problem here, except on its two arterial roads. The problem areas are narrow sidewalks and wide crossings, with too many lanes to cross," she says.
Ask her what makes Mumbai different from the other cities that are part of the programme, and Henning says, "What's striking is how similar all these cities are, with congestion being a major problem in large cities like these."
