More than 130,000 people die in road accidents in India every year — the highest in the world. Speeding, drunk driving and not using helmets and seat belts are some of the immediate reasons identified for these deaths.  But as the number of deaths keeps rising, there is a need to look more closely at road design to save lives.  How do we make our cities safer for pedestrians and cyclists? How do we plan our highways better? What is it that we can learn from the rest of the world?

Robert D. Noland spoke to Civil Society Online on how transportation planning and road design have been evolving and what India can do to adopt best practices from countries like the US.

Noland is a professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Public Policy and Planning at Rutgers in New Jersey. He has studied how transportation policy and planning impact the built environment, health, safety and the quality of life in general. His research is cited in debates around the world. Noland was in Delhi to deliver the Seventh Annual TRIPP Lecture on ‘Pedestrian safety versus traffic flow: finding the balance’.

Read the full news article here.