EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The decade of road traffic safety steps of Turkey were planned with the “2021-2030 Road Traffic Safety Strategy Paper” prepared as part of the ideal of “Better Traffic with Each Year” and the understanding that “If human life is in question, even a single loss of life in traffic is too many”.

We expect to see the reflections of technical and technological advancements in the transportation networks of modern-day in the upcoming decade depending on rapidly progressing technological advancements and globalization. “The Protection of Human Life” has been accepted as the key determinant in all these advancements, and the protection of the safety of life, being the most valuable treasure of humans, is the essential principle in each step to take.

“HUMAN” factor is at the core of all actions set forth by the “2021-2030 Road Traffic Safety Strategy Paper” and the action plans based on this paper. Actions aiming at supporting humans in making the right choices in traffic have been prioritized, accepting in advance that humans, being the most important factor of transportation, are involved in traffic as pedestrian, passenger, driver, rider, etc. and they “may make mistakes”. The conviction that zero loss of life in traffic is possible has formed the backbone of this strategy document.

In pursuance of the basic principles of “Safe System” and “Vision Zero” approach, methods pertinent to guiding principles were followed in the Strategy Paper, and maximum effort was shown to achieve traffic safety objectives by planning each intervention under seven main headings and determining the maximum level and grounded performance criteria by not making compromises on core values.

Regarding the fact that each individual living in Turkey uses the roads for various reasons as a necessity of daily life, a plenitude of multidimensional measures were planned to protect the fundamental rights of people such as “Right to Live” and “Right to Travel”1 in this Strategy Paper. Aforementioned measures were presented under the following subheadings as part of the “Safe System” approach;

1. Priority Fields,
2. Traffic Safety Management,
3. Road Infrastructure and Road Perimeter,
4. Vehicles,
5. Education,
6. Control,
7. Post-Accident Intervention.

Action Plans were prepared between 2011-2020 to achieve the objective of decreasing the loss of life caused by traffic accidents by 50% following the decision No. 64/255 of the United Nations General Assembly and the steps to take on traffic safety between the year 2021 and 2030 were determined to accomplish the objective of “Decreasing the Loss of Lives and Serious Injuries in Traffic by 50% by 2030” with this Strategy Paper serving as the second step. Interventions and measures pertinent to these steps will be adopted with short-term action plans. In this context,

1. The first action plan includes the works to be performed between the years 2021 and 2023 and is presented in addition to this Strategy Paper.
2. The second action plan that will cover the 2023-2027 period will be prepared following the achievement of 2023 objectives.
3. The 2027-2030 action plan will be prepared and put into practice as the last step.

The ministries, institutions, and organizations provided important contributions in the preparation of the Strategy Paper, the opinions of relevant experts were asked on matters that required academic speciality and technical knowledge, objectives were determined with the high, medium, and expert level meetings, and the work was completed by scrutinizing the ways to achieve the objectives.

In the belief that any investment made for our nation is our prime source of wealth, we would like to express our gratitude to all who contributed their efforts and wish good luck for the “2021-2030 Road Traffic Safety Strategy Paper” prepared as a roadmap for all road users and stakeholder institutions and organizations.