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AFRY’s Claes Tingvall to participate at 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety

Claes Tingvall
Claes Tingvall
Sweden is to host the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety on 19–20 February. The event is co-sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and 1700 participants from more than 140 countries are expected to attend. It is the first meeting, on a global level, to combine road safety and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Claes Tingvall is best known as the man behind the Vision Zero, a strategy that revolutionised road safety in Sweden and many other countries. Since a few years back, he works as a Senior Consultant at AFRY, as well as adjunct professor at Chalmers University of Technology, Department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences.

Ahead of the approaching road safety conference, the Swedish Transport Administration appointed an academic expert group, consisting of 13 international road safety experts. Claes Tingvall was made chairman, and has for a few months been on temporary leave from AFRY for this reason.

“It is an honour to have received such an appointment, and it has been very meaningful to lead this work, not least because of all my fantastic colleagues in the expert group. We have worked together for more than a year, mainly remotely, but also during three physical meetings in Paris, Tällberg and Vaxholm,” says Claes Tingvall.

The work of the expert group has resulted in a report with nine recommendations for how the sustainable development goals can contribute to dramatically improved road safety across the world. According to the expert group, there is a strong link between road safety and several other goals within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, since improved road safety leads to reduced noise levels and emissions, whilst at the same time increasing equality through improved access to work and education as well as better protection of road users.

“We were tasked with joining road safety and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and thereby integrating perspectives such as climate, health and equality with road safety. As a part of this process, we have placed a particular focus on the goal 12.6, which encourages companies to apply sustainable methods. Companies need to keep an eye on the whole value chain, from production and transport in other countries to final delivery,” says Claes Tingvall.

The report concludes that road safety is a necessity for health, climate, equality and welfare. If children cannot cycle or walk to school, without risking their lives, their access to education is limited. If goods cannot be transported across the world in a safe and sustainable manner, the opportunities of trade, economic development and extinction of poverty are restricted.

During the conference, Claes Tingvall will moderate a panel discussion, which will begin with a presentation by Sara Lindstrand, Senior Manager Sustainability at AFRY. The topic of the panel discussion is “Producing and consuming responsibly” and will focus on sustainability across the entire value chain. Furthermore, Claes will give a talk at an innovation workshop on 17 February, which will be organised by the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP). The day after, he will moderate a seminar hosted by Autoliv, on the topic of “Safe trips from door to door in the sustainable society: active road user safety”.

Click here to read more about the conference.

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Folke Sandberg  - Head of Business Area Planning & Design

Folke Sandberg

Head of Business Area Planning & Design

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