Towards an inclusive and safe public transport system

Cristina Patino is a police traffic warden on the streets of San Salvador. She was trained to enforce the regulations set down in the Land Transportation, Transit and Road Safety Law, and has a better grasp of the General Traffic and Road Safety Regulations, ensuring the proper application of– and compliance with the rules and regulations.
PNUD El Salvador

A presentation at the Fourth Safe Mobility Congress spotlighted the InfoSegura Regional Project study on mass transit in the San Salvador Metropolitan Area.

In El Salvador, mass transport users are each diverse and unique, with a wide variety of experiences, needs and circumstances: One in three is between 25 and 39 years old. Four in five reside in the urban area of the San Salvador Metropolitan Area, while 51 per cent are employed, 21 per cent are self-employed and 15 per cent are engaged in housekeeping.

This and other data on the use of mass transit, perception of safety and quality of service, the situation of women riders, among others, were compiled in the study on “Towards an inclusive and safe public transport system,” a contribution by the InfoSegura Regional Project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with USAID and presented at the Fourth Ibero-American Congress on Mobility and Road Safety organized by Movilidad y Seguridad Vial (MOVES).

The study is one of three studies about citizen security for mass transit users in the San Salvador Metropolitan Area (AMSS). Other data from the paper indicate mostly positive perceptions of safety on the buses and the routes. Some 77 per cent of users stated that in the last twelve months “safety has improved on the mass transit system in the San Salvador Metropolitan Area.”

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“Mobility for the Salvadoran population and the conditions they carry out their daily activities are key to a decent life. Sustainable development poses the challenge of improving road safety and ensuring that transportation is safe and sustainable,” noted Maribel Gutiérrez, UNDP Resident Representative.
Through the InfoSegura Project—in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Works (MOPT), Vice Ministry for Transportation (VMT) and the Traffic Accident Victim Assistance Fund (FONAT)—the UNDP supports research and data gathering on road safety as a key driver for development.

One of these studies is the ”First Observational Study of Motorcycle Behaviour in the Metropolitan San Salvador Area,” an X-ray of the state of motorcycle use and related road safety challenges.

In August 2023, United Nations Special Envoy for Road Safety Jean Todt visited El Salvador to promote the acceleration of the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030, which aims to halve the number of victims on the road by 2030.

Todt noted significant progress in El Salvador with the implementation of interventions that have not only shown to be effective in preventing accidents, but also improving security in the communities, noting that, “El Salvador is turning into an example to follow.”

InfoSegura is the first strategic United Nations Development Programme partnership with the United States Agency for International Development, working with national institutions to improve citizen security information management and analysis cycle in Central America and the Dominican Republic.

More information at UNDP El Salvador