Update your Cookie Settings to use this feature.
Click 'Allow All' or just activate the 'Targeting Cookies'
By continuing you accept Avaaz's Privacy Policy which explains how your data can be used and how it is secured.
Got it
We use cookies to analyse how visitors use this website and to help us provide you the best possible experience. View our Cookie Policy .
OK
Ban Ki-moon: WE DISAPPROVE OF THE CAR LOBBY APPOINTED AS UN SPECIAL ENVOY ON ROAD SAFETY

Ban Ki-moon: WE DISAPPROVE OF THE CAR LOBBY APPOINTED AS UN SPECIAL ENVOY ON ROAD SAFETY

1 have signed. Let's get to
50 Supporters

Close

Complete your signature

,
By continuing you agree to receive Avaaz emails. Our Privacy Policy will protect your data and explains how it can be used. You can unsubscribe at any time. If you are under 13 years of age in the USA or under 16 in the rest of the world, please get consent from a parent or guardian before proceeding.
This petition has been created by Mubi G. and may not represent the views of the Avaaz community.
Mubi G.
started this petition to
Ban Ki-moon
Dear Mr Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,

We strongly disapprove of the appointment of Jean Todt, head of the International Automobile Federation / Formula 1, as UN Special Envoy on Road Safety.

Every four minutes a child is prematurely killed on the roads somewhere in the world. Many, many more are injured, often severely. Many of the children who are victims of this man-made calamity are poor - 95% of road traffic fatalities among children occur in low- and middle-income countries: rapid motorization is the main culprit. More than a million people die every year and millions are injured around the world. Since the invention of the automobile more than 40 million people have been killed and many more were injured due to excessive speed. A paradigm shift is desperately needed to ensure that roads everywhere serve the needs of, and are safe for all those who use them, including children, especially the most vulnerable users such as pedestrians and cyclists.

Our Association (MUBi.pt) is not against cars or the automobile industry and motor sports in closed circuits. However, we strongly believe that a genuine willingness to pursue a true and sustainable road danger reduction implies necessarily that the world's governments drastically change their transportation policies, making safety and sustainable mobility a top priority. This will imply:

a) to discourage the unnecessary use of motor transport where alternative, benign modes of public transport are equally possible or more viable;
b) to actively promote walking and cycling, which pose little threat to other road users, by taking positive and co-ordinated action to increase the safety and mobility of these benign modes;
c) to pursue a transport strategy for environmentally sustainable travel based on developing efficient, integrated public transport systems.

Many of these policies will imply to defend strong measures restricting car-usage and drastic speed management for motor vehicles. We have no reason to doubt that Jean Todt is a highly competent president of FIA and manager of Formula 1 motor races. But appointing someone that is the head of “...a global organisation that aims to safeguard the rights and promote the interests of motorists and motor sport all across the world” sends the wrong message to the world because it is precisely this biased point of view that can oppose the aims of a genuine and sustainable road danger reduction.

FIA also includes in its by-laws that their first mission is “upholding the interests of its members in all international matters concerning automobile mobility and tourism and motor sport”. We also do not have any reasons to doubt the commitment of Jean Todt to defend motorists' interests and their safety. However, as head of FIA Todt legitimately represents a "group of interests" which will raise discomfort among our members and fears of future conflicts of interest defending the most vulnerable and most sustainable road users around the world.

The millions of people who will lose their lives or remain seriously injured around the world, too often due to inappropriate speed by motor vehicles, deserve better.
Posted (Updated )