Size: 3 kilometers
Key partner: City of Buenos Aires

In Buenos Aires, almost half of all fatal crashes involving a bus and pedestrian occur within 500 meters of a transport hub. Many such hubs are characterized by long street crossing distances, narrow sidewalks and excessive motor vehicle lanes. Buses commonly operate at high speeds and run red lights. The Saenz Transport Hub has 20 bus lines and hosts 57,000 pedestrians daily.

To improve road safety, the city is developing a program to redesign transport hubs that hinges on speed management and improved pedestrian safety. In 2021, WRI helped identify and prioritize the most critical intersections, supported impact evaluations and assisted with the redesign of the Saenz Transport Hub. The selected intersections included two at either end of the transport hub and an internal intersection with a high number of fatalities. The interventions included raised pedestrian crossings, shorter crossing distances, curb extensions, pedestrian islands, traffic lane reductions and speed bumps.

After the intervention, the majority of pedestrians surveyed strongly agreed with aspirations to generate more space for pedestrians and cyclists. This positive feedback has helped the city proceed with the second phase of the project to improve walkability conditions around the transport hub.

Impact:

  • Decrease in the percentages of buses exceeding the speed limit at all observation points. At the three redesigned intersections, instances of speeds above 40km/h dropped to zero.
  • Surveys indicate that pedestrians’ perceptions of safety increased 42% at the redesigned intersections.

Safer Streets with the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety is part of our WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities.