Dave Conway - Road Safety in the Big Apple

I have had such an exciting time since my last road safety blog.

Undoubtedly the highlight of that time was my trip to New York.
 
The primary purpose for the trip was to attend a meeting of the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC), where I am the elected representative of ISO TC241, the technical committee responsible for the ISO 39000 series of road safety management system standards.
 
The UNRSC is an informal consultative mechanism whose goal is to facilitate international cooperation and strengthen global and regional coordination among UN agencies and other international partners to implement UN General Assembly Resolutions on road safety.
 
I consider myself extremely honoured to be a member of such a prestigious organisation.
 
Our host for the event was Michael Bloomberg, three times mayor of New York City, and one-time presidential candidate. He had not only provided the venue for the meeting, but had also arranged for it to coincide with the inaugural Bloomberg Philanthropies Awards for Excellence in Road Safety presentation ceremony, held at the Shed, the evening before our meeting, to which we were all invited.
 
Wow… what an amazing awards presentation, run with all the razzamatazz that one would expect for our trans-Atlantic cousins, and with the timing and professionalism of a Broadway show. We even got a presentation from World Health Organisation Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu.
 
The awards were for cities; regions and countries that had made the most significant improvements to their road safety in recent years… not an award that FM Conway can enter… and were picked up by representatives of Argentina; Bogota, Colombia; Tunisia; and Pleiku City, Vietnam.
 
This was a very high-level event, and the award recipients had all travelled from their home countries to collect the awards in person from Michael Bloomberg himself, who had actually been the MC for the entire show.
 
After the show there was an informal buffet/cocktail event and Mr Bloomberg spent his time mingling and chatting with the attendees.
 
I was amazed to get a minute or two chatting with him! I transpired he had an English wife for many years and when he heard my accent engaged in conversation. He reckoned, being English, that I probably never lost an argument! I was astonished when I told him I worked for FM Conway, that he was actually aware of us and said he knew we were setting some good road safety standards ‘over there!’. I must say, I was seriously respectful of Mr. Bloomberg and how well informed he was. 
 
The second day was business and my meeting.
 
It was a beautiful morning, so I chose to walk from my Times Square hotel to the venue, the Bloomberg Building, just off Central Park, and managed to catch some NYC sights. Twenty years ago, I think I would have been very nervous about walking in NYC, but I felt perfectly safe this time.
 
The venue was a fantastic location, and the room was big enough to hold the 80 or so attendees.
 
 
The meeting kicked off at 9am sharp, and had some pretty heavy agenda items:
 
  • Preparations for the Fourth Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety (18-19 February 2025, Marrakesh, Morocco)
  • Preparation of the United Nations General Assembly resolution
  • Update on UN Road Safety Fund and World Bank’s Global Road Safety Fund
  • Implementation of the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030
  • Preparations for the 8th UN Global Road Safety Week (12-18 May 2025)
  • Preparations for World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims
And that was just the morning!
 
The afternoon was spent discussing opportunities for engaging pubic and private sectors, and each represented institution updating the forum on its activities and initiatives.
 
I must say, this was probably the most intimidating meeting I have ever attended, even more so than UK Parliament, but it was tremendous experience and hopefully, by the next meeting, I will feel more comfortable in the company of such important people.
 
Back home in the UK, my big mission was to resolve the issue of where the ISO TC would have its annual plenary meeting this year.
 
We had been hoping to find a host in South America, as it is a continent that we have not visited, and we like to think that hosting the ISO plenary meeting helps the host nation to raise the profile of road safety in their area by having the ISO ‘circus’ descend upon them.
 
Sadly, none of the South American proposals were able to come to fruition, although, following the NYC trip, I have made some very good contacts from Bogota, Colombia, so perhaps next year.
 
Fortunately, we had other offers available, so we have decided to accept the very kind offer from Beijing, China, to host this year’s meeting. I can honestly say I am very excited about making that trip.
 
My work helping other businesses continues and I was very pleased when one of my clients got through their Stage 1 BSI audit for ISO 39001 last week. The more people I can help improve their safety standards, the better. That is why I do this work after all.
And finally, I have again been honoured to be invited by a major road safety charity to join the judging panel for their annual awards.
 
Perhaps I can be a judge for the Bloomberg Awards one year!
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