The report, "Financing Infrastructure for Safe and Sustainable Mobility", reframes road safety as essential for ensuring a return for investors in transport infrastructure. It reveals that embedding safety into transport investment should be a financial requirement as well as a moral imperative.
Annually, 1.2 million people die on the world’s roads at a socio-economic cost of approximately 1-3% of global GDP. Commercially viable projects that deliver strengthened connectivity and safe access to public transport can, the report argues, be the best way to mobilise capital at scale, ensuring returns on investment by boosting use and reducing disruption.
Reframing safety as a performance variable in procurement, financing, and asset management protects lives while delivering financially stable returns. The report identifies the financial value to investors, lenders, and operators and quantifies risk-adjusted returns, with case studies, models, and guidance. It includes how to integrate safety into planning, procurement, and operations for projects, including highways, urban areas, and systems like metros and bus rapid transit (BRT) systems. The research provides metrics and governance steps to track results and build confidence with funders, and highlights how to integrate safety into Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), or align with Climate and Sustainability Finance Agendas.