The Eastern Alliance for Safe and Sustainable Transport (EASST) is marking the Seventh UN Global Road Safety Week with the launch of their new Step by Step: EASST Safe Crossings Initiative.
The initiative implements small-scale pedestrian infrastructure interventions for high impact: transforming unsafe roads into safe, accessible, and liveable public spaces.
Supporting calls to #RethinkMobility the project takes a people-centred approach to mobility and street design with interventions that have been proven to reduce the risk of pedestrian casualties.
Each new crossing is designed by experienced road engineers following international best practice and holding to standards that often go above and beyond those of local regulations. The aim is to demonstrate the impact that high-quality, targeted upgrades can have on guiding good behaviour and enabling people to make safe decisions.

Within EASST’s countries of operation, these relatively small, low-cost interventions are hugely innovative and demonstrate the impact that high-quality infrastructure can have on improving road safety more generally. They also serve as a means to raise awareness and engage with local authorities, decision makers, and stakeholders on issues of road safety and sustainable mobility from a Safe System perspective.
EASST has been working with the Safer Roads Foundation and other key partners since 2019 to upgrade several dangerous road crossings and other areas of road infrastructure in countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. Step by Step: EASST Safe Crossing Initiative brings this work under a single project umbrella to deliver safe and accessible crossings that serve the travel needs of all road users as well as improving walkability, reducing car and fuel dependency, and supporting people to be more active.
“EASST’s Step by Step concept appeals to all my prejudices … everyone should visit their website to and see for yourselves the before and after images of the many accident blackspot schemes the Safer Roads Foundation has supported. It’s truly remarkable how simple, low cost, remedial measures such as high-profile signage, raised pedestrian crossings, and traffic calming – to name just three – can dramatically improve safety and in doing so, save so many lives” said Michael Woodford MBE, Executive Director of the Safer Roads Foundation welcoming the Step by Step: EASST Safe Crossings Initiative at the project launch event held at the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on 16 May.
Find out more at https://www.easst.co.uk/step-by-step-easst-safe-crossings-initiative/
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About EASST
EASST (Eastern Alliance for Safe and Sustainable Transport) is an independent UK-registered charity whose mission is to save lives and prevent injuries by making road transport safer, greener and more sustainable for future generations.
Through a vibrant network of local NGO partners, EASST concentrates its efforts in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia where road deaths are particularly high and vehicle fleets are growing. These factors together pose an increasingly unbearable burden on health and social services, while unsafe road transport is inhibiting both economic and social development.