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Among the major initiatives taken are:
 Safe access of students to schools, including safe zebra street crossings equipped with buttons
to change the lights and traffic signals in front of schools;
 Improved accessibility of passengers to public transport services, for example the passenger
bridges are equipped with escalators and the terminal design with pedestrians in mind
 Renovation and restructuring the passages and pavements for normal pedestrians and people
with physical disability.
 The construction of dedicated walkways, pedestrian areas and ‘No-Car’ passages especially in
major amusement and shopping centres including Tehran’s traditional ‘Bazaar’ (Allen, 2013).
Also, in 2009 also bike sharing with about 500 bikes was introduced in one of the districts of Tehran.
The major feature of cycling projects is the involvement of private sector investment for the bicycles,
the rental centres, and other facilities. The route and infrastructure is designed and established by the
Municipality (Allen, 2013).
5.5.4. Road Safety
The road safety situation in Iran is poor, with road crashes serving as the second highest cause of
death in the country. The high death tolls are blamed on excessive speed, unsafe vehicles, widespread
disregard of traffic laws and inadequate emergency services. However progressive actions from road
safety actors and the Road Traffic Police are slowly starting to make a difference (Global Road Safety
Partnership, 2014).
Overall, 14.9% of all deaths with 26.9% of years of lost life were from injuries in Iran and deaths from
traffic injuries (30.0/100,000) are among the highest in the world. The overall incidence of traffic
accident was 17.3 per 1000 per year. Traffic accident rates in men and women were 22.6 and 11.8,
respectively. The overall traffic accident mortality rate was 26.6 per 100,000 person years, which was
almost three times higher in men than that for women (40.4 compared to 12.1 per 100,000 person
years). This ratio was higher for motorcycle and bicycle accidents. The highest% among women was
seen in the pedestrian involved accidents. These findings are consistent with the findings of other
studies from developing countries. This relates to the gender roles of males and females and also with
women's social limitations regarding riding motorcycles and bicycles. Men are more likely to be
involved in work outside homes and on the street than women in Iran. It is estimated that only 12.5%
of women were employed outside of their homes in Tehran. Lower economic level was associated with
increased incidence and mortality of traffic accidents (Sehat et al, 2012).
It is noted that Iran does not participate in the UN’s decade of action for road safety.
5.5.5. Institutions and organizational structure
During the 1990s strong political leadership from the Mayor of Tehran put a series of sustainable
transport studies and projects in motion which maintained their momentum even after change in the
local leadership. During that period, the city saw a thirty fold increase in its revenues, a fifteen fold
increase in green space and the start of construction of the city’s new metro system. In addition, the
local government introduced number of measures to reduce emissions from the transport sector
(ITDP, 2003).
At a regulatory level, the Iranian transport planning framework is strongly focusing physical planning
aspects. Every city with more than 500,000 inhabitants has to elaborate a transport development
masterplan. These masterplans have to be updated in five year intervals and are valid on municipal
territory only. Usually, every transport masterplan is the product of a (semi)private consultant who
has been assigned by the municipality to elaborate the plan. In the case of Tehran these consultants
were the Tehran Comprehensive Transportation and Traffic Studies Company (TCTTS) and the
Transport and Traffic Organization (TTO). The Supreme Council for Coordination of Iranian Cities’