Frank Wang, vice president of AB InBev, APAC, accepts the honor of "2018 Cooperation Unit of Shanghai Public Welfare Alliance of Traffic Civilization" as a representative of AB InBev. Photo: Courtesy of AB InBev

Frank Wang, vice president of AB InBev, APAC, shares the achievements reached by AB InBev's TSR pilot project and measures they have taken to promote traffic safety.Photo: Courtesy of AB InBev

AB InBev shares the achievements they have made and the measures they have taken to promote traffic safety in the past few years. Photo: Courtesy of AB InBev

This year's National Traffic Safety Day was marked by Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) in collaboration with the Shanghai Public Security Bureau in Shanghai on Friday and with the Public Security Bureau of the Tibet Autonomous Region in Lhasa on Sunday. It aims to raise public awareness towards safer travel.

AB InBev is an active promoter for traffic safety and has participated in the National Traffic Safety Day for years. "With firm support from China's traffic police, we've focused our efforts on the road, vehicles, and people to help promote safe travel for years," Frank Wang, vice president of AB InBev, APAC said. "Either by spreading 'don't drink and drive' awareness to the public or by working with academic organizations to improve road safety, we're always striving to make our travel safer."

As a beer company with a strong sense of social responsibility, AB InBev knows the harm of drinking and driving. Therefore, since 2008, the brewer has been committed to promoting ideas of "smart drinking, don't drink and drive," and working with government agencies, public figures, academic organizations, and business partners during the campaigns against drinking and driving.

For 11 years, AB InBev has spread such awareness campaigns to nearly 50 cities across China. As China's first post-millennial generation turns 18 years old this year, AB InBev has also expanded the target groups of the campaigns to the new generation by using their common language to tell stories to promote safer travel. The brewer invited China's acting talent Zhang Yishan and officers from the Shanghai traffic police to act in the film The Future You, to raise public awareness about the consequences of drinking and driving.

Also, to further convey the message against drinking and driving, AB InBev, under the guidance of the Shanghai Traffic Police Department, commissioned nearly 10 artists to create 52 artworks of varied forms, which were put together as China's first "no drinking and driving" art exhibition - the Lost and Found Museum. By pioneering art presentations, the show presented the young generation with consequences of drinking and driving. The exhibition also had an education zone commissioned by the Shanghai traffic police, where officers demonstrate breathalyzer tests to offer people real examples of the harm of drinking and driving.

AB InBev also teamed up with a number of world-leading private corporations to launch an international alliance known as "Together for Safer Roads" (TSF), to jointly work towards improving road safety and to cut casualties incurred by road traffic accidents. Many groups and individuals, including the Shanghai Public Security Bureau and academics from Tongji University, have engaged in the improvement of making Shanghai's traffic safer.

They've launched a package of pilot projects to protect road safety. The first phase of them incorporated leading international approaches in scientific data analysis and behavior analysis, and conducted interventions and improvements on several accident-prone urban and suburban roads. It has so far generated positive results on six roads.

With continuous observations and long-term tracking evaluations, statistical figures show that compared with the pre-improvement period, the number of total accidents on these roads has fallen on average by 50 percent to 70 percent, while the number of accident casualties has decreased on average by more than 50 percent.

In 2018, the Shanghai pilot has been entering into its second phase, with the project team further intensifying efforts based on previous results. After screening big data and conducting field investigations, the second phase picked three roads for improved traffic designs. With four years of concentrated efforts, the TSR pilot project has already yielded enormous results, and AB InBev will continue to work closely with Shanghai traffic police to positively contribute to China's road traffic safety landscape by using the local pilot as an exemplary model that the whole country can reference.

The 7th National Traffic Safety Day also took place in the Tibet Autonomous Region where AB InBev worked with the Public Security Bureau of the Tibet Autonomous Region and the Lhasa Municipal Public Security Bureau for the launch of the promotional activity for safer travel. According to AB InBev, at the scene of the event, they released Tibet's first public welfare video to advocate "don't drink and drive" with the Tibetan traffic police, and shared the company's measures in the field of traffic safety.

The public awareness film impresses the viewers with a heart-felt inclination that whenever you lift up a drink, you need to put the car keys down. The film will be aired and promoted across the region on Tibet's major publicity platforms and entertainment venues, blend into residents' day-to-day life, and subtly improve the road safety awareness of the public, so that it eventually contributes to building a safer Tibet.

Wang said that this theme is highly consistent with the concept that AB InBev has been advocating for years. "Over the years, with the strong support from the traffic police, we have improved traffic safety by promoting no drinking and driving and working with academic institutions to improve road safety. We are always striving to achieve our idea of a safer road," Wang said.

According to Wang, AB InBev will always stay faithful to its commitments to promote safer travel. "As we continue to work hand-in-hand with different stakeholders, we will continue to follow China's road traffic safety landscape and contribute to building a safe, orderly and smooth traffic environment," he said.