The aim is to help countries meet the EU’s target of halving deaths and serious injuries on Europe’s roads by 50 % between 2020 and 2030, and of achieving Vision Zero – death and injury-free European roads by 2050.

Funded by the European Parliament, the project is run by the European Commission and managed by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC).

‘In the spirit of solidarity, we need to address the road safety performance gap between member states,’ said Matthew Baldwin, Deputy Director General at the European Commission’s department for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) and EU Coordinator for Road Safety, when announcing the project before senior transport and law enforcement officials and road safety professionals.

Outgoing Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc said a shared vision was important for allowing everyone to ‘walk the path’ to safer roads, and it was important to support those countries at the beginning of the journey.

UN Special Envoy for Road Safety Jean Todt, said the launch reflected the spirit of cooperation, exchange of best practice and skills that had marked their work together.

The three-year twinning initiative initially brings together six countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Romania) with six others that offer particular expertise in those countries’ topics of interest. In this first phase, it will see Bulgaria partner with Austria and the Netherlands, Greece with Spain and France, Lithuania with Sweden and the Netherlands, Poland with Austria and the Netherlands, Portugal with Ireland and Sweden, and Romania with Spain and Ireland.

Six high-level meetings have been held with the countries to provide information on the project and determine their needs. In these talks, three topics were prominent: measures to improve road infrastructure safety, enforcement measures to tackle the main killers on the road, and measures to improve urban road safety and protect vulnerable road users.

A panel discussion on each of these topics was held at the launch event.

Measures to improve road infrastructure safety

Collaboration and a shared vision for a safe system are vital, it emerged from this discussion between Klaus Machata of the Austrian Road Safety Board; Lars Ekman, of the Swedish Transport Administration; and Álvaro Gómez Méndez, head of the National Road Safety Observatory in Spain.

Machata said a safe system requires a shift away from blaming people to making roads forgiving, predictable, and self-explanatory. Humans are fragile and make mistakes, and responsibility for improving the system needs to be shared.

While Europe was the world’s safest region regarding road safety, there were internal differences because some countries started making improvements before others. The focus had to be on designing and building safe roads from the start.

Ekman said roads needed protection systems like cable barriers, so that when people make mistakes, it does not result in fatalities. Méndez noted that it was important for there to be consistency between the design of a road and its speed limit.

Enforcement to tackle the main killers on the road

While speed cameras are an effective way of reducing accidents, political will, resources and leadership, are needed to save lives on European roads, European Traffic Police Network (Tispol) president Volker Orben said.

He took part in the discussion with Moyagh Murdock, CEO of Ireland’s Road Safety Authority and Joël Valmain, of France’s Ministry of the Interior.

Valmain acknowledged former French president Jacques Chirac for introducing speed cameras in France, and said they had made a significant impact in reducing speeding. However, they should not replace police officers patrolling the roads.

He said the automated fine processing centre in Rennes handled 25 million fines per year. Of these, 4 million were from other EU countries. The money from these fines was invested in road safety measures.

Murdock said it was important to use crash reports to determine the causes of crashess and ensure resources are effectively used to prevent them from happening. In Ireland, outsourcing speed enforcement to a private company had delivered impressive results.

Improving urban road safety and protecting vulnerable road users

Most people killed on city streets are vulnerable road users – pedestrians, children, or anyone commuting on two wheels – ETSC project manager Dovile Adminaite told the gathering.

Cities should work on implementing 30 km/h zones, supported by good infrastructure and good transport connections. As an example, she cited Gothenburg, Sweden, which had implemented 2 500 traffic calming measures, including 30 km/h speed limit. Thanks to this, the city had halved the number of deaths and serious injuries from road crashes.

Discussing the topic with her were Roberto Vavassori, CLEPA president; Alexander Nowotny of Austria’s Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology; and Maarten van het Bolscher, Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, the Netherlands.

Nowotny said Graz had already implemented 30 km/h zones and other Austrian cities were following suit. He said there had to be a faster link between traffic offences like speeding and fines being issued, otherwise drivers would not change their behaviour.

Concluding the event, Commissioner Bulc said the launch of the Exchange was another logical step to improving road safety. It was important to keep making roads safer, and creating awareness of the value of human life.

‘In a modern society, there is no reason for people to lose the only thing we ever own, our lives. There’s no reason why that should not stay on top of the European agenda. Vision Zero is the only way to go,’ she said.

Jean Todt thanked her for having made road safety a priority during her tenure. He said her work had paved the way for a ‘beautiful vision for road safety’.

Saving lives had to be backed up by national support, he said. As an example, he cited the UN Road Safety Fund, created in 2018 to help low- and middle-income countries create safer transport systems. 

In a short closing ceremony, senior representatives from the participating countries were presented with certificates to mark their participation in the project.