Insufficient measures for an ambitious target
The ERF welcomes new strategy to reduce the number of fatalities in Europe for the next decade. However the ERF regrets the absence of some criteria, indispensible for achieving such an ambitious objective.
On 20 July, the European Commission adopted the Road Safety Programme 2011-2020, which provides a general governance framework setting objectives and orientations for road safety strategies for the next ten years at local, national and European level.
While welcoming the new ambitious target of halving the overall number of road fatalities in the European Union by 2020, the ERF considers that the measures and actions outlined in the Programme are not sufficient to fully achieve it.
Overall, the ERF congratulates the Commission for underlining the importance of shared responsibility and coordination among European authorities, Member States, regional and local authorities, as well as the actors in civil society.
The ERF welcomes the establishment of a structured cooperation framework fostering the cross-sharing of best practices, as well as the set up of common tools for monitoring and evaluating the efficiency of road safety policies. However, the ERF believes that a more permanent structure for overseeing the implementation of the Road Safety Action Programme is needed and reiterates its call for the creation of a dedicated Roads Agency, whose mandate will be to evaluate progress on a country to country basis and, where appropriate, proposed additional measures.
Moreover, the ERF supports the emphasis placed on a common definition on serious and minor injuries and encourages the Commission to take further steps in this area, as the lack of common definition at EU level on issues such as road investment and maintenance still hampers meaningful comparisons that would help identify their relative cost effectiveness.
As for the strategic objectives and related actions, while congratulating the Commission for its commitment in ensuring that EU funds will only be granted to infrastructure compliant with the Road Safety and Tunnel Safety Directives, the ERF regrets that the weight of road infrastructure in improving the overall road safety is not sufficiently reflected in the Programme. In particular, the ERF believes that extending the application of the relevant infrastructure safe management principles to the secondary roads is a praiseworthy initiative but it should be coupled with other cost-effective measures covering all road categories, including the assessment of the impact and promotion of high performance solutions for road restraint systems, road markings and road signs.
Regarding the implementation of smart technologies and ITS, the ERF considers the support for boosting the deployment of e-call initiative, as well as the exchange of data and information between vehicles and infrastructure, a major step forward.
Finally, the ERF welcomes the particular attention to vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, powered two wheelers and elderly road users as well as the holistic approach which considers the infrastructure as one of the three core pillars of the road safety equation, together with the user and the vehicle.