Last year, the EU, published a new set of excellent vehicle safety standards for the European Union, due to come into force from 2022, including Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA), a full step above mere speed limit information. An ISA should ‘assist’ the driver with effective feedback. The text of the regulation, however, does not provide any specifications for the nuts and bolts of the ISA, instead, these technical requirements are currently being prepared by the European Commission.

Unfortunately, this is not moving in the direction that we thought it would and should. The Legal text of the General Safety Regulations requires that the driver should be made aware that the speed limit is exceeded through “…either the accelerator control, or an alternative that provides dedicated, appropriate and effective feedback”. This “alternative” is being interpreted by the Commission in its writing of the technical specifications as allowing for a visual warning light on the dashboard and then a series of audio beeps when the speed limit is reached, rather than direct feedback on the accelerator. Officials from France, Germany, Italy and Sweden said they supported the proposals; all four countries have significant automotive industries. Swedish, together with German officials, signalled that they would also like to see an even weaker speed limit information function as an option instead of ISA.

ECF thinks that this will not be a good system to compel drivers to obey keep to the limit. If it is too intrusive drivers will turn it off, and if it is not intrusive enough then, well it will not be intrusive enough! Drivers will not go under the limit. Either way it is sliced, an auditory beep will not work. We would like a Speed Control Function to be the ‘alternative’ to the pedal system. This has been proved to be effective and to also be pleasant and intuitive to use, and thereby encouraging to use.

TRL, the UK Transport Research Laboratory, which carried out analysis for the European Commission’s original proposals, have estimated that fitting a speed limit information function instead of an ISA system would lead to 1300 extra deaths a year in the EU.

ECF is part of a broad range of organisations that has signed a letter sent to all EU ministries to ask them to put pressure on the European Commission to implement a true Intelligent Speed Assistance. You can find the letter here. This single technology if applied properly could help to achieve a high level of compliance with speed limits and eventually cut road deaths by 20%.

We will be letting you know how you can help in the very near future, perhaps by writing or contacting your governments. We will get back to you with how this is progressing and what you can do.”

The signatories of the letters to transport and industry ministers are:

Antonio Avenoso, Executive Director, European Transport Safety Council (ETSC); Anna-Lisa Boni, Secretary General, EUROCITIES; Professor Oliver Carsten, University of Leeds, UK; Jeannot Mersch, President, European Federation of Road Traffic Victims (FEVR); Stephen Russell, Secretary General, ANEC – The European consumer voice in standardisation; William Todts, Executive Director, Transport & Environment; Karen Vancluysen, Secretary General, POLIS Network - Cities and Regions for Transport Innovation; Geert van Waeg, President, International Federation of Pedestrians; David Ward, President, Towards Zero Foundation; Jill Warren, CEO, European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF)