EU Institutions agreed yesterday on the revision of the General Safety Regulation that will make vehicle many safety measures mandatory from 2022 in EU vehicles. What is hugely important is that this revision will include many measures that will directly improve cycling safety.

This political agreement reached by the so-called trilogue (European Parliament, Council and Commission negotiations) completes the process that has been ongoing for more than three years. The European Parliament Plenary will have to give one final vote to rubberstamp the final text which we hope may even be achieved before the Parliament elections in May. If not then we will have to wait until after the elections for this to be finally rubberstamped.

This proposal is expected to save over 25,000 lives and prevent 140,000 serious injuries by 2038 in line with the “Vision Zero”, zero fatalities and serious injuries by 2050.

The following vehicle safety measures which have direct relevance to cyclist and pedestrian safety include[1];

• Intelligent Speed Assistance which will assist the driver to keep to the speed limit through some form of haptic feedback, and which can also be overridable if speeds need to be increased for a safety reason
• Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) for car to pedestrian/cyclist
• An HGV/truck ‘VRU detection’ assist that will warn the driver if a pedestrian or cyclist is in the blind spot of a large vehicle
• A Direct Vision standard for large trucks that will become mandatory on all new trucks
• Larger head impact zone testing for pedestrians/cyclists, and safer glass material

Lead-in times could mean that most of these technologies will be implemented on all new vehicles coming onto the road by 2022. The Direct Vision for trucks will be for new vehicles by 2025 and all new vehicles by 2028.

The European Commission and UNECE will work on and finalize the exact technical specifications for each of the measures through implementing legislation in time for the final implementation date, which ECF will continue to monitor and provide expert opinion.

This process started back in 2017when the Commission launched a public consultation to gather stakeholder views on potential improvements to current vehicle safety measures. In May 2018, the Commission then proposed a review of the General Safety Regulation and the Pedestrian Safety Regulation, under the Third “Europe on the Move” set of actions[2]. The revised General Safety Regulation goes hand in hand with an efficient safety management of road infrastructure, where the Commission's proposal was agreed in February 2019.  This was also a success for ECF and aims to improve infrastructure development on EU funded, primary and national road infrastructure projects[3].

ECF's Advocacy Director Adam Bodor said

This can be a revolutionary moment in European road safety legislation, vehicle regulations have been very successful in reducing fatalities and serious injuries of vehicle occupants, now the technology is available to also improve the safety of those outside the vehicle. We are very happy that the European institutions has incorporated these measures. In particular the Intelligent Speed Assistance for cars and the lorry/truck safety measures, these two measures on their own will have a great impact on calming traffic and making the roads safer for all. But put together in an all-round package will have a major impact on kickstarting European road safety"

The new measure has paved the way thanks to a great work from the Romanian EU presidency, European Commission DGGROW and the Polish MEP Róża Thun[4] that are responsible for leaving the legacy of a key regulatory milestone for the safety of pedestrians and cyclists.

We will keep you posted on the exact text of the new regulation when it becomes available.