On January 22^nd ECF attended an executive symposium on road safety at the European University Institute in Florence[1]. The symposium was organised jointly by the Cabinet of Commissioner Violeta Bulc, the European Commission Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, and the Transport Area of the Florence School of Regulation. A select number of leading figures from the road safety world, from Brussels and European member states, were invited to reflect on the content of a possible EU road safety Action Programme for 2020-2030 and on roles and contributions for different stakeholders. Commissioner Bulc attended the symposium as well as many senior figures from DG MOVE. As part of this invited select group ECF Secretary General Dr. Bernhard Ensink carried the torch for cycling.

Bernhard reported from Florence:

“Inspired by Commissioner Bulc we worked very constructively on actions to achieve vision zero by 2050! My main contributions was that we need to go Beyond Vision Zero !”

This was inspired by the Swedish (particularly ECF Swedish members Cykelfrämjandet) attempt to move beyond Vision Zero and to include the health benefits of active mobility[2]  

Major issues at the symposium included; What data and how to collect it; setting an EU wide serious injuries target; how to reduce motor vehicle speeds; better infrastructure; governance and funding, and the role of automation and new technologies in road safety.

 “Cycling and walking delivers safe mobility systems – but also beyond that: healthy mobility systems. We need the paradigm shift to ‘safe and healthy mobility’!”.  

Bernhard also promoted ISA (Intelligent Speed Assistance) technology to “kill speeding” on the European roads, another important aspect of the Safe Systems/Vision Zero approach to road safety. He highlighted also the need for better road infrastructure of which the EU can also play an important role[3].

ECF has proposed an EU Cycling Strategy[4] for the Commission to take on in order to remove fragmentation in the development of relevant policies across EU institutions, to lower barriers to cooperation, reduce coordination costs and increase information-exchange between Member States on all cycling related issues. Road safety is an important part of the strategy where the EU can help member states develop safer infrastructure, regulate EU-wide vehicle technologies to improve safety for those outside the vehicle, and promote safer driver behaviour across the EU. 

Following on from this symposium the Commission is due this spring to launch a Road Safety Action Programme, which will suggest measures that the EU can put in place to improve road safety and incentivise member states also to make improvements. The Action Programme is due to come out at the same time as the review of the General Safety and Pedestrian Protection Regulations[5] for new vehicles and the Road Safety Infrastructure Management Directive[6]. This year then will be an important one for delivering good EU wide road safety measures. ECF will of course be actively engaged in all of these developments.