The European Commission released its latest figures[1] for the road fatalities across the EU last week. In 2018, there were around 25,100 fatalities in road accidents in the EU 28; a 1% decrease from 2017.

The EU has been aiming to halve fatalities between 2010 and 2020. This target is looking unlikely if not impossible now. A great start to the first 3 or 4 years of the decade has over the past 3 or 4 years, now plateaued and remains stubbornly stuck on around 25,000 deaths on European roads each year.

There is however reasons to be hopeful.

The EU has very recently passed two pieces of legislation that do have the potential to kickstart future life-saving road safety measures. Namely the General Safety Regulations and the Road Infrastructure Safety Management Directive. Both of which ECF campaigned on to try to achieve a good result for cyclists and pedestrians.

The RISM Directive defines procedures that were supposed to ensure the safety of trans-European road network, but up until now has almost exclusively focused on the safety of car-occupants. The needs of other road users such as cyclists and pedestrians were often overlooked. For the past two years, the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) worked hard to have the needs of cyclists represented in the revision process of the Directive. We have been highlighting the importance of providing adequate infrastructure to all road users including cyclists and pedestrians. We also prepared a set of detailed amendments when the first legislative proposals were published.

Hard work pays off

After months - if not years - of lobbying, we achieved to change the text of the RISM Directive. Now, it formally states that

• Member States will have to take the needs of cyclists (as well as pedestrians and motorcyclists) into account in the implementation of all safety procedures defined in the Directive
• The European Commission shall provide guidance on quality requirements regarding vulnerable road users. We consider this a key element to make sure EU funding is not spent on infrastructure projects that are unsafe for cyclists or that create new barriers for cycling
• Member States shall ensure that the training curricula for road safety auditors includes aspects related to cyclists and cycling infrastructure
• Cycling traffic and cycling infrastructure are on the indicative list of data to be collected in the new procedure of network-wide road assessment

Also, the scope of the Directive was extended to all motorways, “primary roads” and non-urban roads that receive EU funding. According to research from the European Commission, the proposed package of measures could save as many as 3,200 lives and prevent more than 20,000 serious injuries over the 2020-2030 period.

More safety, for everyone

At the same time motor vehicles have been made safer as well, and hugely important is that the revision includes many measures that will directly improve cycling safety. European vehicle type approval includes the General Safety Regulations which mandates the safety features that every motor vehicle must have. After 3/4 years of following and lobbying the institutions on this here is the list of measures that will have a direct impact on cycling safety;

• 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

These measures (final text available here, and full list of measures here) all have different lead in times, with some ready by 2022, others, like the Direct Visions for HGVs, will have a longer time of around 7/8 years before implementation. 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.

There are also a raft of more non-legislative measures that the European Commission has promised to deliver in its Communication on Sustainable Mobility for Europe and Strategic Action Plan on Road Safety. Again, this is something that we will be following to ensure that cyclists (and pedestrians) will be represented and included in the content of these initiatives.

In conclusion, a disappointing continuation of the trend of road fatalities across the EU, but with hope on the horizon with some EU legislations to come into effect over the next few years which could have a major impact and kickstart a future trend of fatality reductions.