Road Safety R&I Workshop: from Challenges to Solutions – the Way forward

After decades of great improvements, the EU has entered into a phase of stagnation in its efforts to make European roads safer. Since 2013, fatality and injury figures have remained nearly constant. A continuation at the current level of ca. 25,000 road fatalities and ca. 1.4 million injuries on European roads per year is fully unacceptable and in conflict with important road safety targets of the EU, such as moving close to zero fatalities by 2050. Cooperative, connected and automated road transport shows the potential to enable substantial reductions in collisions on European roads, while its successful introduction involves many safety challenges, as well. At the same time, the strive to decarbonize road transport, reduce congestion and further improve air quality as well as public health pushes the shift towards other modes of transport than private cars, which do not necessarily offer the same level of safety.

What is the European Commission’s perception of the safety situation on European roads? What is European R&I contributing to make our roads safer? Which safety research is needed in the coming years to overcome the challenges ahead of us and cover remaining “white spots”? How can a good coverage of road safety R&I needs be ensured in Horizon Europe? These are just some of the questions that will be discussed at this Road Safety Workshop, organized by the Working Group Road Transport Safety & Security of ERTRAC, the European Road Transport Research Advisory Council.

The workshop will bring the research and industry community together with representatives of the European Commission and road user associations. Through a fruitful dialogue, the aim is to identify how R&I can best help to put the EU back on track towards Vision Zero, meaning a road transport system in which human life is the paramount concern and no-one is killed or severely injured anymore.

A draft agenda will be circulated in due course.

This workshop is organized by ERTRAC in the framework of the FUTURE-RADAR project.

The workshop will be held on the 15th November 2019, from 10.00 to 15.30 CET, at Polis Network's facilities, Brussels (Rue du Trône, 98, B - 1050 Brussels, Belgium)