CONDOLENCES FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE BUS CRASH
05/07/2017Official 0by30 in cities pre-event to the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety 2020
18/02/2020ETSC PIN Flash
Brussels 11.6.19 – Today the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) is launching a new Report on progress or non progress among EU member states concerning the reduction of road deaths and injuries in urban areas
Nearly 5.000 pedestrians and cyclists were killed on urban roads in the EU in 2017 and over 50.000 were seriously injured.
Serious injury data, still an often overlooked issue despite the life-long challenges that such injuries cause. Annual progress in reducing serious injuries slower than reducing deaths which itself is slower than reducing deaths on roads outside urban areas.
PROGRESS IN REDUCING ROAD DEATHS ON URBAN ROADS IS SLOWER COMPARED TO OTHER ROADS On urban roads there has been only a 0.6% reduction since 2010, compared to a 2.2% annual reduction in the number of road deaths on non urban roads
MORTALITY ON URBAN ROADS DIFFERS BY A FACTOR OF NINE BETWEEN COUNTRIES
Download the ETSC briefing at etsc.eu/pin37
Jeannot Mersch, FEVR President said:
"If we consider non fully motorized vulnerable road users, the pedestrians and 2 wheelers, who are environment-friendly and good for health, unfortunately, they make up half of the killed and seriously injured in urban areas. This has to be stopped now. Let´s go."
70% of road deaths in European cities are pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists PIN FLASH Report 37 – how to improve Urban road safety in the EU
Brussels - Tackling urban road safety must be a key priority for the European Union and European countries over the next decade, according to the European Transport Safety Council, authors of a new report.
According to the data revealed today, road deaths on urban roads decreased at around half the rate of those on rural roads over the period 2010-2017. (1) Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists – the three most vulnerable road user groups – represent 70% of those killed and seriously injured on urban roads. (2) Dovilė Adminaitė-Fodor, lead author of the report, commented:
“As long as people don’t feel safe walking and cycling in our towns and cities, many will be discouraged from using the most sustainable modes of transport. This can create a vicious circle because people who take the car instead put all the vulnerable road users around them at greater risk.
“Over the next ten years, we want to see the EU and all European countries investing in urban transport in a way that prioritises the most vulnerable road users. This is not just about safer infrastructure and setting safe speed limits but also better enforcement of speed limits as well as reducing drink driving and distraction.
“Many cities and towns are rightly focussing on improving air quality and sustainability in cities, and discouraging private car use. But safety concerns must go hand-in-hand to ensure that more people cycling and walking are able to do so in a safe environment.”
One of the key challenges for cities is enforcing safe speed limits. Among the countries that monitor levels of speed compliance on urban roads countrywide, between 35% and 75% of observed vehicle speeds in free-flowing urban traffic are higher than the 50 km/h limit.
The report also found vast differences in the level of safety across the European Union. Mortality on urban roads is highest in Romania with 105 road users killed annually per million urban inhabitants – four times the EU average. But there are also several countries leading the way. Around nine people per million urban inhabitants are killed on urban roads in Sweden, 11 in the UK, 13 in the Netherlands and 14 in Ireland and Spain.
In terms of recent progress, Latvia, Greece, Portugal and Poland are the EU countries that made the most progress in reducing urban road deaths between 2010 and 2017.
The authors of the report also say that changes in mobility patterns might have a profound effect on urban mobility and urban road safety in the future. The restricted space in urban areas must be used intelligently and effectively to enable increased mobility without putting road users in danger.
The uptake of e-scooters and other new forms of mobility might also require new national legislation or city-level regulations, infrastructure adjustments and educational activities, similar to the road safety adaptations required for more cycling. A lack of data and regulation is hindering progress in this area at the present time, according to the report.
The report contains more than twenty main recommendations for action at EU, country and city authority level and can be downloaded from the ETSC website at: www.etsc.eu/pinflash37.
(1) Road deaths on urban roads decreased, on average, by 2.2% each year between 2010 and 2017, compared to 3.9% on rural roads, i.e. an average difference of 1.7 percentage points. (2) Killed on urban roads: pedestrians = 39%; motorcyclists = 19%; cyclists = 12%. Seriously injured on urban roads: pedestrians = 25%; motorcyclists = 22%; cyclists = 23%
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