ASECAP cautiously welcomes EU agreement on VRU safety

Tolling organisation ASECAP has welcomed a European agreement which would force governments to take ‘systematic account’ of vulnerable road users (VRUs). But it warns that the industry must guard against any unintended consequences of the provisional agreement between the European Council and European Parliament, which is designed to strengthen road infrastructure management in a bid to reduce fatalities and serious injuries. The wording has yet to be endorsed by the Council and the relevant European Par
March 4, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

Tolling organisation 486 ASECAP has welcomed a European agreement which would force governments to take ‘systematic account’ of vulnerable road users (VRUs).

But it warns that the industry must guard against any unintended consequences of the provisional agreement between the European Council and European Parliament, which is designed to strengthen road infrastructure management in a bid to reduce fatalities and serious injuries.

The wording has yet to be endorsed by the Council and the relevant European Parliament committee.

But if passed it will become mandatory to take into account pedestrians, cyclists and other VRUs – who made up almost half of road fatalities in the 1816 European Union in 2017 - in road safety management procedures.

The proposed reform will extend the scope of current rules to motorways and other primary roads beyond the trans-European transport network (TEN-T). Policy makers say this will “contribute significantly to the improvement of road infrastructure safety” across the European Union. The directive is also expected to cover roads outside urban areas that are built using EU funding.

The proposal introduces a network-wide road safety assessment, which is described as “a snapshot of the entire road network covered by the directive used to evaluate accident risk”. Authorities will use this data to either introduce more targeted road safety inspections or to take immediate action to resolve a safety blackspot.

But ASECAP warns that “several suggested proposals must be very carefully studied, otherwise the application of them can produce the opposite results of the expected ones”.

The organisation suggests there should be “detailed analysis of each accident, before a general assessment of road infrastructure sections takes place”, and insists this analysis must be based on facts.

“Parameters like the vehicle type, age and classifications, as well as driver’s behaviours, education and incomes could lead to very useful inputs on the analysis of the accidents,” ASECAP suggests in a statement.

It also expresses concern that existing safety procedures must not be compromised by the new rules.

“ASECAP would like to stress that any change on current procedure may jeopardise the proven efficiency of existing tools,” it points out.

Detection, Monitoring & Machine Vision

Related Content

  • September 4, 2018
    ASECAP examines tolling’s trials, tribulations and triumphs
    If you want to get up to speed on the main issues facing the transport sector and tolling companies, ASECAP Study Days event in Ljubljana was a good place to start. Colin Sowman reports (Photographs: Louis David). Increasing populations, ever-higher technical and safety requirements, and electric and hybrid vehicles will provide both challenges and opportunities for tolling companies. The annual Study Days event organised by ASECAP (the European association for tolling companies) examined all of these aspec
    Read More
  • April 1, 2019
    C-ITS in the EU: ‘A little tribal’
    As the C-ITS Delegated Act begins its journey through the European policy maze, Adam Hill looks at who is expecting what from this proposed framework for connected vehicles – and why some people are insisting that the lawmakers are already getting things wrong here are furrowed brows in Brussels and Strasbourg as European Union legislators begin to consider the rules which will underpin future services such as connected vehicles. The idea is to create a regulatory framework to harmonise cooperative ITS
    Read More
  • April 1, 2019
    C-ITS in the EU: ‘A little tribal’
    As the C-ITS Delegated Act begins its journey through the European policy maze, Adam Hill looks at who is expecting what from this proposed framework for connected vehicles – and why some people are insisting that the lawmakers are already getting things wrong here are furrowed brows in Brussels and Strasbourg as European Union legislators begin to consider the rules which will underpin future services such as connected vehicles. The idea is to create a regulatory framework to harmonise cooperative ITS
    Read More
  • April 16, 2019
    C-ITS in the EU: ‘It has got a little tribal recently’
    As the C-ITS Delegated Act begins its journey through the European policy maze, Adam Hill looks at who is expecting what from this proposed framework for connected vehicles – and why some people are insisting that the lawmakers are already getting things wrong
    Read More

Highlighted Content