Improving safety: EU Road Safety Exchange and Road Safety Awards

Fatalities from road accidents remain high across the EU, with 20,600 deaths from road crashes in 2022, although this is a 10% reduction since 2019. Vulnerable road users (two-wheel riders and pedestrians) comprised almost half of road victims, with 38% of road deaths occurring in urban areas. As such, initiatives tackling urban road safety will need to be implemented across Member States to achieve the EU and UN goal of halving road deaths by 2030. There are various EU-level efforts under way that aim to improve road safety across Member States, including the EU Road Safety Exchange Project and the annual Excellence in Road Safety Awards. 

The EU Road Safety Exchange Project is a three-year project, which began in 2023 and is managed by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), with the aim of consolidating and expanding collaboration amongst the network of road safety professionals across Member States. The pilot project "EU Road Safety Exchange Programme" was implemented by the ETSC between 2019 and 2022, with experts across 12 Member States exchanging best practices and knowledge on speed reduction, pedestrian and cyclist safety in urban areas, building secure infrastructure, and improving application and data collection. 

Following its relaunch earlier this year, the current phase of the project supports nine Member States which have been assessed to have the maximum potential for significant improvement in their road safety: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Romania. The project will deliver a series of exchange activities, allowing leading EU road safety professionals to share effective road safety measures and policies with their counterparts in the supported Member States. The project will provide crucial knowledge-sharing opportunities on establishing secure active travel infrastructure and other approaches to improving road safety leading up to 2030.

To find out more about the participants and events in the EU Road Safety Exchange, including the launch event on 18 October in Brussels, visit the website.

The Excellence in Road Safety Awards 2023 ceremony is taking place on Thursday 19 October 2023, between 13:00 - 17:15 CET in Brussels and online. The ceremony will provide an opportunity to support and celebrate the leading road safety initiatives from across Europe, and allow you to vote for the winner of the prestigious Jacques Barrot Award, which will be announced at the end of the event. The awards include many inspiring keynote speeches from road safety experts, which are not to be missed! The 2023 award categories include the 'Urban Road Safety Award (open to municipal, city and regional authorities)'

Visit the website for more information and secure your place here