PURPOSE: to reduce road fatalities and serious injuries on EU road networks by improving the safety performance of road infrastructure.

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Directive (EU) 2019/1936 of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2008/96/EC on road infrastructure safety management.

CONTENT: this Directive revises Directive 2008/96/EC with a view to establishing a more systematic approach for safer road infrastructure. It is part of the EU's efforts to achieve its strategic objectives of halving the number of road deaths by 2020 compared to 2010 and approaching zero by 2050.

Scope

The Directive extends the scope of the current rules beyond the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) to cover motorways and primary roads outside the network as well as all roads situated outside urban areas, which are completed, in whole or in part, with EU funds.

Member States may exempt from the scope of the Directive primary roads presenting a low safety risk, on the basis of duly justified reasons related to traffic volumes and accident statistics. The Directive does not apply to road tunnels covered by Directive 2004/54/EC .

Each Member State must notify the Commission, by 17 December 2021 at the latest, of the list of motorways and primary roads located on its territory and, subsequently, of any subsequent amendments thereto, as well as of the list of roads which have been exempted.

Periodic road safety inspections

Member States shall ensure that the road network is subject to periodic road safety inspections with sufficient frequency to maintain adequate levels of safety for the road infrastructure in question. They shall ensure the safety of sections of the road network adjoining road tunnels covered by Directive 2004/54/EC by means of joint road safety inspections carried out at least every six years.

Follow-up of procedures for roads in operation

Publication of the results of network-wide road safety assessments should allow the level of road infrastructure safety to be compared across the Union. Member States shall ensure that remedial action is targeted primarily at road sections with low safety levels and which offer the opportunity for the implementation of measures with high potential for safety development and accident cost savings.

The needs of vulnerable road users should be taken into account in the implementation of road infrastructure management procedures. Vulnerable road users accounted for 47 % of road fatalities in the Union in 2017.

Road markings and road signs

Existing and future procedures for road markings and road signs must pay special attention to readability and detectability for human drivers and automated driver assistance systems. A group of experts established by the Commission shall, at the latest by June 2021, assess the opportunity to establish common specifications in this regard.

The assessment shall take into consideration in particular the following elements:

- the interaction between various driver assistance technologies and infrastructure;

- the effect of the weather and atmospheric phenomena as well as traffic on road markings and road signs present on the Union territory;

- the type and frequency of maintenance efforts necessary for various technologies, including an estimate of costs.

Information and transparency

The Commission shall publish a European map of the road network within the scope of the directive, accessible online, highlighting different categories according to their level of safety.

Member States shall endeavour to establish a national system for the purpose of voluntary reporting, accessible online to all road users, to facilitate the collection of details of occurrences transmitted by road users and vehicles, and of any other safety-related information which is perceived by the reporter as an actual or potential hazard to road infrastructure safety.

For its part, the Commission shall establish a system for the exchange of information and best practices between Member States, covering in particular road safety training programmes, existing road infrastructure safety projects and proven road safety technology.

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 16.12.2019.

TRANSPOSITION: 17.12.2021.

The European Parliament adopted by 534 votes to 37 with 11 abstentions, legislative resolution on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2008/96/EC on road infrastructure safety management.

As a reminder, the proposal makes amendments to Directive 2008/96 / EC to reduce the number of people who are killed or seriously injured on the road networks of the European Union by improving road safety performance.

Parliament’s position adopted at first reading in the framework of the ordinary legislative procedure amended the Commission proposal as follows:

Scope

The amended text states that the directive should apply to roads which are part of the trans-European network, motorways and primary roads, including sections of road built on bridges and sections of road that pass through tunnels, with the exception of tunnels covered by Directive 2004/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on minimum safety requirements for tunnels in the Trans-European Road Network.

The directive also covers entries and exits to parking areas along the network, in particular motorways and primary roads.

Member States may exempt from the scope of the Directive primary roads that have a low risk for safety, based on duly justified grounds connected to traffic volumes and accident statistics. They shall notify to the Commission the list of motorways and primary roads on its territory and, thereafter, any subsequent changes to that list.

Road safety audits

The Commission shall provide guidance for the design of “forgiving roadsides” and “self-explaining and self-enforcing roads” in the initial audit of the design phase as well as on quality requirements regarding vulnerable road users. That guidance shall be developed in close cooperation with Member State experts.

Network-wide road safety assessment

Member States shall ensure that a network-wide road safety assessment is carried out on the entire road network in operation covered by the Directive, evaluating accident and impact severity risk, based on:

- primarily, a visual examination, either on site or by electronic means, of the design characteristics of the road (in-built safety); and

- an analysis of sections of the road network which have been in operation for more than three years and upon which a large number of serious accidents in proportion to the traffic flow have occurred.

The first network-wide road safety assessment shall be carried out by 2024 at the latest and subsequent network-wide road safety assessments shall be carried out at least every five years.

The Commission shall provide guidance on the methodology for carrying out systematic network-wide road safety assessments and safety ratings.

Periodic road safety inspections

Periodic road safety inspections must be undertaken with sufficient frequency to safeguard adequate safety levels for the road infrastructure in question. The joint road safety inspections shall be sufficiently frequent to safeguard adequate safety levels, but in any case shall be carried out at least every six years.

Targeted road safety inspections shall be carried out by expert teams.

Road markings and road signs

Existing and future procedures for road markings and road signs must pay special attention to readability and detectability for human drivers and automated driver assistance systems. A group of experts established by the Commission shall, at the latest by June 2021, assess the opportunity to establish common specifications in this regard.

The assessment shall take into consideration in particular the following elements:

- the interaction between various driver assistance technologies and infrastructure;

- the effect of the weather and atmospheric phenomena as well as traffic on road markings and road signs present on the Union territory;

- the type and frequency of maintenance efforts necessary for various technologies, including an estimate of costs.

Information and transparency

The Commission shall publish a European map of the road network within the scope of the directive, accessible online, highlighting different categories according to their level of safety.

Member States shall endeavour to establish a national system for the purpose of voluntary reporting, accessible online to all road users, to facilitate the collection of details of occurrences transmitted by road users and vehicles, and of any other safety-related information which is perceived by the reporter as an actual or potential hazard to road infrastructure safety.

Reports

Member States shall provide a report to the Commission by 31 October 2025 on the safety classification of the entire network assessed in accordance with the directive. The report shall also cover the improvements in terms of technological progress and of protection of vulnerable road users. From 31 October 2025, such reports shall be provided every five years.

The Committee on Transport and Tourism adopted the report by Daniela AIUTO (EFDD, IT) on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2008/96/EC on road infrastructure safety management.

As a reminder, the proposal makes amendments to Directive 2008/96 / EC to reduce the number of people who are killed or seriously injured on the road networks of the European Union by improving road safety performance.

The committee recommended that the position of the European Parliament adopted at first reading in the framework of the ordinary legislative procedure amend the Commission proposal as follows.

Members considered that the Directive should apply to roads which are part of the trans-European network, motorways and primary roads, including sections of road built on bridges and sections of road that pass through tunnels whether they are at the design stage, under construction or in operation.

Member States should, in particular:

- ensure that road users are informed of the existence of any section with a high concentration of accidents, and that adequate signage and marking are put in place to warn road users when road works are carried out on road sections and may therefore jeopardise their safety;

- ensure that joint road safety inspections are sufficiently frequent to ensure adequate safety levels, but in any case carried out at least every three years;

- ensure adequate levels of intervention and maintenance to guarantee the safety of the infrastructure on the whole road network and shall put in place procedures and plans to intervene immediately if the findings of the inspections and of the network-wide road assessment highlight a severe safety risk;

- prepare and regularly update, but within a year at the latest after the entry into force of the Directive, a risk-based prioritised action plan to track the implementation of identified remedial action;

- ensure that appropriate information is provided at the starting point of each section of the road network in order to inform the road users on the current category of the section;

- publish and make accessible to the public all the relevant documents, affecting the safety of the infrastructure, of concession provisions within the framework of public procurements;

- establish a national system for the purpose of voluntary reporting accessible on-line to all road users, to facilitate the collection of details of occurrences transmitted by road users and vehicles, and of any other safety-related information which is perceived by the reporter as an actual or potential hazard to road infrastructure safety.

The Commission, on its part, should:

- set up guidelines for the provision and maintenance of “forgiving roadsides” and “self-explaining and self-enforcing roads” in the initial audit of the design phase, building on the experience of all Member States;

- publish guidelines to define a methodology to carry out systematic network-wide road assessments and inspections of high risk sections;

- develop minimum performance requirements to facilitate the recognition of road markings and road signs and to improve their connectivity and their interoperability with C-ITS devices installed on connected and automated vehicles;

- by 2020, establish common European standards to harmonise road markings and road signs, in line with the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals of 1968’

- establish a central European register for all road signs and additional symbols used in the EU;

- consider revising the Directive 2004/54/EC on minimum safety requirements for tunnels by 2021 and should consider adopting a new legislative proposal on minimum safety requirements for bridges.

Members also stressed the need to develop quality requirements for infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists and to identify, at EU level, level crossings that pose a high risk to safety in order to invest in improving them.

PURPOSE: to reduce road fatalities and serious injuries on EU road networks by improving the safety performance of road infrastructure.

PROPOSED ACT: Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKGROUND: the EU’s strategic objective of the Union is to halve the number of road deaths by 2020 compared to 2010 and to move close to zero fatalities by 2050 (Vision Zero). However, progress towards achieving these objectives has stalled in recent years. The number of people killed on the roads has certainly been divided by more than two since 2001. However, in 2017, 25 300 people lost their lives on EU roads and 135 000 were seriously injured.

Directive 2008/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on road infrastructure safety management aims to ensure that road safety considerations are at the forefront of all phases of road infrastructure planning, design and operation. However, there are considerable differences in the way in which the Directive is implemented by Member States; many high-performing countries going beyond the requirements of the Directive while others are lagging behind.

This proposal forms part of the new EU road safety policy framework 2020-2030. It is part of the third mobility package and complements the process started with the 2016 low emission mobility strategy and the previous ‘Europe on the move’ packages published in May and November 2017.

IMPACT ASSESSMENT: the combination of options selected could save over 3 200 lives and avoid more than 20 700 serious injuries in 2020-2030 relative to the baseline (14 650 lives saved and 97 502 serious injuries avoided in 2020-2050). For 2030 alone, road infrastructure measures would result in 562 lives saved and 3 675 serious injuries avoided.

CONTENT: the Commission proposes to amend Directive 2008/96/EC in order to (i) improve the follow-up on the findings of road infrastructure safety management procedures; (ii) encourage the sharing of knowledge between Member States on these procedures and requirements; (iii) protect vulnerable road users; (iv) improve the deployment of new technologies; and (v) work towards a uniformly high level of road safety in the Member States.

Specifically, the amending proposal:

extends the scope of the Directive beyond the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) to cover motorways and primary roads outside the network as well as all roads outside urban areas that are built using EU funds in whole or in part; obliges Member States to properly implement and follow-up of all the road infrastructure safety management procedures (RISM Directive); makes it mandatory to apply the procedures of Directive 2008/96/EC to any road infrastructure project outside urban areas which is completed using Union funding should ensure that Union funds are not used to build unsafe roads; introduces a network-wide road assessment, a systematic and proactive risk mapping procedure to assess the ‘in-built’, or inherent, safety of roads across the EU. This new procedure takes into account historic accident data and the existence of already identified high accident concentration sections; specifies Member States' reporting requirements with regard to the application and results of road infrastructure safety management procedures and requires Member States to rank their road networks according to the level of risk identified in network-wide road assessments; requires joint road safety inspections of the transition areas between the roads covered by this Directive and the road tunnels covered by Directive 2004/54/EC; setting general performance requirements for road markings and road signs to make it easier to roll out cooperative, connected and automated mobility systems; and making it mandatory to systematically take vulnerable road users into account in all road safety management procedures.