Category: News

FERSI published a technical paper that sets out a scientifically valid method for assessing the prevalence of mobile phone use of car drivers, cyclists and pedestrians through on-road observations and self-reports. Mobile phone use is an important key performance indicator (KPI) for road safety. Mobile phones are a major source of distraction and contribute to the occurrence of accidents. Unfortunately, most countries do not yet have a reliable picture of the size of the problem and the developments over time. FERSI considers the current guidelines as an excellent basis for collecting scientifically reliable information about this highly relevant road safety issue. 

Download ‘Guidelines for assessing the prevalence of mobile phone use in traffic‘.

The TRA2020 conference will take place in Helsinki from 27 to 30 April 2020. Registration has opened now at traconference.eu. TRA, the Transport Research Arena, is a large biannual European research and technology conference on transport and mobility. TRA2 brings together experts from around the world to discuss the newest innovations and future of mobility and transport. The theme of TRA2020 is Rethinking transport – towards clean and inclusive mobility. 

On 18 September the European project SaferAfrica concluded its work with the conference “Results and future perspectives for road safety in Africa” in Tunis, Tunisia. 

The project started 3 years ago. It successfully contributed to creating favourable conditions and opportunities for improving road safety and traffic management in African countries, among others by setting up a Dialogue Platform between Africa and Europe. The SaferAfrica website provides an overview of the project activities and access to all publications and deliverables.”  

FERSI fully supports the European Commission’s policy on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). It its recently released statement (PDF) FERSI concludes that the use of KPIs can be of great help for both monitoring road safety developments, and identifying the most promising interventions. It is emphasized though that a KPI policy will only be successful if the agreed KPIs have a proven relationship with road safety and if Members States are prepared to collect the required data on a regular basis, and in a similar format. 

The 6th International Symposium on Highway Geometric Design will take place from 28 June until 1 July 2020 in Amsterdam. Abstract submission is open until April 30th 2019. For more information see https://ishgd2020.org/

At the ERTRAC Annual Conference 2019, early April in Brussels, ERTRAC published the Connected Automated Driving Roadmap. This document is an update of the 2017 roadmap. At this same event, ERTRAC also presented the Safe Road Transport Roadmap, entitled Towards Vision Zero: Roads without Victims. Both documents can be downloaded from the ERTRAC website.Regarding vehicle automation we also refer to the 2018 FERSI publication Safety through automation?. 

Read the latest TRA2020 newsletter. TRA, The transport research arena is the biggest European Research and Technology Conference on transport and mobility. In 2020 TRA brings together the experts from around the world to Helsinki to discuss the newest innovations and the future of mobility and transport.

FERSI calls upon the European Commission to give road safety a strong and visible position in Horizon Europe, the next EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.

In a short document FERSI clarifies and substantiates the need for further research and innovation in the area of road safety in order to meet the ambitious European objective of halving the number of road fatalities and serious injuries in the next decade, and having a road without victims in 2050. The document was distributed among relevant EC officials, national contact points and transport organisations.   

After two terms as president of the Forum of European Road Safety Research Institutes (FERSI), Horst Schulze (BASt) will be succeeded by Rob Eenink (SWOV). Concurrently, FERSI’s General Secretary Raschid Urmeew (BASt) steps down and will be succeeded by Ingrid van Schagen (SWOV).

The primary mission of FERSI is to promote and coordinate high quality research on road safety issues, consult on implementation of research results and scientifically evaluate implementation outcomes.

Rob Eenink: “We thank Horst and Raschid for establishing FERSI as a major influencer of Europe’s road safety policy and leading us to a high level of cooperation outside and within FERSI. I look forward to working with Ingrid and our new Executive Board: Dominique Mignot (vice-president, IFSTTAR), Astrid Linder (VTI), Klaus Machata (KFV) and Mateja Markl (SPV)”.