Brussels, 06/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - The EU's urban mobility package being prepared at DG MOVE of the European Commission is expected to take road safety into account. The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) sets out its recommendations in this respect.
The urban mobility package is due to be presented by the end of the year. The ETSC calls for measures that will reduce road deaths by half in towns and urban areas by 2020. In a position paper published on 5 June, the association suggests speed could be reduced through a combination of measures, while studies show that, in urban areas, 80% of drivers exceed the authorised limits. Also, ETSC considers that walking and cycling should not be discouraged as unsafe means of mobility but that, rather, more should be done to better protect vulnerable road users. Safer infrastructure can also contribute to this. Town and country planning should also take the safety aspect into account. The same is true for calls for public tenders for the equipment of public transport or heavy vehicles. In this respect, explicit reference to safety should be made in European legislation, the ETSC states. The association welcomes review of the design of heavy goods vehicles to improve road safety as recently proposed by the Commission but also suggests that roads for these vehicles should be adapted to avoid urban areas during peak hours. (MD/transl.jl)