Towards Vision Zero: 2020 recap
As we are fast approaching the end of 2020, the SAFE-UP consortium has compiled some of the most relevant developments and announcements of this year that have and will continue to contribute towards ‘Vision Zero'.
In February, the European Commission released an ambitious Road Safety Policy Framework 2021-2030. It sets new intermediate targets to halve the number of fatalities and – for the first time – also the number of serious injuries on European roads by 2030. The framework defines the next steps towards ‘Vision Zero’ and publishes a first set of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to gain a much clearer understanding of the different aspects affecting safety. The great majority of EU countries have significantly reduced the number of road fatalities in the last decade, but there is still work to do.
The European Traffic Safety Council (ETSC) published a report in January about how safe cycling and walking are in Europe. Results show that the decreasing rate of cyclist fatalities in the EU is eight times slower than fatalities of motor vehicle occupants. 99% of pedestrian and 83% of cyclist fatalities recorded are a direct consequence of impact with a motor vehicle. The report recommends applying a hierarchy for urban planning, new vehicle safety standards and interactions, and to change human behaviour towards a safer mindset.
As passive safety technology is reaching a certain level of maturity, room for improvement is limited. Active safety should take priority because it can deliver greater benefits and avoid accidents completely. That doesn’t mean passive safety measures will disappear, on the contrary, they will continue saving many lives in the future. The industry developments announced in 2020 are aligned with this trend.
In CES 2020 in Las Vegas, LiDAR companies presented their latest developments, enabling a new level of high-resolution imaging to demonstrate advanced human-like pedestrian perception. This year, most OEMs have increased the integration of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in their vehicles, like Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), as shown by IIHS. This association has also introduced pedestrian crash prevention in their ratings in 2019, which has been incorporated for the first time in the 2020 TOP SAFETY PICK awards. This shows more attention being given to VRUs also in the automotive industry, in addition to governments and associations.
Despite the impact of COVID-19 around the world, the main automotive OEMs have continued developing technological innovations in 2020. Volkswagen has developed a technology to park the vehicle autonomously by using a smartphone. Toyota and Audi have announced this second half of 2020 that they are opening new research centres in the USA focusing on the development of ADAS. Audi has also announced a collaboration to deploy C-V2X communication technology, focusing on two uses cases in roadways: VRUs in work zones and traffic signal information.
In addition to the development of automated vehicles, we have noticed an increasing trend in leveraging and applying connectivity and information-sharing to further improve road safety. Exchanging safety-critical information between nearby vehicles and infrastructure enables us to drive down the number of accidents and casualties. The European Data Task Force (DTF) tackles this and is launching a call for more stakeholders to join the SRTI (Safety-Related Traffic Information) ecosystem and contribute to further improving road safety in Europe.
Finally, in the field of R&D and EU collaboration, there have been many developments (public deliverables, scientific publications). We want to highlight that the SLAIN project led by EuroRAP, a member of our Advisory Board, has published a new deliverable addressing road initiatives to meet the needs of automated cars; including road markings, roadways, VRUs and speed, all to improve road safety.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this short recap of 2020’s key road safety developments supporting ‘Vision Zero’, and look forward to an even better 2021. The SAFE-UP team wish you a very Merry Christmas, and a great start to the new year!
