Road safety

ECF works to improve road safety to increase cycling levels by influencing policies on motor vehicle safety standards to ensure automotive technology protects vulnerable road users such as cyclists. 

Cycling is not a risky or a dangerous activity, it is an activity that anyone can participate in and that everyone has access to.

Cycling has a very low carbon footprint; is excellent for public health; causes very few third party injuries; and combats urban congestion. However the current reality is that many people do not cycle due to real and perceived safety concerns. These fears and genuine risks need to be tackled now

ECF work on road safety
 

• ECF co-signs letter calling on the EU Commission to close loopholes in European and national legislation
• ECF co-signs a letter urging the European Commission to close the door on unsafe large vehicles
• Here is ECF Position Paper on the Driving Licence Directive review and update
• Here is ECF document on which Road safety Key Performance Indicators should be collected by the EU and which should not.
• Here is ECF's position paper on road safety that was presented to members of the European Parlament TRAN Committee in 2021 in the context of the Parliament Own Initiative Report.
• ECF and other civil society organisations sign letter for EU ministers to beef up Intelligent Speed Assistance rules
• The European Commission will bring out a Road Safety Action Programme as part of a Mobility Package in May 2018, it will list some safety actions as well as a list of Safety Performance Indicators. Here is ECF document on the programme along with some SPIs for cycling safety.    
• Here is ECF’s Road Safety Charter from 2010 we will update and review this Charter soon, watch this space.
• Here is our ECF recent report of 2016 to a European Commission Working Group looking to advise the European Council on what Member States and the EU can do for cycling safety.    
• And here is our ECF document of 2015 responding to a request from the Commission to provide input into cycling serious injury reduction.  
• Here is a link to ECF Position Paper on the Road Infrastructure Safety Management and Minimum Safety Requirements for Tunnels Directives
• ECF Position Paper on the Vehicle Safety and the review of the General Safety and Pedestrian Protection Regulations here, and here is a brief one pager summary.
• ECF commissioned AGU Zurich to prepare a study on the passive safety requirements for cyclists in the context of the Pedestrian Protection Regulations. The result of this work can be seen here.
• ECF position paper here on the CPC Professional Drivers Qualifications.
• We have a discussion paper on driverless vehicles and C-ITS here.
• You can find information on helmets here: Helmet factsheet.

• The EU Commission acknowledged regulatory flaws with large pick-up truck imports, following ECF co-signed letter 
• We lobbied the European Parliament to call for safer cycling conditions in its response to the European Commisison communication Towards a European road safety area: policy orientations on road safety 2011-2020”
• We successfully called for safer pedelec regulation and for clear division between motorised transport and active transport within Type Approval specifications
• We successfully supported the EU crackdown on cross border traffic offences
• We successfully fought against the cross border use of ‘Megatrucks’
• In the same proposal we successfully moved a step closer for safer lorry cabs to be the European norm
• Cycling safety and awareness of cyclists will be a part of the EU Professional Drivers Qualification Directive changes (see here for news on that)

• We will continue to lobby for lower car speeds, to have 30 kph as the default speed on European roads
• We will push for Intelligent Speed Assistance and Automatic Emergency Braking to be implemented in all EU vehicles as part of changes to the General Safety Regulations in type approval (here is our position paper here)
• We will lobby for safer car fronts within the context of the upcoming changes to the Pedestian Protection Regulations (ECF commissioned AGU Zurich to prepare a study on the passive safety requirements for cyclists in the context of the Pedestrian Protection Regulations, available here
• We will lobby for safer vehicles with better Direct Vision from HGV cabs within the General Safety Regulations specifically on the possibilities for vision improvements.
• The Commission has its EU Infrastructure safety directive to include safer cycling 
• We will be positioning cycling within the new field of autonomous vehicles and new Intelligent Transport technologies (ECF discussion document on Advanced Vehcile Tech, C-ITS and autonomous vehicles.
• We will continue to call for better data into cycling accidents; combat driver distraction; investigate single bicycle accidents; lobby for more infrastructure funding; fight mandatory helmet legislation; monitor new safety technologies (our report on new vehicle technologies inlcuding autonomous vehicles is here