On March 27, 2019 in Ljubljana, RADAR project implemented the first Road Safety Expert Group (RSEG) meeting on Thematic Area 1 – Safer Roads Investment Plans. The meeting was attended by national public authorities, international organisations, professionals and road safety engineers and interest groups including NGOs. 

First Road Safety Expert Group meeting was organised by the RADAR project Partner Automobile and Motorcycle Association of Slovenia in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The first meeting was oriented into optimisation of using limited road investment and road safety investment funds, by supporting most-cost benefit effective engineering solutions at the most appropriate locations/road sections.

Steve Phillips, Secretary-General at Conference of European Directors of Roads (CEDR), explained that infrastructure is foremost about the culture of people and that we need to take care of the infrastructure every day of every year: “Over the past two decades, the infrastructure has improved its safety performance and everything else. However, we have a lot of aging infrastructure. A lot of infrastructures was built in the 70s and 80s, so the problem is with the bridges getting old, tunnels need to be refurbished, so although the general organizational structure and everything else and the performance of the infrastructure has grown. We have got so many more week spots in the infrastructure that really need investment to make sure that they are future proof.”

Derran Williams, Senior Health and Safety Advisor from European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) had a similar opinion: “From my experience I know there’s an awful lot that needs to be done to improve road safety. The biggest challenge, in my opinion, is the funding. I believe the people in this room today really sort of explained, not only to me, but to themselves, and realised the limitation on the road safety in the region. There’s more that can be done, I know there is. And I’m sure that all of us are the right people to make a difference.”

Phillips and Williams among other stakeholder groups with knowledge and expertise in the field of road safety, representatives from Project Partners and Associated Strategic Partners, are part of the Road Safety Expert Group. Through multiple meeting on variety of thematic areas (TA2: Provision for vulnerable road users, TA3: Intelligent Transportation System, speed management and traffic calming approaches and TA4: Infrastructure safety of road passing in the neighbourhood of schools), RSEG will establish good practice in prioritising road sections for treatment and will select methodologies for road safety.

The RSEG provides a platform for cooperation to professionals and experts in the field of road infrastructure safety. Through the support of RSEG expertise, the group will detail the drafting and adoption of the Danube Infrastructure Road Safety Improvement Strategy (DIRSIS) and Danube Infrastructure Road Safety Improvement Action Plans (DIRSIAP).

More about RSEG here. 

Find more photos here.