RADAR project’s Road Infrastructure Safety Training Course initially planned in Moldova has moved online to share the knowledge more broadly. The three-day course was held on May 11 and successfully completed on May 13, 2020.

The online training course has been successfully executed by RADAR project road safety specialists and experts:

• Olivera ROZI, Project Director, European Institute of Road Assessment (EIRA-EuroRAP)
• Marko ŠEVROVIĆ, Road Safety Engineer, European Institute of Road Assessment (EIRA-EuroRAP)
• Jure KOSTANJŠEK, Road Safety Expert, Automobile and Motorcycle Association of Slovenia (AMZS)
• Bojan JOVANOVIĆ, Road Safety Engineer, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences (FPZ)

Although the training courses have already been developed in eight countries across the Danube area (Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Montenegro, and Slovenia), the online course has been the most successful in regard to the number of registered participants.

The first online training course witnessed record numbers, with 47 road design engineers, road safety specialists, national authorities, road safety officers, and civil engineering students. This number confirmed the status of the RADAR project Road Infrastructure Safety Training Course as a leading course for road safety experts and policymakers.

So far, the training courses across eight Danube area countries have already improved the capacity of more than 200 technical personnel and engineers responsible for road safety.

The participants to the training course have learned how to analyse the road safety data that highlighted the scale of the problem of road trauma in the region and how to perform road surveys as well as road safety analysis in ViDA software.

According to the participants, the training course has been valuable: “All existing roads and newly designed roads should undergo this analysis. Using it more often will change the design thinking of road engineers and planners,” explained one of the participants. Another participant said that ViDA software is “a good proactive tool to ensure that the key safety aspects are incorporated in the design!”

Tatiana Mihailova, Project Manager from Automobile Club of Moldova stated that: "although the Road Infrastructure Safety Course was planned to be held just for Moldovan interested stakeholders and specialists in road infrastructure safety in-person, and despite the tough times due to Covid-19, the RADAR project team managed to organize a wonderful and professional ONLINE training with the participation of not only Moldova but also other countries! We welcome such an inspiration and interest to learn more about making roads safe!"

Based on the three-day training course RADAR project will also deliver two webinars on road infrastructure safety, focusing on four thematic areas: Safer Roads Investment Plans (SRIP), provisions on Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs), traffic calming approaches and speed management and finally safety around schools (School Rating for Schools).

The invitation will follow soon so stay tuned!