KFV (Kuratorium für Verkehrssicherheit – Austrian Road Safety Board) is one the Sabrina Workpackage Leader, working closely and diligent togeahter with the Sabrina Project Partners in delivering an impresive outcome in Factsheets and Best Practice Report, next to the Safer Cycling Routes Toolkit (SCRT). Positive and professional partners they energized the team during the entire project perioad. Let's meet them:

What is the main focus of the activity the Austrian Road Safety Board?

The KFV (Kuratorium für Verkehrssicherheit – Austrian Road Safety Board) is the major road safety institution in Austria. It was founded in 1959 as a private association, is politically independent and maintains close contacts with ministries, regional and local authorities where its research results and advice support political decision-making. A strong team of transport and civil engineers, psychologists, sociologists, educationists, statisticians and legal experts work cross-disciplinarily and provide high-quality services in all areas of road safety and mobility, such as crash statistics, traffic engineering, driver education and vehicle technology, traffic education, and traffic psychology. The KFV has a long tradition with managing & contributing to large-scale research, consulting and implementation projects at national and international level, e.g., in the HORIZON, INTERREG and EU-Twinning programmes. Moreover, KFV maintains close contacts with leading transport safety research institutes in Europe and is an active member of the European road safety organisations ETSC, FERSI, HUMANIST and IRTAD.

Working hand in hand with the Austrian public sector ensures ultimate involvement into Austrian road safety work, from local black spot treatment and psychological driver testing to standardisation and legislation at federal level. A key focus of the KFV’s team of traffic engineers is with the safety of active mobility modes, especially the safety of cyclists. The working group tasked with the design and regular update of the cycling-related Austrian Guideline for Planning, Construction and Maintenance of Roads (RVS) is chaired by KFV – and several of KFV’s research projects on safe cycling infrastructure have contributed to making these guidelines an evidence-based backbone for the provision of safe cycling infrastructure in Austria – and a hands-on vademecum for traffic engineers across the country.

Why you choose to be a PP in SABRINA Project, what is the most important output from your point of view?

At least two aspects of the project made the project highly attractive to the KFV: the fact that SABRINA constitutes an excellent consortium of organisations that excel in the fields of urban mobility and cycling – and the plan to implement and compare, for the first time, evidence-based methods to assess the safety of cycling infrastructure – based on extensive video surveys – in the Danube region.

KFV’S main task was to collect and collate best practices from the region and internationally – and to produce both a glossy report and a series of 30 fact sheets. These shall support decision makers and experts in pinpointing existing cycling safety problems and identify adequate and cost-efficient solutions as well as provide them with a repository of the many positive impacts of cycling to society.

The most ambitious and promising part of SABRINA is, however, the creation of a web-based decision support tool to assist relevant actors in the design, assessment and upgrading processes of safe cycling routes and networks. The tool will not only be made available for free to an expert audience but also also undergo practical pilot-testing in all SABRINA countries.

Top 3 cycle routes you would recommend for a next vacation on bikes.

EuroVelo 6: Linz – Vienna - Bratislava

The route section along the Danube is one of the best known and most travelled stages of EuroVelo 6. In general, the whole section is perfect for cycling, as the route is mostly flat along the Danube, on both sides of the river. In addition, the ride is made all the more enjoyable by the varied landscape and the rich cultural heritage of the various towns that are passed through. The route takes you to Linz, the capital of Upper Austria, also European Capital of Culture 2009, Enns, the oldest town in Austria, Melk, with its beautiful baroque Benedictine monastery, the Wachau region, which produces excellent wine and finally the Austrian capital Vienna, with its countless architectural and cultural highlights. The route then continues along the Danube through the Lobau wetlands, through forests and the Donau-Auen National Park, to Bratislava.
The EuroVelo 6 in Austria mainly leads through attractive countryside and beautiful villages and cities, along the Danube, usually with very good surface conditions.

EuroVelo 9: Wilfersdorf – Vienna - Maribor
The EuroVelo 9 is a route which allows a leisurely ride through wine regions, Vienna and Styria, and from one thermal spa to the next. The cycle tour leads past vineyards, pumpkin and corn fields and through historic towns. From Vienna to Bad Radkersburg, the route follows exactly the route of the thermal spa cycle path (“Thermenradweg”), then leads along a section of the famous Mura cycle path and branches off south in Spielfeld towards Maribor, Slovenia's second largest city.

EuroVelo 14: Zell am See – Graz – Lake Balaton
The EuroVelo 14, also called the pleasant route that connects rivers, lakes and spas in Austria and Hungary, is a cycle path along the river Mura, mainly in Styria, which leads to Hungary. EuroVelo 14 links some beautiful landscapes and makes also a great cycling adventure for those who want to cover longer distances. The route is also very well accessible by train. The route is mainly along roads and paths with good surface conditions.

How important is datawhen addressing politicians and decision makers in your country? Which are relevant updates we should look into?

In Austria, comparatively reliable, geocoded crash data are available, based on police records. There is, however, little knowledge on traffic flows and hence individual crash risks, especially when it comes to cyclists and the safety analysis of cycling facilities. Therefore, we observed in the past a certain tendency to make political instead of evidence-based decisions when it comes to creating, upgrading and maintaining such facilities. We definitely believe that SABRINA, by way of its unique approach to assess safety levels using mathematical risk models, can help making decision making and funding processes more reasonable and transparent. We at KFV are thrilled by the interest that already the first assessment results of our EuroVelo routes have sparked amongst Austrian stakeholders, such as among ministry departments, regional authorities, individual municipalities and a national power provider running plants along the Danube and Mura rivers.

#safetyOn2Wheels #EuroVelo