Case Study on Road Safety - Lessons from the EU

This article, from a special issue on road safety, emphasizes that road safety is an important matter for the European Union and one that should be high on the political agenda of each member state. The author outlines the main characteristics of road safety and of a road safety policy; reviews the European approach thus far in the areas of new equipment for vehicles, infrastructure improvements, and improving the behavior of road users; describes the European Road Safety Observatory, a public web site that gathers, analyzes, and publishes scientific information on road safety; and briefly outlines the activities of the European Road Safety Charter, which encourages and gathers road safety commitments from member countries. The article concludes by informing readers of the intention of the European Commission to propose a new European road safety action program for the period 2011 through 2020.