The European agenda is full of commitments and prerogatives; one of these is road accidents.
In order to increase road safety, the European Union, inspired by the Swedish Vision Zero project, has set itself a series of objectives: reducing road deaths to zero by 2050 and halving by 2020.
It has been estimated that the number of deaths and injuries caused by road accidents is still too high. Although accidents occur for various reasons, road surface conditions can make a significant contribution to preventing them. According to the most recent statistics on road accidents, road maintenance is an increasingly important factor; one thing excludes the other, accidents decrease if drivers travel on safe roads.
In this regard, the European Road Federation (ERF) published in March 2013 a manifesto on long-term road management for an efficient European road network, called “Keeping European Moving”.
The manifesto highlights two key issues, maintenance and modernisation of road networks. It states that the investment deficit across Europe will lead to the deterioration of networks, increased risk of accidents, traffic jams and reduced services for society; including some policy recommendations, calling on European politicians and administrators to act.
Several non-governmental organisations, including the ERF and the European Asphalt Paving Association (EAPA), are drawing attention to this problem by organising numerous initiatives. One of these included the first summit on the conservation and recycling of road paving, held in Paris in 2015, emphasising the importance of road network conservation for sustainable development and the need to establish value on road network assets, to increase investment in research and innovation for the development of sustainable road policies, especially in the states involved in the Vision Zero project.
In Europe there is no shortage of technologies, machinery and materials, the road industry asks the Commission, the European Parliament and the Member States to coordinate efforts to pursue balanced policies and legislation regulating interactions between public and private bodies.
Focusing on maintaining roads leads to widespread benefits not only preserving the current benefits, but also lowering future costs for citizens, for road users taxpayers and contractors who own road contracts. This would avoid the depreciation of these assets, provided that the timely investment is made on time.
