Road safety (RS) is one of the major challenges of the modern world. More than a million road fatalities annually worldwide, constituting the main cause of death of young people (up to 25 years of age) and an increasing proportion of elderly among victims, is a sufficient argument to take radical remedial action. The situation in Europe indicates very clearly that there has been no significant improvement in road safety in recent years. The road infrastructure safety management system (RISM) has been implemented and developed as part of comprehensive efforts to improve RS. The first EU Directive2008/96/EC stipulated mandatory coverage of only the TEN-T network. The new Directive 2019/1936/EC (Directive) covers all national roads and all other roads the construction or reconstruction of which will be financed or co-financed by the EU. The effectiveness of implementing the Directive relies primarily on preparing dedicated safety management staff. These specialists must be highly competent in both theoretical and practical aspects of road safety. Due to large gaps in technical university curricula in the RS area, future staff of road authorities will not be fully prepared for challenges that are imposed by the Directive. In addition, staff already engaged in RISM must constantly supplement their knowledge and gain new experience in this field. This will allow for a permanent increase in their competence, which will contribute to the increase of the level of RISM and consequently decrease the number of accidents and victims. RS is an area which combines various disciplines: engineering, mechanics, psychology, sociology and others. It is also an area undergoing constant changes (e.g. the emergence of a new risk group, the elderly). Therefore, it requires the adaptation of methods, tools and actions to improve the safety of road users. Due to the wide variation in the level of RS in European countries and diverse experience of good and bad practice, international cooperation is needed to exchange experiences, to standardise the implementation of high safety norms through appropriate methods and tools. Three factors: interdisciplinarity, variability, and international cooperation force the undertaking of actions to improve education and increase expertise and competences. The EuroS@P project will raise the level of teaching and training, using innovative didactic materials that will be widely available. The implementation works are divided into 7 work packages, resulting in 16 Intellectual Outputs (IO). IO.1-4 will include a review of existing educational and RISM implementation activities in partner countries. In IO.5-9 and IO.10-13 new teaching and training materials will be developed, including analytical and field work (in four partner countries). They will enable the construction of methods and tools to assess the safety of road infrastructure. The methods and tools will be dedicated to RS inspections, especially on regional and local roads and the assessment of the safety of pedestrian crossings. IO.14-16 will cover the development of an e-learning platform with prepared materials. This will increase the availability and promotion of the project results.The main objective of the EuroS@P project is to promote the best educational solutions in the RISM area, with increase of awareness and knowledge of RS, by:1)Developing an e-learning platform with access to project products,2)The development of teaching and training materials dedicated to conducting classes at universities and training courses for RISM staff,3)Raising competences and skills in RISM, by changing curricula at universities and equipping students and staff with didactic materials based on innovative RISM methods and tools,4)Creating the foundations for Road Safety Professional Certification (RSP),5)The development of a lasting relationship and the continuation of active international cooperation between project partners with the possibility of its extension to other institutions.The EuroS@P project targets the following groups: 1)Students, researchers, academic teachers at universities. 2)Road authority staff at national, regional and local levels.3)Experts, specialists, practitioners involved in RS activities, including staff who conduct training in various RS courses.4)All users of road infrastructure, as an indirect target group, for whom the risk of road accidents will ultimately be reduced by increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of RISM activities.The project is also supported by a group of associates who will cooperate with project partners to consult and evaluate the results. They will implement final products and promote the dissemination and accessibility of the project results.

Safer urban environments are needed for all road users to ensure the European targets to halve road deaths and injuries by 2030 are met. Vulnerable road users require specific attention in an urban environment that is subject to constant change as new forms of transport and micro-mobility enter the system. Existing traffic simulation models allow changes in traffic conditions to be tested but are often vehicle and travel time focused and do not measure detailed outcomes specific to vulnerable road users and road safety. City administrations and transport managers will benefit from predictive tools that allow these changes and their implications for road safety, mobility, and sustainable transport to be anticipated, and support the associated policy, regulatory and consumer response. The Predictive Approaches for Safer Urban Environments project (PHOEBE) will move beyond the state of the art and deliver an interdisciplinary solution that will integrate traffic simulation, road safety assessment, human behaviour, mode shift and induced demand modelling and new and emerging mobility and telematics data into a harmonised, prospective assessment framework for road safety. New conditions and mobility solutions will be able to be assessed and safe system solutions tested. The PHOEBE framework, software module and knowledge products will allow dynamic safety prediction and socioeconomic evaluation that is evidence-based and simulates future scenarios and impacts. Simple and effective visualisation and socioeconomic modelling will provide the confidence for policy decisions and investment. City administrations across EU will be consulted as the framework is developed and deployed. The feasibility of the framework will be demonstrated in three use cases in Athens (GR), Valencia (ES) and West Midlands (UK), which have been selected to maximise the use of existing base traffic models, potential impact and to ensure the future scalability and transferability of the solution.

The Connected and Adaptive Maintenance for Safer Urban and Secondary Roads project (‘CAMBER’) aims to develop and demonstrate improved safety monitoring across urban and secondary rural road networks through real-time data feedback into road maintenance systems and proven low-cost interventions. Performance metrics based on new-generation data sources will provide road managers up-to-date information on safety issues, damage, and routine maintenance and upgrade needs. Data collated from a range of sources, such as telematics, vehicle and smartphone sensors, and road user feedback, will feed into safety assessment models to flag what measures are required to ensure a safe road environment for all road users, including road-user minority groups with varying design needs, such as powered two-wheelers (PTW). CAMBER will support this through much-need research and testing of low-cost road safety interventions and low-impact maintenance techniques, including those for vehicles with advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). The approaches will be demonstrated on urban and road networks in five European countries. CAMBER’s economically-sound solutions and new knowledge will be communicated through established networks to European road managers, policymakers and industry to support the decision-making and investment needed for more efficient maintenance for safer urban and secondary roads.

ELABORATOR uses a holistic approach for planning, designing, implementing and deploying specific innovations and interventions towards safe, inclusive and sustainable urban mobility. These interventions, consist of smart enforcement tools, space redesign and dynamic allocation, shared services, and integration of active and green modes of transportation. They will be specifically co-designed and co-created with identified “vulnerable to exclusion” user groups, local authorities and relevant stakeholders. The interventions will be demonstrated in 6 Lighthouse and 6 Follower cities across Europe with three principal aims: i) to collect, assess and analyse user needs and requirements towards a safe and inclusive mobility and climate neutral cities; ii) to collect and share rich information sets made of real data, traces from dedicated toolkits, users’ and stakeholders’ opinions among the cities, so as to increase the take up of the innovations via a twinning approach and iii) to generate detailed guidelines, policies, future roadmap and built capacity for service providers, planning authorities and urban designers for the optimum integration of such inclusive and safe mobility interventions into Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs). The Lighthouse cities are: Milan (Italy), Copenhagen (Denmark), Helsinki (Finland), Issy-les-Moulineaux (France), Zaragoza (Spain) and Trikala (Greece). The Follower cities are Lund (Sweden), Liberec (Czech Republic), Velejne (Slovenia), Ioannina (Greece), Split (Croatia) and Krusevac (Serbia).