As part of the three-year project running from the end of this year to 2021, teams of road safety experts from twelve participating EU countries –Austria, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and Sweden – will work together to find solutions to tackle speeding, ensure safe road infrastructure and improve the safety of pedestrians and cyclists.
European Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc commented: “We have to work together to get to Vision Zero – zero deaths and injuries on our roads by 2050 - and this means twinning and exchange of best practices. The EU Road Safety Exchange project will provide valuable help to initially six EU Member States keen to improve their road safety performance over a three-year period. In combining a high level of political involvement with lasting exchanges between national experts, this project is a unique opportunity to tackle challenges including speeding, infrastructure safety and improving the safety of vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists.”
The countries involved in the project were selected according to the differences in their road safety performance. The more advanced countries will share their experience with those who have great potential for improving road safety and, by taking over the experience, can significantly improve their achievements in this field. Lithuania's potential in the field of road safety was assessed in the light of its efforts, achievements and the proposed package of measures to develop long-term road safety strategy Vision Zero.
“To implement the most effective measures to improve the traffic safety, it is first of all expedient to know the effectiveness of the measures in the long run as well as their payback. It was reiterated today that there is no single measure to improve traffic safety to alter accident rates in a positive way. In selecting the measures, we must always be aware of the impact the measures will have on the traffic performance. We hope that by participating in this project, the experts from Lithuania and other countries will gain the latest knowledge on the opportunities to improve road safety”, said Gytis Mažeika, Vice-Minister for Transport and Communications.
Lithuania was also assessed by the EC and the ETSC for an ambitious and effective national road safety improvement program Vision Zero. The vision of this program is zero road deaths by 2050, strategic target – to cut the number of road deaths by 50% between 2020 and 2030. In order to achieve this target, it is important to reduce the number of road traffic accidents, to maintain the road infrastructure in accordance with the established requirements, to reduce the number of technically faulty vehicles participating in road traffic, to carry out more efficient rescue of road users after accidents as well as more efficient management of the risk of accidents.
