Road Safety Report 2024
Traffic Environments for People
Safe Infrastructure Saves Lives
According to various studies, the amount of traffic on our roads is continuing to rise. At the same time, the number of victims of road traffic accidents is falling in many parts of the world – but not by enough to achieve the World Health Organization’s and EU’s stated goal of halving this number by 2030.
For example, although the number of traffic fatalities across the EU fell in 2023, the drop was only minimal – one percent – compared with the previous year. According to the EU Commission, the downward trend has leveled off for some years now in several member states.
As a result, in March 2024 the European Court of Auditors also published a special report entitled “Reaching EU road safety objectives”, in which it explicitly stated that it is time to “move up a gear.” Given the trends of recent years and “without additional efforts” (in the report’s words), the number of fatalities in the EU would only fall by a quarter by 2030. The goal of reducing the number of fatalities and severely injured people to almost zero by 2050 would, therefore, also become a distant prospect.
In the auditors’ view, the member states need to place a renewed focus on the design and maintenance of their road networks. Investments in infrastructure should be targeted at the stretches of road that have the highest concentration of crashes and the greatest potential for preventing them. This is all the more important given that the EU funds available for this are set to reduce in the coming years.
Accidents are caused by many different things. However, the design and condition of the road infrastructure can adversely affect how an accident occurs and how severe it is. There is still a lot of work to do worldwide in this regard – a point made clear by a tool developed by the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), for example. This registered charity has Consultative Status with the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council and publishes a “Safety Insights Explorer” for more than 80 countries at present, setting out the health and economic consequences of road accidents, the safety of our roads, and the positive impact that can be made by investing in infrastructure. The data is collected for vehicle occupants, pedestrians, cyclists, and riders of two-wheeled motor vehicles.
The DEKRA Road Safety Report 2024 also focuses on these types of road user, as well as the associated challenges in ensuring that our roads are as safe as possible. In the report, we shine a light on the various problem areas and discuss potential solutions, with reference to accident analysis, traffic psychology, vehicle technology, infrastructure design, and legislation. This particular issue of the report also provides information about a survey we conducted looking at cyclists’ knowledge of traffic signs for cycling infrastructure, and a crash test we performed with a cargo bicycle. Like in previous issues, numerous national and international experts have also shared their thoughts in statements.
The DEKRA Road Safety Report has been published annually since 2008, and once again we believe it helps to ensure that the number of road users killed or injured on our roads worldwide continues to fall. With this latest report, we are aiming once again to get people thinking and provide advice for politicians, traffic and infrastructure experts, manufacturers, scientific institutions, associations, and all road users.
Accidents, infrastructure, people and technology – plus numerous accident examples and statements from experts from all over the world: the DEKRA Road Safety Report 2024 sheds light on the topic of “Traffic Environments for People” from a variety of perspectives.
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