Scope:

Evaluation of Directive 2004/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on minimum safety requirements for tunnels in the Trans-European Road Network

Evaluation of Directive 2008/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on Road Infrastructure Safety Management

Evaluation findings:

For the Tunnel Directive, the evaluation has shown that the Directive has had a positive influence on road tunnel safety management. In particular, the Directive raised awareness of the problem of tunnel safety, prompted investments that successfully complement other road safety measures, it is credited with improving the capacity of tunnel managers and emergency services to manage dangerous events and to prevent and mitigate the effects of accidents and fires and it has triggered research into new solutions and technologies. However, the trans-European transport (TEN-T) road tunnels over 500m were found to a large extent not yet in compliance with its requirements and thus with the minimum safety standard prescribed by the Directive. Some of the Member States with a large number of tunnels faced significant challenges in meeting the 2019 deadline for tunnel refurbishment; in some cases, infringement procedures are ongoing.

For the RISM Directive, the evaluation has shown that the diffusion of road safety infrastructure management (RISM) procedures across the EU has been one of the tangible benefits of Directive 2008/96. This piece of legislation also triggered greater awareness and better operational processes at Member State level, which would not have taken place without the Directive. In addition, it facilitated the development of a 'common language' in dealing with road safety. Overall, these elements highlight the EU added value of the directive. The scope of the RISM Directive was identified as an area in need of improvement: the TEN-T network represents only a portion of the roads in the Member States, often the less problematic ones in terms of fatalities and road accidents. One of the major elements of added value brought in by the 2019 revision of RISM was the extension of the scope of RISM to all motorways and primary roads, namely to all high-speed roads that, otherwise, could have high consequence crashes.

Estimated savings and benefits

For the Tunnel Directive, costs for the refurbishment of tunnels and the administration (e.g. safety inspections) have been quantified for a number of Member States. The figures show a wide range of variation across Member States. The quantification of benefits due to improved safety of tunnels is not available.

Which objective(s) did the Commission pursue?

The evaluation concluded that a revision of the Tunnel Safety Directive is not necessary at that stage. However, an amendment of the Directive on the Road Infrastructure Safety Management was considered necessary, to bring consistency between inspection provisions existing in both directives.

The general objective of the proposed initiative was to reduce road fatalities and serious injuries on EU road networks by improving the safety performance of road infrastructure. The specific objectives included: improving the follow-up on the findings of road infrastructure safety management procedures, fostering harmonisation and knowledge sharing between Member States on these procedures and requirements, protecting vulnerable road users; improving the deployment of new technologies; and working towards a consistently high level of road safety across Member States, using the limited financial resources efficiently.

The revised Directive aims to achieve these objectives by introducing the following main changes:

– mandating transparency and follow-up of infrastructure safety management procedures;

– introducing a network-wide road assessment, a systematic and proactive risk mapping procedure to assess the ‘in-built’, or inherent, safety of roads across the EU;

– extending the scope of the Directive beyond the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) to cover motorways and primary roads outside the network as well as all roads outside urban areas that are built using EU funds in whole or in part;

– setting general performance requirements for road markings and road signs to make it easier to roll out cooperative, connected and automated mobility systems; and

– making it mandatory to systematically take vulnerable road users into account in all road safety management procedures.

Estimated savings and benefits

The proposal could save over 3 200 lives and avoid more than 20 700 serious injuries during 2020-2030 relative to the baseline (14 650 lives saved and 97 502 serious injuries avoided for 2020-2050). Vehicle safety measures would have higher impact, reducing the number of fatalities by 4 380 to 7 300 and of serious injuries by 19 850 to 38 900 during 2020-2030.

For 2030 alone road infrastructure measures would result in 562 lives saved and 3 675 serious injuries avoided, while vehicle safety measures would result in 1 030 to 1 769 fewer fatalities and 4 721 to 9 824 serious injuries avoided.

Outcome of Legislative Procedure

The co-legislators endorsed the extension of the scope of the Directive beyond the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) yet specified that each Member State shall designate the primary roads within its territory to the Commission, at the latest within 24 months from the entry into force of the Directive. Also, annexes relating to elements of road safety impact assessments, audits, inspections and network-wide road assessments were redrafted in order to give them an indicative nature. The adopted text removed the possibility for the Commission to adopt an implementation act in order to develop general performance requirements to facilitate the recognition of road markings and road signs. It mandated instead a group of Member States experts established by the Commission to assess the opportunity to establish common specifications to improve the readability and detectability of road markings and signs.

Estimated savings and benefits

The estimated savings and benefits in the Commission proposal are not expected to be significantly affected by the main changes brought in the legislative process.

The transposition deadline for revision of the RISM Directive was 17 December 2021. Since then, the Guidance for the Methodology on the Network-wide Road Safety Assessment (NWRSA), including the pilot projects done in more than 20 Member States, was finalised.

The purpose of the NWRSA is to identify dangerous sections of the network, that are to be envisaged with remedial actions and financing. The NWRSA works with two sets of information, namely with the reactive approach (based on accidents’ records) and the proactive approach (based on road features).

The next foreseen step is the performance of the NWRSA by every Member State, by the end of 2024 and then communication of the results to the Commission, by 31 October 2025. Then the exercise is to be repeated at every 5 years.