Over a quarter of people in Europe (27%) do not feel safe in traffic but there are major differences between cities, according to the annual Urban Road Safety Index by Cyclomedia.
The worst of the class is Athens, where only 32% of inhabitants feel safe. Rome (40%) and Milan (46%) also score low on road safety. The best score is for Tallinn (Estonia), where 88% of inhabitants feel safe in traffic. Zaragoza in Spain (86%) and Helsinki in Finland (86%) are in second and third place.
Belgium has an average score: 34% of the inhabitants of Brussels do not feel safe in traffic in their city, in Antwerp this is 35% and in Namur 29%. Almost half of the inhabitants of Antwerp (47%) and Brussels (46%) would advise against living in their own city due to its traffic situation.
More than half of Europeans (51%) think that the roads in their city cause dangerous traffic situations. Not surprisingly, Rome (82%), Athens (81%) and Milan (67%) once again top the list of cities with the worst roads according to their residents.
Bumpy roads
In Belgium – known for its bumpy roads – the majority of inhabitants also think that the quality could be better. About six in ten residents in Namur (64%) and Brussels (63%) find the roads dangerous. In Antwerp, half of the residents think the same.
"Citizens, governments, knowledge institutions and companies must work together to find the right combination of innovative solutions and ecosystems to be able to implement and enforce a more data-driven policy," said Bart Verbeeck, sales director at Cyclomedia.
"All kinds of intelligent traffic lights, street lighting, cameras and sensors make it possible to perform real-time data analyses and therefore detect problems and violations more quickly," he said. "Sharing the right data insights between different government institutions and departments is essential to coordinate processes and measures."
Credit: Nicolas Maeterlinck / Belga
Some 44% of Europeans think that the authorities are not doing enough. According to them, improvements can be achieved by better separations between different types of roads (55%), improved cycle paths (34%) and clearer intersections (32%).
In Belgium, Antwerp residents advocate the same top three while Brussels residents add better road markings to their list. Even in cycling city Amsterdam, half (51%) of residents think that the cycle paths could be better.
More than six in ten Europeans (62%) think it is a good idea to reduce the maximum speed in city centres by 30 kilometres per hour. In Brussels and Antwerp, however, nearly four in ten (39%) think that this is not necessary. Finally, 83% of Europeans advocate zero tolerance to improve road safety.
The survey was conducted in 2024 among 11,982 respondents in 39 European cities.
