While governments and policy-makers are increasingly focusing on urban road safety to hit the collective EU target to halve the number of road deaths by 2030, a new report revealed that half of road deaths in the European Union occur on rural roads.
Around 10,000 people died on rural, non-motorway roads in the EU in 2022 – accounting for around half of all road deaths, according to the new report, published by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) on Thursday.
"Rural roads can be – and are being – made safer with interventions that do not need to be costly," said Jenny Carson, co-author of the report. "With increasing focus on urban road safety, it is critically important that policymakers do not forget rural roads, where half of road deaths occur."
Missed turns and head-on collisions
Compared to others, rural roads can be especially dangerous as they often lack central and side barriers, and do not have rules for speed and weight differences between the vehicles that use them, from lorries to vulnerable cyclists as well as pedestrians.
Single-vehicle crashes, in which a fatigued driver misjudges a turn and runs off the road, are common, the ETSC report found. Head-on collisions frequently occur as well and are often lethal.
According to Carson, road safety audits, analysis and subsequent treatment of high-risk sites, setting and enforcing appropriate speed limits, creating separated paths for cyclists and walkers, and removing obstacles at the roadside are "just a few examples of what can and should be done" to make rural roads safer.
Credit: ECA
The report also highlights the considerable challenge facing EU Member States in the coming years, now that the scope of EU rules on Road Infrastructure Safety Management (RISM) have been extended to cover a much larger proportion of national road networks than previously.
While EU safety rules have applied to the main roads and motorways that form the EU’s Trans-European Network for several years, new rules (agreed in 2019) extended the coverage to national "primary" roads and any roads that benefited from EU funds.
Among the recommendations for safer rural roads in the report are the installation of side and central barriers, the removal of roadside obstacles and the construction of separated paths for cyclists and pavements for pedestrians.
"Although often seen as an urban road safety issue, around half of cyclist deaths occur on rural roads, with cyclists mixing with much heavier and faster-moving traffic," the ETSC said. "E-bikes are also boosting rates of cycling in rural areas, often among older leisure riders – a factor that local and national authorities should take into account when planning investments."
From speed limits to 2+1 roads
Some countries and regions have already taken "remarkable" measures to save lives across Europe, the report highlighted: France, Spain and the Belgian region of Flanders have reduced the speed limits across their entire rural road networks, for example.
Meanwhile, Sweden has invested heavily in ‘2+1’ roads (consisting of two lanes in one direction and one lane in the other, alternating every few kilometres), which introduce a central barrier and a safety-first design.
In Scotland, experiments with special road markings for motorcyclists to guide them through sharp turns have achieved impressive results, and in the West Pomerania region of Poland, 800 km of high-quality rural cycle routes were built in five years.
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"Speed remains a major risk factor, with large numbers of drivers still driving above the posted limit on rural roads in many countries despite the availability and proven reliability of automated enforcement technology such as speed cameras and time-over-distance, or ‘average speed’ cameras," the ETSC said.
The report's authors noted that the safest countries of those studied usually have lower standard rural road speed limits, set at 70-80 km/h.
Additionally, the ETSC also wants to see the EU’s mandatory automated ‘eCall’ emergency call system – required on all new cars – extended to other vehicle types, notably motorcycles. "In rural areas, an incapacitated driver or rider who cannot call for help, could have their life saved by an eCall system which can send location information directly to emergency services."
