Good practices

The ultimate road safety problems addressed by the LEARN! project are the road deaths and injuries among children, with the project’s aim to address this problem through improving traffic safety and mobility education in Europe. The LEARN! project contributes to addressing this road safety problem by focusing on the challenges faced by road safety education professionals. During the first European Traffic Education Seminar in 2017, the attending professionals identified several challenges. Firstly, as also confirmed in the LEARN! Status Report, there are vast differences in the quality as well as quantity of the road safety education received by children across Europe, both in terms of differences between countries and between levels of education. Secondly, the lack of a common European terminology and methodology for educational activities on road safety, which was a barrier to learn from, compare and discuss educational projects and activities from different parts of Europe. Thirdly, the lack of a European platform where experts and professionals could exchange, share and learn about best practices related to the improvement and implementation of road safety education, innovative and effective educational projects, as well as discuss common challenges with colleagues from across Europe. Starting in 2018, the LEARN! project addresses those challenges through the activities mentioned in point 4.1. Moreover, it has addressed and keeps addressing additional challenges that have been identified over the years, including specific problems that experts from across Europe identified as common when implementing road safety education in schools, as well as ‘thematic’ challenges (e.g. synergizing with sustainable mobility education).

As the statistics show, Greece has the highest ratio of motorcyclists per active population. The training for riding in public roads offered is not sufficient and the driving license examinations do not guarantee the adequacy of knowledge, skills and road behavior as shown by the number of accidents. A post-education process is lacking in millions of amateur A license riders and this becomes more urgent as the need for further training for those who use motorcycles as a work vehicle (delivery drivers) has arisen. Government agencies have special refresher courses for their employees but millions of motorcyclists ride without any additional training beyond the basic training they attended before obtaining their driving license.

The safety inspections conducted over time on incident-prone areas and the analyses carried out on accident cases through the SISS (Incident Information and Analysis System) present at the Road Safety Competence Center of Rome Capital have allowed for the identification of multiple concurrent elements that can lead to accidents, such as (indicative and non-exhaustive list):
Excessive speed relative to the road's horizontal and vertical characteristics and its context;
Driver distraction due to the use of electronic devices;
Failure to comply with road traffic rules and regulations;
Failure to comply with visibility triangle requirements or minimum safe stopping distances;
Failure to use pedestrian crossings;
Failure to obey traffic signals, either due to a lack of feedback from the signaling system (pedestrian call buttons) or excessively long signal times;
Pedestrian crossings in areas with limited visibility;
Overlap of conflicting functions in the same spaces;
Scooters or bicycles being ridden in pedestrian areas or on sidewalks;
Illegal parking at intersections, on pedestrian crossings, near waste containers, or double parking;

The key objective is to improve the safety of learner drivers and provide a safe driving environment in which learners can practice safe driving skills. In primary research undertaken in 2018, 31% of Advanced Driving Instructors (ADIs) surveyed agreed that the Essential Driver Training programme (EDT) in Ireland did not provide a safe driving environment for learner drivers. Although it is illegal, driving unaccompanied is regularly done by a large percentage of learner drivers. As part of Phase 1 of the Road Safety Strategy (RSS) 2021-2024 a goal has been set to eliminate unaccompanied driving in Ireland by Q4 2024. The Behaviours and Attitudes Survey (2019) found 39% of learner drivers drive unaccompanied. In 2022, 5,929 learner drivers received penalty points for driving unaccompanied.

Ireland has a population of 5.5 million people, on average per year we have 11 fatalities and 45 serious injuries from road collisions with drivers pre-test (2007-2021 data). 80% of fatal collisions involved learner drivers who were driving unsupervised, while 75% of serious injury collisions involved unsupervised learner drivers. We know from research undertaken that collisions involving learner drivers reduce by 80% whilst accompanied. No one should die while learning to drive.

In the Netherlands cycling is the most important way of daily transportation. Sadly, over the past 10 years the amount of bicycle casualties in the Netherlands has increased by 40%, which is expected to increase even more by the popularity of the E-bike. In 2023, 71.000 cyclists were treated in hospitals (60% of all traffic casualties) with 12.500 having traumatic brain injury (16%). Traumatic brain injury often leads to permanent disability as neurons have no or just little recovery potential. A very simple and effective intervention is the voluntary promotion of bicycle helmet with estimated reduction of death 70% and brain injury by 60%. In Denmark, voluntary promotion of bicycle helmets has been very effective in reducing the amount of casualties, especially in children. When we started in 2022 with the first National Day of the bicycle helmet only 2% of the Dutch cyclists were wearing helmets.