Good practices

The Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 (Global Plan), has the priorities to redefine multimodal transport and land plan use, to ensure safety and to equitable access to mobility while responding to the diverse needs and preferences of a population. Cycling and the use of cargo bikes are key players in the mobility landscape and the Safer Cycling Advocate Program (SCAP) promotes cycling and cargo bike use as a safe alternative and modal shift. Cargo bikes are being considered a rising star in urban light mobility since they are capable of solving family (shopping or children) or work (from deliveries to transporting a craftsman's tools) tasks while reducing the impact on the environment. For this reason, the European Union has also launched a programme for the dissemination of cargo bikes (called City changer cargo bike), based on the considerable development potential of this means of transport: up to 25% of all deliveries are made by cargo bikes, up to 25% of deliveries in cities, up to 50% of maintenance services, up to 77% of private journeys.

The Alliance first launched the Safer Cycling Advocate Program (SCAP) in 2019 in collaboration with the European Cycling Federation (ECF) and funding from FedEx. The SCAP promotes safer cycling practices by equipping advocates, organizations, and transport planners to implement steps towards safer and more sustainable active mobility.

The SCAP Guide – a resource compiling the best practices and experiences of Copenhagen (Denmark) and Amsterdam (Netherlands) – two cities with established cycling cultures. Early years of the program focused on the Baltic region, helping to bolster cycling uptake by giving community organizations an evidence base to improve safety for cyclists in Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia.

Year three has seen the project evolve and expand – supporting cities to get citizens onto bikes as a mode of sustainable transport. A small fleet of cargo bikes is being introduced to SCAP participating cities for shared public use in Bogota (Colombia), Bologna (Italy), Mexico City (Mexico), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Torun (Poland), and Valencia (Spain). Usage data from these bikes will inform cities’ plans as they encourage people to transition from private vehicles to zero-emissions bicycles as a practical solution that does not compromise the ability to carry small goods.

In driving licence training, learning road safety content via printed books is standard - the fun of learning often comes up short and the learning success are sometimes not fully given. Young people in particular learn better when they are taught in a modern and digital way. The KFV has developed the learning platform "Yarrive" in order to convey the safety content for mobility for cars, mopeds, cycling and other topics in a modern way. We expect this modern teaching approach to improve the competence of the learners. The goal is to move from memorising content to understanding it - this contributes significantly to the improvement of road safety.
Yarrive, the digital learning platform based on gamification approaches and the spaced-repetition learning method, imparts knowledge interactively and playfully. Yarrive supports the training of learner drivers to become responsible road users and thus contributes significantly to safe coexistence in daily road traffic.
By transforming rigid frontal teaching into a social studying experience, Yarrive motivates young participants in particular to learn together with their peers. As Yarrive was developed in close cooperation with driving schools, learning units and exam modules are precisely tailored to the training plan. The platform wants to contribute to sensitising young driving licence holders to the dangers of everyday road traffic.

In 2008, several fatal accidents involving teenagers on bicycles occurred in our region. Parents' associations of secundary schools sat down around the table to think about a solution together. Studies showed that young people are very often involved in bicycle accidents. The cause is often “not being seen” in the dark. Most primary school children are required to wear a fluorescent jacket in our region. Young people in secondary school don't like wearing fluorescent jackets. They are laughed at by their schoolmates. Imposing an obligation is not possible. XIU looked for other solutions to tackle this problem in a way that would make it easier for them to do so.

Data collected by the Road Safety Authority showed that there had been a resurgence in drink driving in Ireland. A legacy of historical anti-drink driving advertising had reduced the behaviour, but a new cohort of younger people, who have never been exposed to it, were drinking and driving anew.
The RSA Education Manager was tasked with creating a campaign to help reduce this worrying trend against an audience—younger adult males—who considered themselves invincible and immune to road traffic collisions. No matter how strong the RSA’s messaging, there was still an issue in young males and peer pressure.
The key objective was to reduce the prospect of drink-driving amongst this younger cohort. We wanted to get under the audience’s skin, using a tech-appropriate medium, and make sure they had an experience they would never forget: one that would change how they think and importantly, how they behave.
One of the problems faced by every road safety body is that the consequences of drink driving are abstract to people that have never felt them. It’s hard to imagine losing your licence, ending up in prison, killing someone, or being left with permanent disabilities because most of us have never experienced these things. We can logically understand them, but we don’t feel them. For the first time, using Virtual Reality, we could create a shocking and deeply resonant immersive experience and make these consequences feel real.

FTA Ireland (FTAI) is a not for- profit membership trade association for the Irish freight, passenger, and logistics industries. Established in Ireland in 2010, we are wholly owned and governed by our members and act solely in advancing their best interests. FTAI covers all aspects of private and public freight transport, passenger transport and logistics supply chain, including road, rail, sea, and air. FTAI represents some of the largest freight and passenger operators in Ireland, with more than 25,000 employees and 10,000 commercial vehicles operating between them.
From our establishment, our members have demanded that FTA Ireland develop and implement an industry wide standard that facilitates a path to continuous operational compliance but also provides recognition for commercial fleet operators in the ‘Own Account’ and ‘Haulage’ sectors that meet their minimum legal operational obligations and from that endeavour to achieve sustainable operations through efficient fuel management and continuous professional development.
The TruckSafe standard was developed by industry through a working group for industry to support the recognition of commercial fleet operators that adhere to the minimum legal requirements in the following areas: fatigue, roadworthiness, driver competence, road traffic rules, safe and legal loads, dangerous goods, road haulage operator licensing, professional competence, sustainable operations, contractor and agency management. An objective was to raise the standards of professionalism of commercial heavy goods vehicle fleets, improve road safety standards and provide the recognition for those attaining the standard. this assists a cultural shift to compliant operations that influence procurement practices and has the added benefits of reducing the likelihood of accident and injury on our roads putting the safety of drivers and other road users to the fore. There is also increase regulatory requirements and this standard keeps pace with this through annual reviews and ensures that participants in this annual audit are mandated to keep abreast of the regulatory changes delivering sustained compliance. this in turn has the added benefit that compliance and safety become routine and are inherent in the organisations irrespective of personnel changes. FTA Irelands concentration on encouraging the highest operational compliance and professionalism within our membership through our TruckSafe & VanSafe auditing standards helps our members focus on the long-term sustainability of their business. In attaining sustainability businesses must have the basics right, ability to price services right, manage overheads and operational compliance and to meet legal their obligations. For road transport it is very important that they are road safe and meeting health and safety obligations. All of these add up to key ingredients for sustainable and profitable operations. Getting recognition for this good work has many benefits both for the operator and the industry they represent as it helps raise awareness of standards and good practices and develops more focused procurement practices and improved road safety.