Education in school or in community organizations

Young pedestrians and cyclists are vulnerable in traffic. Crash figures show that children and young people are more likely to be victims of road crashes when they start to travel independently and/or switch to a new means of transport with which they have less experience. Among young pedestrians and cyclists in Flanders, the number of road casualties increases from the age group of 6 to 11 years. Specifically among young cyclists, this increase continues in the age group of 12 to 15 years.
In the past, traffic safety and mobility education in primary education in Flanders was often limited to theoretical lessons on knowledge of traffic rules and traffic signs, usually for the age group of 6 to 12 years. With our practice-oriented pedestrian and bicycle certificates, we want to provide practice-oriented traffic safety and mobility education from kindergarten onwards (2.5 years).

Governments and administration need to do more to improve road safety. But, the statistics for road traffic accidents are still shocking. Around 90% of all road accidents are caused by human error. That means every year, about a million people die because of other people's mistakes, carelessness, or irresponsibility. So it makes you wonder, are we doing good enough for road safety? Safe Driving, aims to help and informing whole road users about every single issue in Road Traffic from A to Z.

Asociatia Drum Sigur analyzed and researched the following design errors:
- incorrect use of signs for yielding priority in intersections (Give Way and Stop signs) (error found in most countries of the world)
- the formulas used to calculate the length of acceleration/deceleration lanes at road junctions are incorrect (they do not take into account the impact of heavy vehicle traffic, as well as the volume of traffic flows) (error found worldwide)
- the use of staggered pedestrian crossings at traffic lighted intersections has negative effects on pedestrian traffic in most cases. (case analysis for all the staggered pedestrian crossings in Bucharest)
- identification of design and execution errors for T-type intersections, roundabouts, turbo-roundabouts or interchanges in some cities in Romania.
- analyzing some design errors on certain streets in Bucharest and proposing measures to improve road safety and traffic flow.

According to traffic accident statistics in Austria, distraction is the main cause of accidents for around a third of accidents. The long-term theme of the State of Styria / Traffic Department entitled “Augen auf die Straße - Attention on the Road” is aimed at all road users and would like to point out the risk of distraction in road traffic.
We, the GROSSE SCHÜTZEN KLEINE association, have now developed special projects for children with the aim of:
*that they are aware of how important attention is and how dangerous distraction can be in traffic
*that no one can be 100 percent attentive all the time
*that they can also recognize whether the other road user is paying attention and, in an emergency, can prevent an accident with their own forgiving attention

The main challenge is the reduction of road accidents as a function of driving behavior. In recent years, significant progress has been made and the rate of accidents has decreased, but further improvement is needed in drivers behavior and at the same time in the infrastructure which is already extremely improved. For this reason, we created the safe cycling training program to train future drivers: the children, in order to become responsible drivers in the future

The “It Can Happen to You” program addresses the high incidence of traffic accidents resulting in deaths and injuries in Spain. It emphasizes the importance of continuous road safety education to reduce these incidents. Targeting children, the program aims to instill lifelong safe behaviors as pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, passengers, and drivers. It focuses on key issues such as risk perception, distractions, speed, the effects of alcohol and drugs, and proper use of safety equipment. By illustrating the consequences of unsafe behaviors, the program fosters responsible and respectful attitudes towards road safety.

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).

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.

From the first of September 2022, MKIF Magyar Koncessziós Infrastruktursa Fejlsztó Zrt took over the operation, maintenance and development of 1,237 km of existing Hungarian expressways.

When analyzing the accidents recorded by our traffic surveillance cameras on domestic expressways, we noticed that it is important to draw attention to traffic safety in our communication (keeping a following distance, observing the speed limit near work areas, protecting our colleagues, early education of children/young adults in safe traffic) and traffic -culture (littering, driving in an egoistic style that endangers others, early education of children/young adults on responsible driving).