Education in school or in community organizations

In 2020, we undertook a comprehensive review of our vehicle safety strategy. At that time, our primary focus was on accident management, driver safety, and identifying ways to reduce both the risks our employees faced while driving and the potential risks our vehicles posed to other road users. By "posed," we refer to the fact that our fleet consisted of relatively basic vehicles, with few advanced safety features included as standard.

The initiative presented several challenges. Cost was a significant consideration, as we needed to build a strong business case to justify the additional investment required for enhanced vehicle safety features. We also needed to engage with a workforce that had strong trade union representation, making consultation and communication an essential part of the implementation process.

The programme began with the delivery of our first upgraded vehicles in 2020. At a time when advanced safety technologies attracted a substantial premium, we made a deliberate decision to invest heavily in improving the safety of our fleet. Looking back, that investment has proven to be highly successful. The results have clearly demonstrated the value of prioritising vehicle safety, with a significant positive impact on both driver protection and overall risk reduction.

Operating a national fleet of over 850 vehicles supporting more than 2,000 employees presents a unique range of road safety challenges. Employees travel daily to high-risk environments including railway level crossings, bridges, trackside locations and busy public roads, often transporting specialised equipment and working under time-critical conditions. Protecting employees and other road users while maintaining operational effectiveness remains a key priority.

Before the introduction of GSR, we had already made significant investments in vehicle safety. This included implementing telematics systems, forward- and rear-facing dash cams, and, most importantly, passive safety features across our fleet. These measures helped improve driver behaviour monitoring, incident reporting, and occupant protection. The main challenge was the cost and logistics of upgrading vehicles and ensuring consistent implementation across the fleet. However, by taking a proactive approach to safety rather than waiting for regulatory requirements, we were able to enhance driver and passenger protection, reduce risk, and establish a strong safety culture within the organisation.

One of the principal challenges has been reducing occupational road risk by ensuring that both the driver and vehicle are fit for purpose. Experience gained through managing large commercial fleets has shown that vehicle safety alone is not enough; driver behaviour, competency, fatigue awareness and vehicle utilisation all play a critical role in reducing incidents. Historically, many organisations have relied on reactive measures following collisions. Our approach has been to move towards proactive risk management.

Additional challenges included integrating specialist railway maintenance equipment safely within vehicles, adapting to emerging technologies, and preparing for the transition to electric vehicles without compromising safety standards. The increasing complexity of modern vehicle technology also required continuous education and engagement with drivers to ensure advanced safety systems were fully understood and effectively utilised.

The Drogowskaz Programme (Signpost Programme) addresses Poland's persistent road safety crisis, which remains among the EU's most severe. Our diagnosis, drawn from 663 grant applications and 44 funded projects in the 2025 edition identifies three interconnected challenge areas.
In Poland, notable educational gaps persist in the area of practical road safety education. Opportunities for hands‑on learning in real traffic conditions are limited or, in many cases, entirely absent. Only a small number of schools provide practical training in simulated environments, and the overall system places relatively little emphasis on developing consistent, experience‑based safety habits. Emerging risks like: smartphones and headphones distracting pedestrians, e-scooters and varied micromobility remain an issue insufficiently addressed. Adults frequently model and reinforce unsafe behaviours for children because of limited enforcement of traffic regulations.
Infrastructure deficits: rural and small-town areas often lack pavements, cycling paths, road markings, lighting and traffic-calming measures, particularly around schools and kindergartens. Practical training facilities, traffic-education parks are scarce, leaving children without safe spaces to develop cycling and pedestrian skills.
Vulnerable groups: preschoolers, adolescents aged 12-15, deaf children (with virtually no accessible materials), children with disabilities and those from disadvantaged families face systemic exclusion from road safety education. The Drogowskaz Programme reflects the core values of our founding organisation, which has a long‑standing commitment to education, volunteering, emergency response, and comprehensive road‑safety initiatives—both for the wider public and for its own employees.

Road traffic crashes remain a major public health challenge, representing the leading cause of death among children and young people aged 5–29 worldwide. Greece is no exception to this reality, with vulnerable road users facing evolving mobility challenges, including the growing use of e-scooters and other personal mobility devices alongside traditional road safety risks, reinforcing the need for early, practical and age-appropriate road safety education.
At national level, this challenge is further compounded by the fact that road safety education is not compulsory within the school curriculum and is largely left to the discretion of teachers, who may choose whether to implement it through skills-based workshops. As a result, many children and young people have limited opportunities to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to become safe and responsible road users through structured learning.
At regional level in Northern Greece, there was a clear need for an innovative and accessible educational initiative capable of bringing together the expertise of the road safety sector, local communities and the private sector in order to strengthen prevention efforts and engage different population groups within a shared road safety framework.
These interconnected challenges highlight a clear gap in structured, experiential and inclusive road safety education, which this initiative was designed to address.

Road accidents are a leading cause of non-natural death in Spain and generate disability and social costs.

This project would be situated in the pre-accident phase, characterized by intervention on the human factor from a healthcare perspective.

Directive (EU) 2025/2205 of the European Parliament and of the Council. Article 11: Compliance with minimum physical and mental fitness requirements. Point 7: This Article shall not prevent Member States from adopting measures to raise awareness and improve the knowledge of the healthcare sector and driving licence holders regarding the minimum physical and mental fitness requirements for driving set out in Annex III.

Thus, within traffic medicine, we understand this to be the branch concerned with the analysis, detection, and prevention of the human factors involved in the causes of road accidents, through the adaptation and modification of behaviors, attitudes, and habits related to traffic and road use.

Therefore, this project brings together epidemiological and preventive criteria to be included in the concept of traffic medicine and in the area of Primary Care (Health Center/family medicine).

The origin of our non-profit association was a tragic accident: A preschooler got under a waste disposal truck with his bicycle and died. We subsequently founded Blicki e.V. in 2017 with the mission of sensitizing children to the dangers of road traffic early on. With the program "Blicki blickt's" (Blicki sees it), over 100,000 primary school children nationwide have since been prepared for road traffic.

Besides children, senior citizens are a second vulnerable target group: almost half of those injured in accidents in Germany are over 65 years old. However, conventional prevention projects have difficulty reaching this target group.

This is how the idea for Blicki's Wimmel-Workshops (Busy Picture Workshops) came about: Learning together and across generations – for greater safety in road traffic. Children and their grandparents learn together with Blicki. The children become "Guardian Grandchildren" and pass on their knowledge. At the same time, grandparents become role models for their grandchildren with Blicki's superpowers of consideration, caution, and foresight. A double safety gain across generations.

While the number of car occupant fatalities in Germany declined by 26% between 2013 and 2023, the reduction among pedestrians was considerably smaller at 18%. At the same time, cyclist fatalities increased by 27% (Federal Statistical Office of Germany, 2024). These trends highlight the need to better protect vulnerable road users and to develop innovative approaches to road safety education.
In Germany, basic road safety training is mainly provided in primary school (ages 9–10) and during driver education (from age 17 onwards). However, there are comparatively few age-specific programs for adolescents aged 13 to 16, despite significant changes in mobility behaviour during this period. Traditional road safety education also faces limitations: real accident situations cannot be experienced safely, complex interactions between road users are difficult to demonstrate and accident statistics are rarely transformed into engaging learning experiences.
The Fraunhofer IVI Accident Prevention School (FAPS) addresses these challenges by combining real-world accident data, traffic psychology insights and immersive virtual reality technology. The system allows young road users to experience critical traffic situations from multiple perspectives and to better understand their causes and consequences. By translating scientific accident research into interactive learning experiences, FAPS strengthens hazard perception, risk awareness and safe decision-making, helping to improve the safety of vulnerable road users and supporting evidence-based accident prevention.

Traffic in Czech cities often creates high stress levels and actively endangers vulnerable road users. However, the greatest hurdle to improving road safety infrastructure remains intense public resistance. When municipalities attempt to implement essential traffic calming measures such as 30 km/h zones or safe school streets, they frequently face severe backlash, as these changes are perceived as unpopular restrictions imposed from above.
Without a robust information base and unified communication strategy, cities struggle to convey the deeper benefits of these safety interventions. The ZVOLNI campaign bridges this critical gap by transforming the narrative. We provide municipalities with a clear, positive communication framework to explain that lowering vehicle speeds is not about imposing bans, but about creating safer, healthier, and more vibrant public spaces.
Crucially, ZVOLNI goes beyond municipal support by focusing on broad public education and engaging directly with children, fostering a generational shift in how urban mobility is perceived. To ensure accuracy and credibility, all initiatives operate under the strict factual supervision of recognized expert partners. By combining expert supported education, youth engagement, and positive messaging, the project empowers cities to overcome skepticism and successfully implement vital safety measures.

Cycling has been growing in the city of Paris and in its region Île-de-France – this growth is fast, also takes place beyond the city centre, and is bringing many new and inexperienced riders (in 2023, 44% of cyclists had been cycling for less than three years). It was critical to quickly increase road safety for cycling, or this growth would lead to a growth in traffic casualties, and further discourage an important part of the population that can really benefit from cycling (Cycling Cities Barometer found 89% of respondents believe traffic conditions do not allow children to cycle safely).
In France, a significant gender gap remains in cycling: 29% of men cycle regularly compared with only 20% of women, a disparity is largely linked to perceptions of road danger, which highlights the need for continuous, protected cycling infrastructure.
The Île-de-France Cycling Network (VIF) was developed to address this challenge by enabling cyclists to travel on routes that are safe, continuous, easy to follow, and separated from motorised traffic.
The VIF is based on the creation of more than 750 km of high-quality cycling infrastructure crossing 194 municipalities, designed according to six core principles: safety, continuity, comfort, capacity, efficiency, and clarity.
The project directly contributes to the European Commission's Vision Zero objective by applying the Safe System approach, reducing exposure to high-speed motorised traffic, improving the safety of intersections and crossings, and creating a safer road environment for vulnerable road users, including children, women, seniors, and inexperienced cyclists.
Before the project, cycling infrastructure in the region was often fragmented or absent, resulting in unsafe gaps, dangerous intersections, inconsistent signage, and varying quality standards. These shortcomings increased conflicts between cyclists and motor vehicles, particularly affecting vulnerable users such as children, women, seniors, tourists, and new cyclists.
The VIF addresses these issues by creating continuous and protected routes, improving dangerous sections, and eliminating network gaps through a dedicated programme targeting high-risk locations. The results are already visible: according to APUR, the Paris urban planning Agency, women represented 45% of new daily cyclists in 2024, while perceived insecurity remains the main barrier to cycling. This trend illustrates how safer infrastructure can make cycling more inclusive and reduce road safety risks for all users.

Traffic accidents represent a major social problem. In 2025, 93 people died on Slovenian roads, which is 25 more than in 2024. One of the main causes of traffic accidents remains inappropriate speed. The initiative addresses one of the key road safety challenges: how to identify road sections where risky driver behaviour occurs in time, before this is reflected in traffic accidents. Traditional planning of road safety measures is often based primarily on statistics of accidents that have already occurred. This approach is important, but mainly reactive.

The DRAJV Map introduces a more preventive approach. It is based on anonymised and aggregated telematics data from users of the DRAJV mobile application, which detects speeding, phone use or phone movements while driving, harsh acceleration, harsh braking and excessive cornering forces. These data provide insight into actual driver behaviour on individual road sections.

A specific challenge addressed by the initiative is also the lack of a single tool that would connect different road safety data sources. The DRAJV Map therefore combines telematics data on users’ drives, collected through the DRAJV mobile application, publicly available data on the locations of kindergartens and primary schools, and official police statistics on traffic accidents. This enables local communities, schools, researchers, non-governmental organisations and decision-makers to identify risks more comprehensively and to plan measures for safer roads on a stronger data-driven basis.

The program targets the main source of road safety issues: the human factor, and more specifically, the lack of transport culture and partnership. Approximately 90% of road traffic accidents can be attributed to human error, inattention, or rule violations. The main challenges are the ever-increasing aggression, impatience, conscious violation of rules, and distraction caused by modern technology. A further critical problem is that drivers, cyclists, e-scooter users, and pedestrians often view each other as enemies rather than interdependent partners in shared spaces. This flawed mindset increases the number of conflicts and the risk of severe accidents. Instead of traditional authoritative methods relying solely on prohibitions and sanctions, the Program's goal is to apply a comprehensive, educational approach that fosters positive examples, mutual respect, and responsible behavior rather than inducing fear. Changing these attitudes and raising public awareness are essential to achieving the Vision Zero goal set by the European Union. Thus, by directly addressing the root causes of accidents and increasing safety awareness, the program supports this highly important endeavor. The date for the Day of Transport Culture was set to May 11 in honor of the opening day of the UN Decade of Action on May 11, 2011. It was first organized in 2015, and has been held every year since then, with the exception of the pandemic period.