Europe for Road Safety

Data for Road Safety: this is the new European project aimed at creating an ecosystem – called SRTI (Safety-Related Traffic Information) – that brings together vehicle manufacturers, users, EU Member States, and road traffic authorities in a traffic information exchange system. The goal? To increase road safety. The term "ecosystem" is key to the project, and we'll see why. Some cars currently on the market are already able to report dangerous situations to other cars or infrastructure, thanks to car-to-x communication. But if this system is shared and used only by those driving the latest generation of vehicles, the data exchange remains limited and insufficient to significantly raise the level of safety. Hence the idea of a widespread system, capable of involving and alerting the highest possible number of motorists about potential dangers along their route "to improve road safety in a very tangible way, creating a win-win situation for society as a whole," said Joost Vantomme, president of the new SRTI ecosystem. The data to be shared ranges from reporting broken-down vehicles, difficult weather conditions, unprotected accident areas, damaged road sections, etc. The first tests have already produced concrete benefits, especially in the field of roadside assistance. We await future developments.