12 March 2019 | Valletta, Malta 

On 28^th February, the ERF held in the Intercontinental Hotel in Malta a Workshop on Road Safety, under the auspices of Infrastructure Malta, Malta Road Safety Council and Transport Malta.

Malta is planning to realise a massive investment in the coming seven years to enhance the quality of its road network and achieve major improvement of the safety level on its roads. The Workshop served as a platform for discussions and sharing of best practices between the public authorities and ERF members.  The one day event was organised following an invitation made by Infrastructure Malta.

This workshop, attended by 20 Maltese road safety engineers and specialists, covered topics related to road safety, i.e. the European Road Infrastructure Policy, Road markings, Traffic Signs, Road Maintenance and Mobility and Road Restraint Systems and Road Side Safety. The ERF was given the opportunity to share its expertise and knowledge which stem from the work done in dedicated Working Groups and EU funded projects.

“This Workshop is the starting point of a future closer cooperation between the ERF and Infrastructure Malta” stated Christophe Nicodème, Director General of ERF. “We are pleased that road authorities are taking into consideration the importance of Road Safety, and we are looking forward to seeing more and more states taking similar initiatives.”

6 March 2019 | Brussels, Belgium

The future Directive on Road Infrastructure Safety Management showcases the importance of readability and detectability of road markings and signs both by human drivers and automated driver assistance systems.

The European Union Road Federation (ERF) welcomes this development as signs and markings represent a cost-effective road element that can ensure safe driving conditions while also providing the best guidance. This is especially important under adverse weather and vision conditions. Two dedicated ERF technical working groups, that gather main representatives of the sector, are constantly exchanging knowledge and investigating how markings and signs can optimise infrastructure performance under new mobility environments.

Since the publication of the 3^rd Mobility Package by the European Commission in May 2018, experts from different organisations have worked on the analysis of current solutions to ensure safe driving conditions.  As a result, the first set of technical recommendations to facilitate the recognition of road markings by human and vehicle vision is now published calling on the following performance requirements:

• Road Markings in night visibility should never drop below 150 mcd/lx/m2 night visibility under dry conditions and never below 35 mcd/lx/m2 under wet and rainy conditions
• The width of Road Markings should never be less than 15 cm
• Ensure a sufficiently high contrast ratio between marking and pavement (never below 3:1) to mitigate false readings caused by glare
• Facilitate harmonisation of markings design and layout across various countries

“We are glad to share expertise and successful experiences with the European Commission and Member States on how markings can better perform towards human and vehicle vision. For that, we focus our work on co-funded EU projects and several technical publications in order to ensure that the results reach as many stakeholders as possible including from other regions as the United States” commented Harald Mosböck, Chair of the Working Group on Road Markings.

26 September 2018 | Brussels, Belgium

The European Union Road Federation (ERF) and the Federation of European Motorcyclists’ Associations (FEMA) organised a breakfast event “‘Road Infrastructure Safety – The Motorcyclists’ Vision”. The event took place at the European Parliament and was hosted by MEP Wim van de Camp.

In the coming months, road safety will be at the EU agenda with the revision of the Road Infrastructure Safety Directive and the preparation of the coming Road Safety Action Programme 2020-2030. In this sense, the ERF and FEMA have launched a joint position paper ‘Improving infrastructure safety for powered two-wheelers’ that calls for specific measures focused on motorcycle protection.

Only in 2017 power two-wheelers fatalities (motorcycles and mopeds) counted for 17% of the total road victims, while accounting only for 1,8%  of the total traffic flow. Both ERF and FEMA strongly believe that road safety for motorcyclists can be improved by looking at the design of road infrastructure.

In his introduction, Mr Van de Camp referred to the social cost of accidents that authorities need to take into consideration, as well as how responsibility is shared among involved parties in case of an accident.

Afterwards, Dolf Willigers, FEMA General Secretary, gave a presentation regarding the challenges that motorcyclists’ face in terms of infrastructure. More specifically, Mr Willigers pointed out that lack of proper design and poor maintenance can have fatal consequences for vulnerable road users, motorcyclists included.

Following the motorcyclist’s perspective, the ERF President, Rik Nuyttens, addressed  a presentation on how the infrastructure can be adapted to better accommodate the needs of the above mentioned road user groups by improving signs, markings, bariers and pavements.

The last part of the event was dedicated to an exchange of views between the participants. The main point made during this discussion was that although maintenance is important, this is mostly funded by regional and national authorities, therefore it is important that these authorities are constantly informed about the needs of road users, especially the vulnerable ones. Another important element, which participants agreed on, was that harmonised road equipment is extremely important when it comes to preventing road accidents and thus preventing road fatalities.

ERF and FEMA will continue the awareness campaign during the coming months presenting the document in specialised fora, conferences and to other stakeholders involved in road safety.

17 May 2018| Brussels, Belgium

The European Commission releases the third set of actions to modernise European transport sector stressing the role of road infrastructure as key element of the road safety triangle complementing users and vehicles.

New actions of the mobility package include the revision of the Road Infrastructure Safety Management Directive and the General Safety Regulation with measures such as:

• Extension of current scope beyond the TEN-T network, in particular on the primary road network, which accounts for a high percentage of road fatalities
• Properly designed and maintained markings and signs, which could be easily and reliably recognised by both human drivers and vehicles equipped with driver assistance systems or higher levels of automation
• Development of general performance requirements to facilitate the recognition of road markings and road signs
• Inclusion of new safety features in vehicles, such as Lane Keeping Assistance (LKA) and Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) to better interact with the infrastructure

While recognising the positive impact of the current legislative framework, especially on the TEN-T, the ERF highly supports the new vision of the European Commission which can definitely facilitate an even bigger reduction in fatalities and serious injuries to achieve desired road safety targets.

“The initial proposal is quite promising and we hope that Council and Parliament understand that to become global leaders in road safety, we not only need a regulatory support but also financial effort, in particular on primary roads that are not part of the TEN-T but carry similar traffic flow” said ERF Director General Christophe Nicodème. “Our organisation can be seen as a trustworthy partner to build and maintain a safer road network, more specifically through dedicated Working Groups which will continue contributing to adapt road elements to the new safety challenges”.

26 April 2018| Dubrovnik, Croatia

The US-based Transportation Research Board (TRB) is co-sponsoring a one-day workshop titled “Traffic Signs & Pavement Markings: International State of the Art on Policies & Research” organised on the opening day of the European Road Conference, October 22-24 2018 in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

The downward trend in global traffic injuries has been on pause since 2013, and is particularly notable in developed economies which had enjoyed a steady decline over the previous decade.

Numerous reports confirm that single vehicle accidents remain a particular cause of concern, accounting for 45% of European fatalities. Drivers unable to understand the road environment and make informed decisions are particularly prone to run-off road accidents. The problem is increasingly compounded with an ageing motoring population and under-investments in the maintenance of roadside safety assets. There is also a growing body of research evidence that the shift towards partial and full vehicle automation will trigger new design requirements which the sector needs to assess and prepare for.

This special interest session will share the international state of the art on the design and maintenance of traffic signs and pavement markings through a cross-sector panel of road agencies, research institutions and industry stakeholders.

The topics of the session are the following:

• Conspicuous signs/markings in all weather and road conditions
• Good practices in maintaining signs & markings
• Interaction between intelligent vehicles and signs/markings/delineation

For further information contact Ms Carmine Dwyer:

Sponsored by:

Making the Mark – ERF , RFB and Touring encourage Belgian road authorities to step-up maintenance of road markings

70% of road markings in good condition

26  July 2016 | Brussels, Belgium

Based on an inspection of more than 600km of motorways and ring roads in Wallonia and Flanders, the European and Belgian Road Federation (ERF and RFB) and Touring believe that efforts to render road markings more visible should be intensified.  ‘This is essential if we are to meet both the demands of road users and lane detection systems which are becoming commonplace in new vehicles’.

The Belgian road survey is part of a campaign by ERF and its members to promote the quality of road marking on major European axis.

For Flanders, the ERF survey has found that approximately:

–         70% of road markings inspected comply with the national specifications of 150 mcd/m2/lx.

–          20% of road markings inspected on should be marked again within the year

–          10% of road markings inspected should be renewed immediately

For the Walloon region, the ERF survey has found that approximately:

–          80% of road markings inspected comply with the old national specifications of 100 mcd/m2/lx (effective until 31 December 2015)

–          55 % of road markings inspected comply with the new national specifications of 150 mcd/m2/lx (effective as of 1 January 2016)

–          20% of road markings inspected should be replaced immediately

‘In view of an ageing population and the expected increase of lane assist functions in new cars and more  autonomous vehicles, road markings will actually become increasingly important in the foreseeable future’, explains George Lee,  Chairman of the ERF Working Group on Horizontal Signage.

‘In this sense, we are rather pleased about the condition of the road markings in both Flanders and Wallonia checked against their regional specifications.  While we were unable to cover the entire motorway network, we believe that results presented can provide an accurate snapshot of the situation on the main roads of Belgium’ continues Lee.

‘For Flanders, we are pleased to see that almost 70% of markings are line with what the authorities specify in the national guidelines.  In the Walloon region, we should highlight that the authorities took that decision to upgrade their national specifications from 100 mcd/m2/lx to 150 mcd/m2/lx in line with European best practice for main roads.  Checked against the new specifications, 55% of inspected roads comply with regional requirements, however, we are confident that the Walloon authorities will step up efforts in the coming months to ensure that the new rules in place become a reality on the ground.’

While welcoming the results, the ERF, Touring Club and RFB encourage the respective authorities in Belgium to continue their annual inspections and maintenance programmes in order to achieve even better results in the future.

‘From a user perspective, we are definitely please to see that a majority road markings on Belgian motorways are in good condition’ explains Danny Smagghe, Corporate Spokeperson of Touring.  ‘That being said, we encourage authorities to prioritise road maintenance so the situations improve in the near future.  In particular, we would be happy to see the current specifications in Flanders which apply only on motorways to be extended to all other A-roads as is the case in the Walloon region’.

– End of Press release –

Contact persons

Touring: Danny Smagghe, tel 02/233.24.78 of 0476/542.142

ERF: Konstandinos Diamandouros, tel 02-6445877 or 0496/497322

* The survey was carried out by a Delta LTL-M retro-reflectometer www.roadsensors.madebydelta.com/products

** McD / m2 / lux is the technical unit to express the intensity of light reflected back to the user from a road

13 March 2015 | Brussels, Belgium

On 9 March, the RAINVISION project held its final meeting in Brussels, Belgium.  Co-financed by the European Commission, the RAINVISION project, over the last three years has researched the impact of road markings on driver behaviour under different night-time weather conditions (dry, wet and wet and rainy) and has assessed how different age groups and gender groups adapt their driving based on the above mentioned conditions.

The first part of the event was dedicated to presenting the results of the project and in particular, the outcomes of three different trials conducted over the last three years.

The first simulation trial – a driving simulator test in France – investigated the influence of road markings on the drivers’ errors (involuntary run-off-the-road and lane departures) under wet and rainy nighttime conditions. For a simulated rural road combining straight sections and curves, 40% less driving errors were observed with wet-night visible road markings compared to standard markings. The biggest gap was observed for elderly drivers.

The results of the second trial, a track test (field experiment in Austria) reinforced these findings and furthermore showed, that under adverse driving conditions, the driving task could be solved better when high-performance marking material was applied. Especially older drivers seemed to benefit from wet-night visible markings, as clearness and perceptibility of the driving trajectory increased when such materials were used.

The on-road trials were carried out in the United Kingdom in cooperation with the municipality of Durham.  Working together with project partners and traffic police, 10 high accident sites were identified and high-performance marking materials were applied on these selected locations. The results of the analysis showed that – on average – those high-performance markings did not lead to an increase of speed.  At the same time, accidents had increased over the same period, although an analysis of police records could not link any of the accidents to the presence of better markings.

The afternoon session was devoted to examining how road markings can help maximise the safety benefits of Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) in the intelligent vehicle.  Systems such as Lane Departure Warning and Lane Keeping Assist, that prevent drivers from head-on collisions and run-off accidents, will become more commonplace in the years to come and in this sense, it is important that markings can remain visible to tap into the significant safety gains that can arise from these new technologies.

Given that reductions in road fatalities become disproportionately harder as the road safety figures improve, all participants agreed that the introduction of ADAS technologies, in cooperation with core infrastructure elements such as road markings, could really make the difference in the years to come.  In this sense, there was a consensus on the need for further research in the field (i.e. field operational tests) to better understand how the interaction of infrastructure and ADAS can work optimally to save lives and prevent injuries.

Some initial research work conducted under the auspices of EuroRAP under the ‘Road that Cars can Read’ initiative found that road markings should have a minimum retroreflectivity of 150 mcd/m2/lux under dry weather conditions (R3) and 35 mcd/m2/lux under wet and rainy conditions, if they are to remain visible for the driver and the intelligent vehicle at all times.   In the opinion of ERF, all A-roads within the EU should comply with this specification by March 2018.

1. Draft Agenda

2. List of participants

3. Photos of the event

4. Presentations 

• RAINVISION Overview – Konstandinos Diamandouros, Project coordination team
• Overview of Simulation Trials – Pierre Anelli, WP 2 Leader
• Overview of Track Test Trials – Michael Gatscha, WP 3 Leader
• Overview of Road Trials in UK – George Lee, WP 4 Leader
• RAINVISION Recommendations – Gernot Sauter, WP5 Leader
• Roads that Cars can Read -Stephen Stacey, Managing Director, EuroRAP
• Potential Benefit of LDWS/LKA – Richard Cuerden, TRL
• Intelligent Transport: from “Assisting Drivers” to “Automated Vehicles” – Stefan Deix, Research and Innovation Director, CLEPA
• Ensuring visible marking on roads through innovative procurement – Conor Fitzgerald, National Road Authority, Ireland
• Revision of Directive 2008/96 and the role of visible markings – Attila Eordogh, Policy Officer, Road Safety Unit, DG MOVE, European Commission

3 February 2015 | Brussels, Belgium

The RAINVISION project, co-financed by the European Commission, has the pleasure to invite you to the project’s final meeting that will take place in Brussels on 9 March 2015.

For the last three years, the project has been studying the influence of road marking on driver behaviour, by mainly analysing how different age groups (young vs middle vs old) and different gender groups (male vs female) adapt their driving behaviour on the basis of the visibility and retroflectivity of road markings under all weather conditions, (i.e. dry, wet, wet and rainy) during night time driving.

The event will be organised along two distinct sessions: the first part of the day will be devoted to presenting the RAINVISION project and the results of the different trials that took place in France, the UK and Austria. The second part of the day will focus on:
– how the introduction of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems in intelligent vehicles can improve safety through interaction with road markings
– how road authorities can ensure that road markings remain visible on the road through more efficient procurement practices
– the Revision of Directive 2008/96 on Infrastructure Safety Management

For more information about the conference please contact Mr Konstandinos Diamandouros.

–Draft Agenda

–Registration