VCD

sustainable mobility!

Hearing on Road Safety

Brussels, 16.02.2016

Matthias Kurzeck, Germany

www.vcd.org

Impacts on road safety:

• speed-limits / adjusted speeds

• alcohol-limits

• less heavy lorries

VCD - Verkehrsclub Deutschland e.V. - www.vcd.org

Focussing on Germany

Vision Zero: should reduce mortality by 40%*

But number of deaths andinjured rising again since 2014.

-> irresponsibility leads to risky driving

For automated driving a speed-limit will be necessary to protect others.

* relative to 2011

• Technology does not reduce mortalityIrresponsibility leads to risky driving

deaths py (goal 2020: -40%)

3

2

4

´11 ´12 ´13 ´14 ´15 20201.000 deaths py

100.000 injured py

• A24 Hamburg – BerlinSpeed-limit for road safety since 2003*

trend continued.

4

0

8

02 03 04 05 06 deaths py50 injured py (226/2002)

* 130 km/h on a 62 km-section

Road safety and climate change

HIGH SPEED in Germany causesHIGH CARBON in Europe!

• the possible maximum speed of a carhas a high impact on city-pollution –on the fuel-consumption at low speed!

• drive hard negotiations with Germany on that point, please!

• carbon-taxes help saving energy.

VCD calls for safety in cities:

• general speed-limit of 30 km/h (20 mph)

• higher speed (50 km/h / 30 mph) on main roads to be allowed

VCD: Increase Road Safety!

• lower speed-limits are necessaryto realise Vision Zero

incidentally:

A speed-limit on German motorwayswill reduce pollution all over EUROPE!

• less heavy lorries (no Mega-Trucks)

• strict alcohol-limits

Thank you for your attention!Brussels, 16.02.2016

Matthias Kurzeck

VCD

sustainable mobility!

www.vcd.org

Backup

Concept

2-3 VCD - Sustainable Mobility (Member of T&E)

The highest impact on road safety do have

- speed limits

- alcohol-limits

- the weight of cars / lorries

A speed limit does nearly not reduce the average speed of road-users. Just the very fast – and very dangerous – cars are blocked.

On A24 Hamburg – Berlin on a long section a speed-limit of 130 km/h had been introduced in 2003 for safety reasons only.

The average speed was about 137 km/h before 2003 and was about127 km/h from 2003 on*. That makes a difference of just over1 min. on the 32 mins. of travel-time on this section.

That would be a difference of about 5 mins. on the whole waybetween Hamburg and Berlin (3 hrs. by car) as the newly limited section is about ¼ of the whole non-limited sectionon that connection.

* Landesbetrieb Straßenwesen/Brandenburg, Potsdam 2007

Concept

4-5

On national level this declining trend has changed from 2014 on.

For the last two years the reaction on safety technology in cars / intelligent cars can be seen quite clearly in Germany:

- Numbers of heavy accidents and mortality are rising against theformer trend. You sit protected in your car and do not „feel“ anymore what happens around you. All the technology is not ableto protect especially pedestrians and cyclists.

Even car-drivers and passengers are victims of this trend.

On the limited A24-section between Hamburg and Berlin the numberof deaths per year sank to ¼ from one year to the other. The trendafterwards harmonized with the national trend.

The number of injured sank by 30%, the number of collisions sank byabout 20%. That shows that especially the heavy accidents gotless. All these trends continued.

Concept

6-7

Cars in Europe and the nearly the whole world are equipped forGerman motorways.

The gear has to be optimized on a maximum speed of 180 - 200 kmph.

By that there are less options to optimize the gear and the fuel-consumption* for city-traffic of 30 to 50 km/h – or the average city-speed of 18 km/h! 50% of journeys by car are less than 5 km and take place in cities.

Speed-limits do play a relevant rule in cities. 30 km/h should be thenormal speed-limit in urban areas all over Europe.

The risk of death for a child drops by about 90% if the speed-limit isdescended from 50 km/h to 30 km/h.

A higher speed-limit will be allowed on main roads, decided by themuncipalities.

* Wuppertal Institute / Schallaböck