Concern has been expressed in Austria over the potential costs of upgrading the country’s road network to cope with 60tonne trucks measuring up to 25.5m long. The introduction of these massive ‘gigaliners’ has been proposed across the EC. But Austrian highway operator Asfinag has said that upgrading the country’s roads, highways, bridges and tunnels to make them suitable for gigaliners would cost some €5.4 billion. Asfinag has also expressed its concern over the safety issues surrounding these vehicles due
The need for a motorway to link the cities of Vicenza and Treviso in northern Italy emerged in the 1970s as the Venetian countryside became increasingly urbanised. Meanwhile, the enlargement of the European Union to the east in the 1990s also brought more traffic across the region
Data shows that vulnerable road users are benefiting less from improved road safety. This has been revealed in the 2014 Road Safety Annual Report, which highlights latest road safety data. The number of road fatalities fell by 1.7% between 2011 and 2012 in the 31 countries covered by the International Road Traffic and Accident Database (IRTAD), according to the International Transport Forum at the OECD. However, road safety policies are not succeeding in improving protection for vulnerable road users. The l
Official data from the UK reveals the scale of the safety problem facing pedestrians on the country’s road network. This shows that nearly 18,000 pedestrians were injured in an incident involving a vehicle in 2013, the most recent year with full analysis currently available. The charity is calling for an even greater focus on pedestrian protection to make cars safer and raise awareness of the risks.
