Eu Road Surfaces: Economic and Safety Impact of the Lack of Regular Road Maintenance
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DIRECTORATE GENERAL FOR INTERNAL POLICIES POLICY DEPARTMENT B: STRUCTURAL AND COHESION POLICIES TRANSPORT AND TOURISM EU ROAD SURFACES: ECONOMIC AND SAFETY IMPACT OF THE LACK OF REGULAR ROAD MAINTENANCE STUDY This document was requested by the European Parliament's Committee on Transport and Tourism. AUTHORS Steer Davies Gleave - Roberta Frisoni, Francesco Dionori, Lorenzo Casullo, Christoph Vollath, Louis Devenish, Federico Spano, Tomasz Sawicki, Soutra Carl, Rooney Lidia, João Neri, Radu Silaghi, Andrea Stanghellini RESPONSIBLE ADMINISTRATOR Piero Soave Policy Department Structural and Cohesion Policies European Parliament B-1047 Brussels E-mail: [email protected] EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE Adrienn Borka LINGUISTIC VERSIONS Original: EN. ABOUT THE EDITOR To contact the Policy Department or to subscribe to its monthly newsletter please write to: [email protected] Manuscript completed in July, 2014 © European Union, 2014. DISCLAIMER The opinions expressed in this document are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position of the European Parliament. Reproduction and translation for non-commercial purposes are authorized, provided the source is acknowledged and the publisher is given prior notice and sent a copy. DIRECTORATE GENERAL FOR INTERNAL POLICIES POLICY DEPARTMENT B: STRUCTURAL AND COHESION POLICIES TRANSPORT AND TOURISM EU ROAD SURFACES: ECONOMIC AND SAFETY IMPACT OF THE LACK OF REGULAR ROAD MAINTENANCE STUDY Abstract This study looks at the condition and the quality of road surfaces in the EU and at the trends registered in the national budgets on the road maintenance activities in recent years, with the aim of reviewing the economic and safety consequences of the lack of regular road maintenance. The authors investigate the key causes behind the registered variations identified and the consequent impacts on road safety; they recommend therefore a series of actions and best practices to help preserve the safety and quality of the EU road surfaces. IP/B/TRAN/FWC/2010-006/Lot1/C1/SC6 2014 PE 529.059 EN EU Road Surfaces: Economic and Safety Impact of the Lack of Regular Road Maintenance ____________________________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 4 COUNTRY ABBREVIATIONS 7 LIST OF TABLES 9 LIST OF FIGURES 9 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 13 1. INTRODUCTION 19 1.1. Preface 19 1.2. Study Requirements 19 1.3. Organisation of the research study 20 2. ROAD SAFETY IN THE EU 28 21 2.1 Road safety in the EU 21 3. ROAD MAINTENANCE EXPENDITURE IN THE EU 35 3.1 Introduction 35 3.2. Road investment and maintenance expenditure trends 40 3.3. Road maintenance activities: an assessment through asphalt production data 45 3.4. Economic cycle and road maintenance 50 4. ASSESSMENT OF ROAD SURFACE QUALITY AND SAFETY PERFORMANCE AND PLANNING OF MAINTENANCE ACTIVITIES IN THE EU 59 4.1. Introduction 59 4.2 Impact of road condition on road safety 59 4.3 Road performance monitoring at the EU level 64 4.4 Performance monitoring at the national level 68 5. SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF ROAD MAINTENANCE ACTIVITIES 77 5.1 Road transport efficiency 77 5.2 Safety and health impacts 80 5.3 Wider socio-economic impacts 82 5.4 The potential impact of LHVs 85 3 Policy Department B: Structural and Cohesion Policies ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. CONCLUSIONS 89 6.1. Lessons learned 89 6.2. Key findings and recommendations 91 REFERENCES 97 ANNEXES 99 4 EU Road Surfaces: Economic and Safety Impact of the Lack of Regular Road Maintenance ____________________________________________________________________________________________ LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AEC Asociación Española de la Carretera (Spanish road Association) ANAS Azienda Nazionale Autonoma delle Strade (National Autonomous Roads Corporation) ASFINAG Autobahnen-und-Schnellstraßen-Finanzierungs- Aktiengesellschaft (Autobahn and high way financing stock corporation) CADaS Common Accident Data Set CARE European Centralised database on Road Accidents CAGR Compound annual growth rate DARR Digital Accident Data Recorders DPA Data Protection Act EAPA European Asphalt Pavement Association ERF European Union Road Federation ERSAP European Road Safety Action Programme ETSC European Road Safety Council EU European Union EU13 The Member States which joined the EU after 2004 EU15 EU Member States before the 2004 enlargement EU28 The current Member States GM General Motors HI Highways Agency IRU International Road Union ITF International Transport Forum ITS Intelligent Transport Systems 5 Policy Department B: Structural and Cohesion Policies ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Km Kilometre MS Member State NHTSA National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NRA National Road Authority OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development RAC Royal Automobile Club RMPD Road Maintenance and Development Programme RSAs Road Safety Audits RSIs Road Safety Inspections TEN-T Trans-European Road Network USIRF Union des Syndicats de l’Industrie Routière Française VRU Vulnerable Road Users 6 EU Road Surfaces: Economic and Safety Impact of the Lack of Regular Road Maintenance ____________________________________________________________________________________________ COUNTRY ABBREVIATIONS AT Austria BE Belgium BG Bulgaria CY Cyprus HR Croatia CZ Czech Republic DE Germany DK Denmark EE Estonia EL Greece ES Spain FI Finland FR France UK United Kingdom HU Hungary IE Ireland IT Italy LT Lithuania LU Luxembourg LV Latvia MT Malta NL Netherlands PL Poland 7 Policy Department B: Structural and Cohesion Policies ____________________________________________________________________________________________ PT Portugal RO Romania SE Sweden SI Slovenia SK Slovakia 8 EU Road Surfaces: Economic and Safety Impact of the Lack of Regular Road Maintenance ____________________________________________________________________________________________ LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Road maintenance data availability in EU MS 37 Table 2 Asphalt production, investment and maintenance expenditure (2007-12) 48 Table 3 Road maintenance trends in EU MS: 2008-2011 55 Table 4 Pavement Condition Survey Results: Road sections requiring intervention 70 Table SOSN Road surface quality classifications 71 Table 6 Quality index used by EP 72 Table 7 Compensation claims by Local Authorities (LA) in Great Britain 80 Table 8 Costs of road accidents in the Netherlands 81 Table 9 Road maintenance good practice detected from MS case studies 89 Table 10 Lesson learned, recommendations and an assessment of road maintenance expenditure in the EU 94 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Number of accident fatalities in the EU28, 1991-2012 22 Figure 2 Road fatalities per million inhabitants in EU MS, 2001 and 2010 23 Figure 3 Distribution of fatalities by type of road in EU MS, 2011 24 Figure 4 The 3rd EU Road Safety Action Programme 26 Figure 5 EU policy orientations on road safety 2011-2020 28 9 Policy Department B: Structural and Cohesion Policies ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Figure 6 Main causes of accidents involving trucks 29 Figure 7 Available data on investment expenditure in the EU 38 Figure 8 Available data on maintenance expenditure in the EU 39 Figure 9 Available data on asphalt production in the EU 39 Figure 10 Road investment expenditure in the EU 2006-2011 40 Figure 11 Change in investment in the EU 2008-2011 41 Figure 12 Road maintenance expenditure in the EU 2006-2011 42 Figure 13 Change in maintenance expenditure in a selection of EU MS 2008-2011 43 Figure 14 Maintenance expenditure: EU15 versus EU13, 2006 and 2011 44 Figure 15 Investment: EU15 versus EU13, 2006 and 2011 44 Figure 16 Maintenance expenditure trends in the EU 2006-2011 45 Figure 17 Asphalt production in the EU: 2007-2012 46 Figure 18 Change in asphalt production in EU MS: 2007-2012 47 Figure 19 Trend of maintenance expenditure on Austrian ASFINAG network 51 Figure 20 National Road Expenditure in Ireland between 2000 and 2012 52 Figure 21 Evolution of maintenance and operation expenses in Spain 53 Figure 22 Relationship between pavement friction and crash risk 60 Figure 23 Correlation between Accident rate and IRI for different traffic flow classes 61 10 EU Road Surfaces: Economic and Safety Impact of the Lack of Regular Road Maintenance ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Figure 24 Rutting 61 Figure 25 Formation of a classic pothole 62 Figure 26 Number of “White Spots” in each Member State 67 Figure 27 Vehicles and technology used for recording operational characteristics 69 Figure 28 Condition of road surface on entire national road network 71 Figure 29 Evolution of Road surface quality in Spain 1985-2011 73 Figure 30 Relationship between speed and fuel consumption 78 Figure 31 Potential impacts of a change in road maintenance expenditure 85 11 Policy Department B: Structural and Cohesion Policies ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 12 EU Road Surfaces: Economic and Safety Impact of the Lack of Regular Road Maintenance ____________________________________________________________________________________________ EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This research study is intended to inform the parliamentary debate looking at the condition and the quality of road surfaces in the EU and at the trends registered