ISO 39001 un estándar internacional en la gestión de la Seguridad Vial.

El pasado 19 de septiembre la Fundación Pons realizó en Barcelona una jornada para presentar la norma UNE-ISO 39001 que certifica la gestión de la seguridad vial en las empresas, en la que participaron destacadas personas vinculadas al sector del tráfico por carretera como Pere Macias Presidente en el Congreso de los Diputados de la Comisión de Seguridad Vial y Movilidad Sostenible, Rafael Olmos del Servei Catalá de Trànsit, Jaime Fontanals Director de Nuevos Productos en la Asociación Española de Normalización (AENOR) directivos de empresas del transporte público como Carles Salas de la operadora de transporte TUSGAL y Miguel Muñoz de la multinacional del transporte ALSA, especialistas como Agustín Sánchez-Toledo Gerente de Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo de AENOR y Francisco Paz Consultor especializado en Seguridad Vial de la propia Fundación. María Jesús Magro Directora General de la Fundación Pons presentó y dirigió el desarrollo la jornada.

Imagen cortesía de Feelart en Freedigitalphotos.net

Health and Safety at the work place

Versión en español

The health prevention at the work place has been treated widely on the legislative level. Another matter is to actually know, if the existing laws are being obeyed and if the prevention systems are being implemented correctly. However, for this purpose the inspectors, the judges and the professional ethics of the responsibles in the administration of the organizations already exist. Occupational prevention is divided in two specialities: health care and Industrial Hygiene which treat “health” from two different angles. The first one is centred in the individual person and the second one in the work place.

Principal consequences of an occupational traffic accident

Versión en español

In Spain nearly a third of the fatal occupational accidents are caused by the traffic. A study conducted by the National Institute for Workplace Safety and Hygiene (INSHT) in 2010 confirmed that the majority of the occupational traffic accidents produce themselves on the way from home to the working place or vice versa (commute), which in technical terms is called “in itinere”. According to the study 71,6 % of the 65.446 occupational traffic accidents which have produced themselves this year, occurred “in itinere”, whereas the remaining 28,4 % occurred “in mission”, which means during the journeys made due to the working place.

Aggressive drivers and road violence (english version)

The human body is the chariot; the self is the driver;

  thoughts are the reins; and feelings the horses.

 (Plato)

Creative Common, Photo by  Antonio Herrera

The occidental society encourages competition from our childhood age. Already in school we are prepared for a world, in which – where losing is concerned – it might better be you than me. Competition is seen as something positive to evolve and advance in our civilization; and to diminish its pejorative character we talk about ambition. However, competition is also a source that generates environments prone for aggressiveness. The fight for survival obliges us in many occasions to adopt aggressive behaviours – bee it to defend ourselves or to attack. In the world of traffic a lot of experts and organizations (the World Health Organization among them) talk clearly about “road violence”. 


Why some people are more aggressive when they drive?
In previous posts I have already reflected on this topic. To drive a car activates determined psycho-physical mechanisms, which grant us a bigger capacity for reaction in unexpected situations – we pay higher attention, that’s why we react faster. However, driving also provokes a higher level of aggressiveness and in many people it potentiates their violate character. We feel a higher impunity to violent attitudes we are exercising while driving: blowing the horn, inappropriate speed, incorrect security distances, we accelerate while others are overtaking us…putting aside even more extreme cases. We have the feeling of anonymity and security while being encaged inside the driver’s cab, where we feel unobserved. And, in case of problems, there is always the “brave alternative” of flight (in spite of the existence of number plates, testimonies, security cameras, car mechanics and police investigation techniques to prevent it). The car is converted into an addition to my personal distance – my territory – where only those enter that I want to. In human beings the sense of territory is as or even more pronounced than the one an animal species might have. Many people have an extremely developed competitive impulse (everyone can find a face in his memory to whom this may apply). Too much competiveness causes aggressiveness and this generates feelings of rage and vengeance which run free within the confines of our mobile territory.

“But what is he doing?” 

“Have you seen, how he barred my way?” 

“He will notice when I blow my horn.”

Sometimes aggressiveness surges as a defence mechanism when we feel uncomfortable. In other occasions we exercise pressure on the one before us, because we feel lobbied by the one behind ; in the traffic system we can observe this phenomenon in the speed management; and in the companies in the hierarchies and the flow of responsibilities.

The profile of an aggressive drivers is associated with the following attributes: cynical, rude, without empathy and that he not only exhibits them while driving but also at work or at home, but while driving those attributes of his personality are easiest to detect by his fellow passengers and his victims.


What motivates aggressiveness while driving?
The casuistic in road violence is very extensive and I will only make an approximation. There are internal casuistics which remain inside of each individual and there are external or environmental cases. Each person has an irritability level where the offensive aggressiveness or the sensitivity is potentiated, which concludes in defensive aggressiveness. Each person has different tolerance levels to a large variety of emotional states: for example sadness, preoccupation, frustration, rage, excitation…, and they modify our reactions in different ways to a higher or lower degree of violence. In the end it will be our capacity to control those emotions in an adequate way, that will make us control many of the impulses we have while driving. Among the external factors, heat or the degree of humidity have to be pointed out (see anterior post). Also the acoustic level is important, above all if its volume or duration are not taken into consideration, which provoke irritation and aggressiveness. Finally we must not forget the traffic jams, which according to its duration or our time available can provoke frustration and which can conclude in very aggressive actions.

Degrees of aggressive behaviour:

Phases	Actions
First phase: The objective is that the other driver feels bad making a moral attack.	To ridicule, blaspheme, insult, to make inappropriate gestures or faces.
Second phase: the objective is the same but the argumentation deteriorates	Gradually the characteristics described in the first phase are aggravated, one starts to lose rational thought.
Third phase: the other driver is directly provoked	He is harassed (light flashing, irruption in the path of the other’s car, producing an abrupt detention in front of the other’s vehicle…)
Forth phase: the other driver is attacked physically	The auto-control disappears and verbal and physical violence open their path toward the other driver.

Learning by observation is one of the natural ways we have to gain experience, no matter whether it is positive or negative.

“If I see that somebody is behaving badly but reaches his objective, I will do the same”.

This posture adopted by a lot of people contributes to the extension of bad behaviour on our roads. Road violence extents itself due to imitation, due to the lack of education about the correct behaviour in the traffic system, and because we are in need of an effective socio-cultural coercion which fights this egoistical lifestyle.

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Another posts:

New values for shared mobility

2012 the European Year for Active Ageing. The Safe Mobility an Intergenerational Challenge

What kind of european policies promote the intermodality in the transport?

Tourism and urban mobility "ad hoc"

Sustainable Security. Prevention and road security in the Netherlands (english version)

Homo omnium rerum mensura est.

(Man is the measure of all things).

Protágoras

The Netherlands have been working since 1991 in a new sustainable security concept.

What is sustainable security?
As “Sustainable Security” we can define the totality of measures for the prevention of traffic accidents that cause important injuries or deaths. We refer ourselves to a secure traffic system with infrastructures adapted to the human limitations, vehicles equipped to simplify driving and the protection of persons and users with the necessary education to dissuade individualist and inadequate behaviour.

Simplifying we could say that the central axis of sustainable security rests on the famous quote of Protágoras: “man is the measure of all things” referring itself to mankind in general and not to a specific individual. It recurs to the perception of the antique Greek philosophers about the “Homo mensura”, but is adapted to a new form of traffic planning.

What are the principle accomplishments of the new concept of sustainable security?

If we take as a fundamental assumption of this security policy that the user is the centre of the road network; the infrastructures, the cars and up to the manner of driving should adapt themselves to the limitations of each user: the human beings. This central idea is based on three elements:

• Protection of the vulnerable users (pedestrians, cyclists and motorists)
• The design auto-explanatory roads, which induce the users to a more secure driving style
• Establishment of a hierarchy of the urban and interurban roads of the complete road network according to its function and usage

For this reason specific actions were defined in order to obtain a secure traffic system:

First of all a reclassification of the road network according to its functions was carried out. With a first level for traffic flow at high velocities, large distances and big traffic volumes; a second level for the distribution of traffic with disperse destinations and a third level for those roads which give access to any place of the territory.

Secondly, a stricter speed control was exercised in the system in line with the defined function in the hierarchy of the road network. As an example, in the Dutch transport system two thirds of the lanes have a residential function and are candidates to convert themselves in traffic calmed zones with speed limits of 30 h/km. In 2001 half of their road network was already subject to those speed limits.

The Dutch transport system is centred in the coincidence of the function and the use of its roads, for which reason the infrastructures have to be designed with consideration of the human limitations and according to its usage, the vehicles have to assure protection (with active and passive elements of security). Also special attention is put on instruction in order to mitigate the dangerous attitudes of the drivers circulating on the public motorways.

How was the sustainable security system implemented in the Netherlands?

The Netherlands have been working since 1991 in a new sustainable security concept, which the public authorities finally signed in 1998. In this same year a programme of sustainable security designed by the Institute for Road Safety Research (Stichting Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Verkeersveiligheid - SWOV) with the support of the Dutch Transport Ministry was presented. This security plan converted itself into one of the state policies which the different governments will be obliged to obey during the next decades, with the specification of some concrete objectives until the year 2010, as are: the decrease of deaths on the road in 50 % and of traumatic injuries caused by traffic accidents in 40 % versus the values obtained in 1986.

For the acceptation of this security policy 2 phases were established for its implantation. In the first phase between 1997 and 2001.

• The road network, roads and motorways were catalogued and a hierarchy was established
• All give-way regulations were revised
• Speed limitations were established. 30 km/h for residential zones and 60 km/h for rural zones
• New give-way preferences were established in the roundabouts to give a higher priority to the cyclists
• Audits for road security were established

With these measures they accomplished to set the basis for later interventions, which would be developed in a second implementation phase the so-called “National Plan for Traffic and Transport” during the period 2001-2020 which is currently still being implemented.

The Dutch projected road safety as something to be provoked, with the objective to avoid that traffic converts itself into a problem of public health, as happens in other less advanced societies. They realized that the road safety needed the political and institutional support for its successful execution. And so they did by converting it into a state policy. Today we study the Dutch and the Swedish case as best practices for road safety.

In conclusion of this post I mention an example I have found in the blog of Samuel Santos García autovias.wordpress.com dedicated to the transport infrastructures, in which the characteristics of a Dutch road are detailed where the speed limits originally have been at 80 km/h with an average traffic density of 3.000 cars, and which has been adapted to the contents defined in the policy of the sustainable security of the National Plan for Traffic and Transport.

The principal characteristics of this road are:

• Zone 30 and zone 60
• Elevations at the crossroads
• Sections with prohibition to drive for circulation of bicycles
• Width of the lane of 5 m with narrowings and installations of side bollards
• Sinuous pegging
• Punctual narrowing of the lanes including road cushions
• Fixed right-of-way regulation for one lane. No drawing of medial strip
• Bend of the axis of the road in intersections
• Central traffic islands in straight parts without intersections

Source:Youtube

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Another posts:

New values for shared mobility

2012 the European Year for Active Ageing. The Safe Mobility an Intergenerational Challenge

What kind of european policies promote the intermodality in the transport?

Fatal road accidents can be avoided:Principal elements of "Vision Zero"

Autobahnen:The myth of velocity

Fatal road accidents can be avoided. Principal elements of the "Vision Zero" (english version)

The “Vision Zero” is a policy for driving safety, which was developed in the 90s of last century in Sweden. The Vision Zero was approved in the Swedish Parliament in 1999 and is based on the definition of basic elements on top of which a conceptual body and measures are built in order to avoid that road traffic produces deaths or heavy disability in the people that use it.

The Vision Zero was approved in Sweden in 1999

The principal elements of this driving safety policy are the following

The first element has an ethical character: Life and health are superior values. For the Zero Perspective they are not negotiable and are above any changes that favour mobility; such as speed, accessibility, comfort, efficiency, respect for the environment…all these have to submit to the ethical value of this policy. The loss of a human life is inacceptable.

The second element is based in the global concept of responsibility. Up to now responsibility for the collisions in traffic was principally and uniformly attributed to the users of the public infrastructures. The Vision Zero defends the concept of shared responsibility between the providers of the service, the users, their designers, the authorities of the transport infrastructures, the automotive industry as well as the police. They all are the responsibles for the correct functioning of the system and that the traffic rules are respected. With this policy it is no longer only the users that have the responsibility that the rules are obeyed, it is also the designers, the authorities and the security corps that hold the responsibility for the voluntary and induced compliance of these rules. Also the automobile producers are responsible to comply with certain production parameters which contemplate minimum security standards in defence of life and health. 

The third element is the establishment of a security culture which comprises the whole of society and which contemplates the human factor of the phenomenon. The exclusive responsibility of the user of the public infrastructures disappears and a new focus on two new premises is established: the first of these is the human factor. Human beings commit mistakes. People can misjudge, distract themselves, fall ill,... and so its a logical consequence that we make mistakes, however, the traffic system must not fail. For example, today the system still permits that we reach 140 km/h driving at a minimum distance to another vehicle that circulates in front of us. The system should impede these situations. The second premise is the critical limit, when once exceeded, the survival and the recuperation of a traumatism is no longer possible. We have to respect the biomechanical tolerances of our bodies, which the road system should protect. We know that the transport system combines human beings with heavy and speedy motorized machines which are controlled by people. For this reason the instability is inherent to our transport system itself, as it is based largely on the human factor.

The Vision Zero has to take into account the human factor, as “error” is integrated in the ADN of the transport system. For this reason the design of the transport system has to be laid out in such a way that it avoids heavy injuries or deaths, although a certain level of collisions with light traumatisms might be assumed. The essential objective of this security policy is to avoid the chain of incidents which result in severe collisions which cause deaths and permanent disability. In the transport system people should not subject themselves to kinetic forces which exceed the human tolerance level and which put their health in danger, however, while the technology permits it, prudence and training should guarantee the integrity of the person.

What measures have been adopted in Sweden since the introduction of the Zero Perspective?

Regarding the technology of the vehicles: 

• Wide support of the Euro-NCAP programme (European New Car Assessment Programme)
• Use of restraints in all vehicles. Use of retention systems in all vehicles. The intention is to guarantee a generalized application
• Generalization of the active and passive security systems in the vehicles
• Generalization of the air-bag technologies
• Implementation of the automatic break
• Improvement of the technologies for energetic saving

In the infrastructures: 

• Encourage the local authorities to establish 30 km/h zones in the high risk areas for the less protected users
• Increase the number of cameras for detection of excess velocity
• Change of perspective in the design of the infrastructures and the speed administration with new engineering concepts in which security predominates

In control and monitoring: 

• Increase of the random breath and drug testing of the drivers (Alcolocks) 
• Promotion of road safety as a competitive factor between companies for the adjudication of transport contracts
• Promotion of evaluation systems with procedures for information intake and processing generated in the system
• Implementation of intelligent traffic systems
• Establish controls in the web to collect determined atmospheric parameters which generate better information and which facilitate the decision making of the authorities and the drivers

In the service sector and education: 

• Promote security as a competitive factor in the transport contracts. New social responsibility policies for companies which are generalizing themselves in the professional world: (CSR) Corporate Social Responsibility
• Tax incentives for road security
• Promotion in the media and in the training centres of the values in which the Vision Zero is based

Avoid fatal accidents on the roads is possible.

There are places, where road safety is taken seriously. In this post I explained what has been achieved in Sweden. In Spain there are still many people who think that traffic accidents are the price we have to pay for modern mobility. Nothing lies further from the truth. The idea that road accidents are inevitable or unforeseeable is proving false. We should be less tolerant to have fatal accident victims. Vision Zero is an ambitious goal, but not impossible to achieve. 




Bibliographical sources consulted: 
http://www.visionzeroinitiative.com/ 
WHO (2004) World report on road traffic injury. 

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Another posts:

New values for shared mobility

2012 the European Year for Active Ageing. The Safe Mobility an Intergenerational Challenge

What kind of european policies promote the intermodality in the transport?

Tourism and urban mobility "ad hoc"

Los accidentes de tráfico mortales pueden evitarse. Principales elementos de la "Visión Cero"

La Visión Cero  es una política de seguridad vial desarrollada en los años 90 del siglo pasado en Suecia. (La  política   Vision Zero -como se la conoce en inglés- fue aprobada por el parlamento sueco en 1999). Se basa en la definición de unos elementos básicos sobre los que se construye un cuerpo conceptual y unas medidas para conseguir que el tráfico por carretera no produzca muertes o discapacidades graves a las personas.



La Visión Cero se inició en Suecia

Los principales elementos de esta política de seguridad vial son los siguientes:

El primer elemento es de carácter ético: la vida y la salud son valores supremos. Para la Visión Cero no son negociables estos valores, por encima de cualquier cambio que favorezca la movilidad: velocidad, accesibilidad, confort, eficiencia, medioambiente… todos ellos deben someterse al valor que define el carácter ético de esta política. La pérdida de una vida humana es inaceptable.

El segundo elemento se basa en un concepto global de la responsabilidad. Hasta ahora la responsabilidad de las colisiones en las carreteras recaía principalmente y de forma individual en los usuarios de la vía pública. La Visión Cero defiende el concepto de responsabilidad compartida entre los proveedores de servicios, los usuarios, los planificadores, las autoridades de las infraestructuras de transporte, la industria de la automoción y también la policía, como responsables del funcionamiento del sistema y del respeto de las normas de circulación. Con esta política ya no sólo es responsabilidad de los usuarios cumplir con las normas; los planificadores, las autoridades y los cuerpos de seguridad tienen la obligación de que el sistema y sus normas sean respetadas voluntariamente o se cumplan de manera inducida. Los fabricantes, por su parte, también son responsables de seguir unos parámetros de fabricación que contemplen los mínimos estándares de seguridad necesarios para la defensa de la vida y la salud.

El tercer elemento es el establecimiento de una cultura de la seguridad que abarque a toda la sociedad y contemple la dimensión humana del fenómeno. Desaparece la responsabilidad exclusiva del usuario de la vía pública y se establece un nuevo enfoque con dos nuevas premisas: la primera es el factor humano. Los seres humanos cometemos errores. La gente puede equivocarse, distraerse, enfermar... y por lo tanto es lógico que fallemos, pero el sistema vial no puede fallar. Por ejemplo, hoy en día el sistema todavía permite que alcancemos 140 km/h conduciendo a escasos metros de otro vehículo que circule delante. El sistema debería impedir situaciones como la descrita. La segunda es el límite crítico más allá del cual la supervivencia y la recuperación de un traumatismo ya no es posible. Hay que respetar las tolerancias biomecánicas de nuestros cuerpos que el sistema vial debe proteger. Sabemos que el sistema de transporte combina seres humanos con máquinas motorizadas pesadas y veloces controladas por personas, de forma que la inestabilidad es inherente al propio sistema de transporte que tenemos, porque se basa fundamentalmente en el factor humano. La Visión Cero debe tener en cuenta el factor humano, pues el error está integrado en el ADN del sistema de circulación vial, por tanto el diseño del sistema de transporte debe realizarse de tal forma que evite las lesiones graves o las muertes, aunque bien se pueda asumir cierto nivel de colisiones que produzcan traumatismos leves. El objetivo esencial de esta política de seguridad es evitar la cadena de incidentes que desemboquen en graves colisiones generadoras de defunciones y discapacidades permanentes. Las personas no deberían en el sistema de transporte someterse a fuerzas cinéticas que excedan la tolerancia humana y que hagan peligrar su salud, pero en el caso de que así sea la tecnología, la vigilancia y la formación debe garantizar la integridad de la persona.

¿Qué medidas se están tomado en Suecia desde la adopción de la Perspectiva cero?

En las tecnologías de los vehículos

• Amplio apoyo al Programa Europeo de Evaluación de Automóviles Nuevos. (Euro-NCAP)
• Utilización de los sistemas de retención en todos los vehículos. Se intenta garantizar su uso generalizado.
• Generalizar los sistemas se seguridad activa y pasiva en los vehículos.
• Generalizar las tecnologías de airbags.
• Implantar el frenado automático.
• Mejorar las tecnologías de ahorro energético.

En las infraestructuras

• Alentar a que las autoridades locales establezcan en las áreas con mayor riesgo para los usuarios menos protegidos las zonas de 30 km/h.
• Incrementar de cámaras que detecten los excesos de velocidad.
• Cambiar la perspectiva en el diseño de las infraestructuras y la gestión de la velocidad con nuevos conceptos de ingeniería en los que predomine la seguridad.

En el control y la vigilancia

• Incrementar las pruebas de alcoholemia y drogadicción en los conductores. (Alcolocks)
• Promover la seguridad vial como variable competitiva entre las empresas para conseguir contratos de transporte carretero.
• Promover sistemas de evaluación con procedimientos de recogida y procesamiento de la información que se genera en el sistema.
• Implantar sistemas inteligentes del tráfico.
• Establecer controles en la red para recoger determinados parámetros atmosféricos que generen mejor información y ayuda a la toma de decisiones de las autoridades y de los conductores.

En los servicios y la educación

• Promover la seguridad como variable competitiva en los contratos de transporte. Nuevas políticas (RSE) de responsabilidad social empresarial que se generalicen en el mundo laboral.
• Incentivos fiscales para la seguridad vial.
• Promoción en los medios de comunicación y en los centros educativos de los valores sobre los que se apoya la Visión Cero.

Evitar los accidentes mortales en las carreteras es posible.

Hay lugares donde se están tomando en serio la seguridad vial, en este post he hablado de lo que están haciendo los suecos. En España todavía hay muchas personas que consideran que los accidentes de tráfico son el precio que debemos pagar por tener una movilidad moderna. Nada más lejos de la verdad. La idea de que los accidentes de tráfico son inevitables e impredecibles, cada vez más, se está asumiendo en nuestra sociedad que es falsa. 


Fuentes bibliográficas consultadas:
http://www.visionzeroinitiative.com/
OMS (2004) Informe mundial sobre prevención de traumatismos causados por el tránsito.

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Otros artículos relacionados:
La hipermovilidad, un nuevo estilo de vida

La evolución del transporte a la movilidad, una nueva visión
La mejor medida de seguridad vial es educar a los ciudadanos desde la infancia.
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Six goals for the european transport market development (english version)

Intermodal station "Quatre Camins"

The European Commission puts great importance in its strategy to strengthen the political body, which is the union of the European continent, with the development of a potent infrastructure network to join its vast territory of more than 4 million m2 and a population which already surpassed 502 million inhabitants in the year 2011. The working document:  (White Paper) Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area - Towards a Competitive and Resource Efficient Transport Area System, is the most recent report which I was able to read about European infrastructure. Published in 2011 by the European Commission, this report highlights the importance of transport infrastructures for the economic activity: for job creation, the stimulus of Commerce, the improvement of geographic accessibility and the mobility of goods, services and persons which travel through its territory. I think the mentioned document might be quite interesting because of its proposition to project and plan the European Communities’ vision of the future European transport system concretizing the major operative lines to be developed in the next years, which can be classified in three big blocks:

INFRASTRUCTURES:   
Creation of a European transport market on the basis of the infrastructures project TEN-T, the objective of which is the reduction of the current traffic congestions and a substantial improvement of the accessibility to the whole European territory on a small and medium scale level (continental and regional).

ENERGIES:
Reduction of the big dependability of the European transport system on petrol and the design of new contingencies for the foreseeable scarcity of fossil fuel in the near future (Peak oil). In the report the following fact is pointed out: In 2010 the imports of petrol to the European Union amounted to approx. 210 billions. €.

ENVIRONMENT:   
Reduction of the greenhouse gases in order to minimize their effect on the climatic change.

This document proposes quite concrete actions for each of these three fields for the next four decades (comprising a horizon until the year 2050) which I tried to classify in the following 6 major goals as indicated at the beginning: 

1. Reduction of the greenhouse gases by  60 % before 2050 for the complete transport system, with the milestone to reach a reduction of 20 % in 2030 in comparison to the emissions produced in 2008.

2. Change of the transport model: Development of considerably cleaner vehicles, a strengthening of the collective transport where the individual transport only will be used as the “last mile” of the journeys, creation of high speed train lines and corridors for the rail transport of special goods at medium range, thus enabling a sutureless mobility within the territory with a good intermodality between the different means of transport. A change of the transport model based on the intensive use of technology, not only to improve the transfers between the different modes of transport, but also in order to improve its infrastructures (ITS, SESAR, EMTS, SafeSeaSafety, RIS…) and in order to reach with this model a level of economy of scales that permits the apparition of multimodal and multinational logistic operators.

3. Creation of a multimodal transport network between the major cities of the European Union, with train corridors and motorways, by strengthening the intermodal character of the sea ports as well as of interior waterways and by connecting the high speed train network with the European airport network. The creation of a unique European airspace, the creation of a unique train space and the creation of a “blue belt” for the European network for short distance sea shipping.

4. Implantation of a sustainable urban transport system, by using mobility plans in the cities or in the companies and big public installations; by introducing intelligent transport tickets and by using tariff systems by areas and not by mode of transport, by car-sharing, Park & Ride systems near big connecting stations, by potentiating active mobility (like walking, biking,…) and by harmonizing movements of the commuter traffic in the big metropolitan areas.

5. Maintaining the European Union as world leader for road and labour security, by the development of politics of security, responsibility, accessibility and quality of the services and working places in the transport and logistics sector. The European Union has the objective to reduce the number of traffic victims by half until the year 2020 and to reach 0 deaths by traffic accidents in 2050.

6. Internalization of transport costs. Costs on a global scale with the raising of taxes for energy use and with the creation of a market of the emission of greenhouse gases. For the costs on a local scale (noise, pollution and high traffic accumulation) a “toll” for the use of the infrastructures will be introduced and fiscal adaptations in the sector will be made according to the prerequisite: “who pollutes, pays”. This will be established in two phases: In the first phase until 2016, the taxes applied to the sales of cars with combustion engines will be revised. This means, on the one hand, the application of the regulation of the “Eurovignette” (road tax disc) – “who uses, pays” and on the other hand the modification of some of the tributes (those that allow for it) by highlighting the environmental impact they produce to discriminate positively the cleanest vehicles. In a second phase (between 2016 – 2020) this fiscal policy will be consolidated and the costs for pollution and noise level of the harbours and airports will be included. Obviously this document is a lot more extensive and those interested in its content can access to the original via the link which I mentioned at the beginning.

With the ongoing crisis we are informed “through the grapevine” by the media of new reductions and fiscal changes applied to different aspects of our mobility (a right our governments should preserve for us). Many of those measures are more than simply rumours, provoked by economically burdened Governments, and are part of a strategy designed by Brussels to achieve the change of model for our transport and mobility system, which leave little manoeuvring space to the national governments (such as for example delay of measures like the introduction of the “Eurovignette” (Euroviñeta), in the case of Spain, or the modification of the contribution levels which can be applied in different fees). We’ll have to be more and more aware of what is happening in Brussels, as what is decided there, will be more important than what is being legislated in any of the capitals of the member states of the European Union.

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Another posts:

New values for shared mobility

2012 the European Year for Active Ageing. The Safe Mobility an Intergenerational Challenge

What kind of european policies promote the intermodality in the transport?

2012 the European Year for Active Ageing. The Safe Mobility an Intergenerational Challenge (english version)

http://europa.eu/ey2012/

This year 2012 has been declared by the EU the European Year of Active Ageing and Intergenerational Solidarity, for this reason I want to review the interesting technical dossier about road safety, published in 2006 by the Catalan Traffic Service, dedicated to the elderly. In these documents I‘ve found answers for the questions that many people might be interested in:


What means ageing and what effects does it have on the mobility of human beings?
Ageing is a change process in life that gradually reduces the reserve mechanism in the organs of the body, increasing its vulnerability to external or internal aggressions. Ageing also means the loss of ability for adaptation to the changes that are producing themselves constantly throughout our life and it generates certain morphological changes in our body.

The following table classifies principal ageing transformations that can affect mobility.

Physical Transformations	Decrease in auditive and visual capacity
	Increased sensorial confusion
	Low reaction capacity
	Joint stiffness and degeneration of bone structures
	Increased vulnerability to illness by weakening of the immune system
Mental Transformations	Low capacity of attention
	Low capacity of selection and differentiation of stimulus
	Greater possibility of confusion and disorientation
	Decreased short-term memory and appearance of senile dementia
Social Transformations	Retirement
	Limitation of certain social contacts, for example professional links
	Low purchasing power

 Table prepared from data provided by:

 Dossier tècnic de seguretat viària. La gent gran: vianants i mobilitat urbana segura. (2006) SCT

These features (described above) have important implications for the mobility of elder people. Good mobility for these persons means an active social life that allows them to maintain contact with their families and friends, go alone to the nursing home or maintain relationships with other people moving through public spaces. Good mobility for older people is fundamental to enjoy a quality ageing. Safe mobility is an intergenerational challenge.

Elderly people mainly are travelling either walking or by public transport, so streets are key areas for them: a place to meet, a place to communicate or to distract themselves. Older people prefer short trips (for example no more than half an hour), without big slopes or steps, they like banks to rest, in short: sites they can feel safe.

In 1999 the World Health Organization defined active ageing as the participation of older adults, individually and collectively, in any public or private social area, and there is not active ageing without mobility. In Spain these ideas have been officially accepted by all governments.

Accessibility symbol

What needs for accessibility do the elderly have?
Accessibility is the ability for everyone to make use of a space on the principle of equality. In the Spanish national law 3/1998 of 24 of June the requirements for accessibility are established and the conditions for the removal of barriers for citizens. From 2004 to 2012 the IMSERSO (ageing administration) has been developing the First National Accessibility Plan as an essential criterion in public administration as well as a means to extend the “design for everybody” not only in products but also in infrastructures and services. Architectural barriers in buildings and streets, the intense and aggressive motorized traffic and citizen insecurity create an inaccessible environment for elders, causing greater insecurity and isolation to them. If this is not remedied, old people fall into a dependency and low self-esteem, which might result in the creation of their own alienation to everything that happens outside their homes. Finally without mobility elderly people only know what happens outside by radio, TV, internet or whatever visitors will tell them. Accessibility and safe mobility are two key objectives for the development of an active and healthy ageing.


What's safe mobility?
Safe mobility is considered the right to move by foot or by any vehicle without risk and with guarantees for physical integrity of persons and goods. Therefore, safe mobility should be preventive, respectful with the standards, adapted to the circumstances and based on values such as prudence, respect and responsibility. This type of mobility can become a comprehensive strategy for a transversal intergenerational social action, applicable to different environments: family, school, neighbourhoods, municipality... Safe mobility is a topic of dialogue between citizens allowing them an intergenerational communication (grandparents with grandchildren, parents with children, teachers with students, associations with citizens ...) and in this way to give a solution to this social need: the intergenerational contact, where the city becomes the reference space for this education and relationships. Save school roads, for example, are a clear tool in this strategy of collaboration for safe intergenerational mobility, however, these activities are not only designed for children, but for all citizens especially old people.

Have we thought how many times in our life we need to make use of the accessibility right? At the beginning of childhood we are without autonomous mobility and we need to learn it. When we reach old age, gradually, we have less mobility, and it’s also very likely that we lose autonomy temporarily or permanently as a result of an accident or illness. Are we conscious about how long throughout our lives we will need an assisted mobility, which has nothing to do with the car? Can you think, just a minute, about safe mobility and accessibility you need now and you will need in the future?

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