Für die BASt bedeuten die bisherigen mit dem Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Bau und Wohnungswesen abgestimmten Aktivitäten im EU-Forschungssektor auf dem Gebiet des Straßenwesens eine angemessene Beteiligung an: den Planungsprozessen, der Evaluierung der Forschungsangebote und insbesondere an der Projektbearbeitung. Die EU-Forschung wird auch in Zukunft ein wichtiges Aufgabenfeld der BASt darstellen.

There is a need to continue to set the right vehicle safety policy priorities in the future. Research has to point out the most cost efficient and safety relevant measures to further reduce the number of road traffic casualties. The overall development shows that the constant and rapid decrease in the number of road casualties slows down. New innovations need to enter the vehicle market soon, in order to continue the success achieved in the last decade. Priorities for vehicle safety are driven by safety and mobility demands. It is necessary to keep a strong lid on all aspects of elderly and vulnerable road users. The fraction of powered-two-wheelers (PTW) is a priority group. PTWs have a risk of being involved in an accident, 14times higher than that of a passenger car. However, the figures do also show that every second fatality is a car occupant. Therefore passenger car safety remains to be top priority. Heavy goods vehicles are overly represented in fatal accidents, addressing the need to make these vehicles more compatible with other road users. These facts highlight the necessity not only to increase vehicles" self protection, but also to make cars - and trucks - more compatible and safe. Cycling is a strongly increasing mode of transport. This is a further reason to demand better protection for cyclists and pedestrians from car design and car active and integrated safety systems. Another priority for future vehicle safety is related to demographics. It is less known that the purely demographic effect will be superimposed by an increasing wish of elderly people to be mobile. However, elderly people show deficits concerning their biomechanics. This emphasizes the need for better and more adaptive restraint systems, but also further technological challenges and demands for active safety systems. However, in order to progress, current technological limitations have to be overcome. Cost benefit considerations, but also consumer acceptance and desires, will drive this process.

The Joint Transport Research Centre of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Transport Forum recently conducted a benchmarking study of the safety and productivity of typical highway transport trucks from various countries. This paper focuses on vehicle productivity and efficiency in regard to the movement of freight. Forty vehicles from 10 countries were examined. The vehicles were designed for longer-haul applications and were classified in three separate categories: workhorse vehicles, which are the most common and can travel on most roads; high-capacity vehicles, which may be restricted to a certain class of road; and very high-capacity vehicles, which may be restricted to specific highways or routes. The metrics used in the analysis include maximum cargo mass and volume capacity, optimum cargo density, fuel consumption, and carbon dioxide output as a function of the freight task. The study found that size and weight regulations have a significant effect on the productivity and efficiency of heavy vehicles, including fuel consumption and vehicle emissions per unit of cargo transported. Significant variations were found among the vehicles from participating countries as well as within vehicle classes. It was also apparent that, in general, higher-productivity vehicles are correlated more strongly with increased cargo volume than with increased cargo mass and that larger trucks are better suited to lower-density freight than are workhorse vehicles. The study also found that it is important to consider the freight task when evaluating vehicle fuel consumption and emissions.