Consol Project to address road safety of older people

Date: 11/6/2012

A project funded by the European Commission has been launched in order to address the issue of the road safety of older drivers.

The Consol Project, which has been made possible as a result of an injection of cash from the Directorate General for Mobility and Transport, is set to run for 24 months until September 2013.

Some eight countries from across Europe are taking part in the scheme, which will aim to come up with a solution to make road use safe for older drivers.

According to a recent white paper on a common transport policy from the European Commission, personal mobility is now seen as an "acquired right".

There are four main ways the Consol Project is looking to advance knowledge and understanding of the issues facing older drivers and the first of these is that it will be "combining current knowledge on mobility and safety with newest evidence from basic research", with "gender studies, social gerontology and findings on health and functionality with age" all set to be examined.

The scheme will also look at covering elderly safety issues - singling out single-pedestrian and non-crash public transport accidents as an area in need of investigation.

It was noted best practice analysis and discussion of feasibility will be worked on over the course of the project, while analyses of the roles of the different relevant societal actors will also be performed.

The Consol Project claims the end results of the scheme will be an enhanced "understanding the roles and responsibilities of the different societal actors", with "the safety of the heterogeneous group of older road users in different travel modes" another area that is set to be focused on.

Partners that have confirmed their involvement in the programme include TRL, Trinity College Dublin, Universitat de Valencia-Estudi General, Technical University of Denmark, Department of Transport, Ifsttar French institute of science and technology for transport, development and networks and Factum, as well as Centrum Dopravního Výzkumu (Transport Research Centre).

Posted by Sarah Bailey