Road environment

In addition to people and vehicles, infrastructure is the third pillar of road safety. While human factors play a major role in fatal accidents (92%), infrastructure-related factors are estimated to account for 30%. When traffic conditions (18%) are added, the resulting environmental category accounts for 39% of these accidents. Improving infrastructure safety contributes to an overall reduction in accidents. However, fatal accidents attributable solely to infrastructure or traffic conditions are rare (1% for each component).

In the 1970s and 1980s, policies focused on addressing concentrations of serious accidents and led to a significant reduction in ‘black spots’. Then, from the 1990s onwards, these remedial actions were extended to entire routes. The concept of the ‘forgiving road’ was developed with the aim of limiting the consequences of driving errors (shoulders allowing for lane deviation, separation of traffic flows in each direction, removal or isolation of obstacles to reduce the severity of collisions, etc.). In the 2000s, the concept of ‘traffic-calmed roads’ emerged, designed and operated to encourage moderate behaviour and shared use of space. A speed limit of 80 km/h on two-way roads without a central reservation was introduced across the board on 1 July 2018.

European Directive 2019/1936/EC amends Directive 2008/96/EC on road infrastructure safety management. Decree No. 2021-1689 of 17 December 2017 transposes it into French law: it applies to the national motorway and road network (including roads transferred to local authorities after the 3DS law). The ‘user safety on existing roads’ (SURE) approach must take into account the specific characteristics of vulnerable users and classify the sections where work should be prioritised by cross-referencing accident analysis with analysis of road design characteristics.

The French road network has been developed specifically to meet the needs of a very large territory in terms of accessibility. Almost the entire network is now managed by local authorities, departmental councils, urban metropolises and municipalities. Any study of the proper functioning of the road network must take into account the geometric characteristics of the roads and the equipment that increases their safety, but also observe road users.

The study of road infrastructure developments and the analysis of risk areas and user behaviour enable a diagnosis to be made and suggestions for improvement to be proposed for greater user safety. Furthermore, analysing reports written up following serious accidents on these roads or streets provides a better understanding of the causes and thus identifies any malfunctions in the environment-vehicle-user system that caused the accident or contributed to its severity. In 2022, 59% of road deaths in France occurred on non-motorway roads outside built-up areas, compared with an average of 52% across the 27 countries of the European Union (EU-27). However, France has a significantly lower proportion of road deaths in built-up areas compared to the EU-27 (32% and 38% respectively).