The Road Safety Directorate (DSR) organizes, between 2023 and 2027, an annual session of calls for projects aimed at all scientific communities and all actors, public or private, involved in research in the field of road safety.
The 2024 session of the Call for projects (AAP) for studies and research of the Road Safety Directorate (DSR) started on January 15, 2024.
Road safety research is an essential element for progress in the fight against accidents. The challenge is to understand the complex mechanisms of the accident and the malfunctions of the traffic system made up of infrastructure, vehicles and road users.
This research must contribute to achieving the major objectives set out by the Member States of Europe during the declaration of Valletta in 2017 and Stockholm in 2020:
- By 2030: reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries compared to the reference year 2019,
- By 2050: getting closer to "zero deaths" and "zero serious injuries" on the roads of the Union ("Vision Zero").
The DSR call for projects aims to subsidize:
- primarily, studies conducted with a view to improving useful and operational scientific knowledge for public decision-makers,
- in addition, studies and research on emerging subjects in order to have a scientific watch to anticipate the levers to reduce accidents in the medium and long term,
- or even studies on subjects that contribute to the constant supply of knowledge useful to the systemic vision of road safety.
For the 2023-2027 period, the DSR's call for projects strategy is based on several research areas set out below:
Axis 1: Accident factors
Although an accident is most of the time multifactorial, the human factor appears as the cause in 90 % of fatal accidents. It is in fact an important lever for reducing accidents. There are many areas of progress:
- speed: both a causal factor (generating accidents) and an aggravating factor, speed is the first causal factor, present in 30 % of drivers presumed to be responsible for fatal accidents ;
- alcohol and narcotics: respectively second and third factors of fatal accidents, often combined with each other or with speed ;
- lack of attention: contribution of distractors such as the telephone, connected tools or hands-free kit to road accidents ;
- compliance with traffic rules: driving behavior of users, determinants of compliance with traffic rules and behavioral factors more generally.
Axis 2: Road users
There is an increased risk of being the victim or responsible for accidents for young people and the elderly. Each of the two categories of users presents its own challenges:
- young people: road accidents are the leading cause of death for people under 30 ;
- seniors: beyond the observed excess mortality, the severity of the injuries is also greater for these users.
In addition to the issues already mentioned in the first axis on behavioral factors, this part focuses more broadly on the state of health of drivers in the broad sense of the term, including PTW drivers, bicycles, motorized PMD, etc.:
- the medical fitness of drivers ;
- medication ;
- states such as driver's drowsiness and faintness.
Axis 3: The injured
One of France's objectives – like that of other European Union countries – is to halve the number of seriously injured people by 2030. the number of serious injuries or the impact of the development of vehicles and their safety equipment on the severity of injuries.
In addition, work on vulnerable road users, representing 70 % of victims, must focus, among other things, on visibility, wearing protective equipment or sharing the road.
Axis 4: Lifelong education and training
Education and continuing education work may relate to:
- driving training practices (knowledge of driving training practices and ecosystem, such as online driving schools or the gradual spread of automatic transmissions) ;
- continuing education systems (systems downstream of the driving license examination or the continuing training process for users of all ages and all modes) ;
- sanctions (penalty mechanisms linked to the driving licence, their implementation and their effects).
Axis 5: Evolutions of the vehicle
This line of research concerns developments or innovations related to the mobility of people and goods, and in particular subjects relating to:
- vehicles with partial or total driving delegation ;
- driving aids ;
- soft mobility and innovative vehicles.
Axis 6: Territorial specificities
Studies may focus on mobility and interactions between users according to the environment or the administrative network, so as to identify specific issues and adapt public action to the territories. These analyzes can also be extended to European or international comparisons. Projects integrating overseas territories in their analyzes will be valued during the selection.