The European Concrete Paving Association (EUPAVE) celebrated its traditional Christmas dinner debate with guest of honor Matthew Baldwin, Deputy-Director General DG MOVE of the European Commission, on December 6th, 2016, on the topic of “The role of transport infrastructure for road safety & automated, connected and electric vehicles”.
Stéphane Nicoud, President of EUPAVE, opened the debate, discussing the main activities of the association during 2016 and the upcoming 10th anniversary of the association in 2017. He launched a new EUPAVE position paper on “Connected, autonomous and electric vehicles – Concrete infrastructure can pave the way”. He stressed the benefits of concrete infrastructure, and explained how pavement smoothness and durability combined with low maintenance can facilitate connected, autonomous and electric vehicles, as laid out in the paper. President Nicoud called for an effort from industry, suppliers and policy-makers to address the challenges ahead.
Deputy-DG Baldwin started by recalling the impressive figures of transport and mobility in the EU economy but also emphasized the need to continuously improve on CO2 emissions and safety. He mentioned the communication released by the European Commission last July on low-emission mobility and, in particular, the new Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) communication adopted on November 30th as part of the “Winter Package”. He also announced a new legal framework by 2018, new initiatives on fuel reduction for heavy vehicles, alternative fuels and safety. He stressed that with regard to safety the question is not only “whether accidents will happen” but how to mitigate their consequences, e.g. by building forgiving roads.
Mr. Baldwin then asked the attendees on how infrastructure can play a role in this new scenario. A lively debate followed around the role concrete could play in addressing those issues: safety, decarbonization, sustainability and noise. In his closing remarks, Mr. Baldwin called on EUPAVE to be proactive, to approach multi-sectorial fora like technological platforms, and to open a dialogue with all interested stakeholders in order to take advantages of the opportunities ahead.
Home page photo: Mr. Stéphane Nicoud, EUPAVE President