Transport in the European Union

Germany, Spain and France possess the most extensive network of motorways exceeding 10,000 km each. This figure is more than double to any other European country. Similarly, their rail infrastructure surpasses 15,000 km.[3][4] The total investment reached 6,000 millions for Spain and nearly double of this for Germany and France.[3] In terms of their population and territorial extension the Netherlands and Belgium have a better coverage and higher investment per square kilometer.[3]

Rail and motorway extension per unit area for some European Countries.[3]

Road freight transport makes 73% of all inland freight transport activities in the EU in 2010.[5]

Aim of the EU is to provided efficient, safe, secure and environmentally friendly land transport.[6]

According to Union guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network,[7] "high-quality roads shall be specially designed and built for motor traffic, and shall be either motorways, express roads or conventional strategic roads."

EU laws include:

• access to the profession: Regulation (EC) No 1071/2009[8] In 2011, 138,454 million tonnes kilometers was transported as international trade.[9]
• driving working time: Directive 2002/15/EC and Regulation (EC) 561/2006: 9 hours daily driving period ; weekly driving time may not exceed 56 hours; Daily rest period shall be at least 11 hours[10]
• smart tachograph: Regulation (EU) N° 165/2014: avoids unnecessary stops for checking[11]
• common rules on distance-related tolls and time-based user charges (vignettes) for heavy goods vehicles (above 3.5 tonnes) for the use of certain infrastructures is defined in Directive 2011/76/EU[12]

For some topics, law applicable for roads is based on European directives and some international treaties such as European Agreement on Main International Traffic Arteries of 15 November 1975.

In European Union, a road can be considered as a "motorway" or also as an "express road".

In European union, the notion of express road is slightly less strict than the notion of motorway; according to the definition, "an express road is a road designed for motor traffic, which is accessible primarily from interchanges or controlled junctions and which prohibits stopping and parking on the running carriageway; and does not cross at grade with any railway or tramway track."

According to the CJEU, an environmental impact assessment should be performed on motorways, express roads and «construction of a new road of four or more lanes, or realignment and/or widening of an existing road of two lanes or less so as to provide four or more lanes, where such new road, or realigned and/or widened section of road would be 10 km or more in a continuous length».[13]

Another position of the CJEU confirmed the first one and considers that an urban road around a city can be considered as an express road even if those roads do not form part of the network of main international traffic arteries or are located in urban areas when it matches with its definition provided in point II.3 of Annex II to the European Agreement on Main International Traffic Arteries (AGR), signed in Geneva on 15 November 1975.[14]

Between 2001 and 2010, the number of road deaths in the EU decreased by 43%, and between 2010 and 2018 by another 21%. However, 25,100 people still lost their lives on EU roads in 2018 and about 135,000 were seriously injured.

The yearly cost of road crashes in the EU has been estimated to be around euro 280 billion, that is 2% of GDP.

The Commission decided to base its road safety policy framework for the decade 2021 to 2030 on the Safe System approach.

For coordination, Europe has a "European Coordinator for road safety and related aspects of sustainable mobility".[15]