The Roads4All project, funded by Horizon Europe, pioneers a novel theory-based structural equation model of traffic safety culture across different levels of society. The aim is to predict impacts and design targeted interventions for groups like children, women and the elderly. It empirically tests these to shift problematic norms, values, attitudes, and behaviours in society, going beyond enforcement to tackle cultural roots of accidents that claim lives and impose huge social-economic costs.
Beyond Roads: Culture Drives Safety
Traffic safety isn’t just roads or rules—it’s how we behave, shaped by cultural norms, values, practices, and shared beliefs. Roads4All confronts deadly crashes from speeding, phone distractions, alcohol or drugs, skipped protection gear, and pro drivers multitasking, rooting solutions in holistic alignment with public health, sustainable mobility, and active aging.
Behaviours embed deep in communities and institutions, so the project rallies all road users and stakeholders systematically. It leverages the General Traffic Safety Culture System—a framework balancing safety and mobility—to equip policymakers with tools for interventions at individual, organizational, and institutional levels. This model pairs with the Cultural Transformation Framework, a conceptual guide that evaluates the real-world impact of change initiatives, and a comprehensive Decision Support Toolkit. The toolkit equips decision-makers with proven best practices, intervention strategies, inclusiveness checks, and a socio-cultural ontology published in open libraries for easy scaling and broad adoption.
Results
Roads4All will transform the EU and Associated Countries’ traffic culture, backing Vision Zero, Safe System Approach, and global pledges amid tech shifts, scarce resources, and post-pandemic woes. It will:
- map global practices, cultural factors, and other transport cultures in order to link behaviours to socio-factors, framework assesses impacts via surveys/interventions;
build a model, a framework and a toolkit using strategies like systems thinking, stakeholder input for behavioural and systemic views, and experiments; - engage with transdisciplinary users and stakeholders in Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Italy and Serbia through a series of interviews, workshops, social media campaigns, and educational programmes;
- Co-create and evaluate five interventions and two experiments in diverse spots, such as Tallin, Rome, Zagreb, Region of Central Macedonia, and Novi Sad;
deliver guidance, tools, and concepts to integrate traffic safety culture into road safety work.
ISINNOVA’s Role
ISINNOVA takes a center stage in Roads4All, by leading WP5 on capitalization and amplifying the project’s influence for lasting cultural change in road safety. This means turning cutting-edge research into actionable guidelines, practical tools, and targeted recommendations that decision-makers can run with. Within the project, ISINNOVA will:
- craft hands-on guides and materials for educators, planners, and authorities to design, assess, and replicate interventions that weave in socio-cultural factors and prioritize vulnerable road users;
- synthesize project evidence, sparking dialogues with stakeholders and the Community of Practice, and shaping policy recommendations across EU, national, regional, and local levels to drive real systemic shifts;
- spearhead the Rome Living Roads use case, coordinating this urban transformation in Italy’s capital through its pivotal role as secretariat of CIVINET Italy and its network of sustainable mobility authorities;
- contribute to mapping best practices, framework development, context analysis, and intervention evaluation, data collection, and engagement;
bridge the gap between research insights, public authorities, and key networks.
Contact
Website
Partners
Q-Plan International Advisors Pc (Q-PLAN) (Coordinator) | Tallinna Tehnikaülikool (TUT) | Technische Universitaet Dresden (TUD) | Università Degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE) | Erevnitiko Panepistimiako Institouto Systimaton Epikoinonion Kai Ypologiston (ICCS) | Sveuciliste Algebra (AUC) | University of Novi Sad – Faculty of Technical Sciences (UNS FTS) | ISINNOVA | White Research SRL (WR) | Agenzia per la Promozione della Ricerca Europea (APRE) | Region of Central Macedonia (RCM) | Agencija Za Bezbednost Saobracaja (RTSA) | DISSCO Lab (Dissemination-Science-Communication) | International Road Federation (IRF).
*The project is funded by the Horizon Europe programme as part of the research and Innovation Action (HORIZON-CL5-2024-D6-01-12).
