About Trendline Plus

The Trendline Plus project is the current phase of the European-wide initiative aimed at enhancing road safety data collection. Supported and co-funded by the European Commission, Trendline Plus focuses on the continued collection and systematic evaluation of road safety Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) across participating EU Member States.

The primary goal is to provide robust, evidence-based data that directly contributes to the EU target of reducing road deaths and serious injuries by 50% by 2030.

Under Trendline Plus, the technical Secretariat is led by the Transport Research Centre (CDV) in close collaboration with SWOV, NTUA, and Tilkon. The methodology and network of European partners have been built sequentially through two highly successful predecessor projects:

Trendline [2022-2025]

The Trendline project was the immediate predecessor of Trendline Plus. Building directly on the foundations laid by Baseline, Trendline expanded the consortium to 25 EU Member States and 4 observer countries. The project focused on:

  • Reviewing and adapting the 8 standard methodological guidelines for road safety KPIs (Speed, Seat belt & CRS, Helmet use, Alcohol, Distraction, Vehicle safety, Infrastructure, and Post-crash care).
  • Conducting massive national data collection campaigns to establish national trends.
  • Designing, testing, and piloting 10 new “experimental” road safety indicators (including drug driving, 30 km/h limits on urban roads, personal mobility devices helmet use, cyclist lighting, traffic enforcement, and road user attitudes).

Baseline [2020-2022]

The Baseline project (officially co-funded under the Connecting Europe Facility) was the pioneering initiative that started it all. Eighteen EU Member States participated under the coordination of the Vias institute (Belgium).

Baseline was crucial because it produced the very first harmonized methodological framework and set of definitions for collecting European road safety KPIs. This allowed, for the first time, an objective, scientifically sound international benchmarking of behaviours such as seat belt use, speeding, and helmet compliance across different European regions. The final findings and conclusions of Baseline were published in March 2023, paving the way for the Trendline project.

You can find more about Baseline project on the project website.