Stockholm, Vienna, Berlin and Dublin top European capital city safety ranking

A new analysis of road deaths rates in European capitals has found a wide range of safety levels.  Stockholm (0.7) and Vienna (1.1) lead the ranking in terms of deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, with Berlin and Dublin (1.2) sharing third place. At the bottom end of the spectrum are Zagreb (6.0)*, Rome (4.8) and Nicosia (4.6).  Rome recently announced a Vision Zero programme to cut road deaths.

The European Capital Brussels lies in the bottom half of the ranking with 2.6 deaths per 100,000, just below Bratislava and Budapest (2.5).

VCÖ, the Austrian sustainable transport organisation responsible for the analysis, said Vienna’s success can be linked to the high proportion of journeys taken on public transport, on foot or by bike as well as initiatives to reduce speed limits to 30km/h combined with traffic calming measures.

*Update 22/03/2017: The Croatian Ministry of the Interior has contacted ETSC to say that the figure for Zagreb used in the VCÖ report is incorrect because it was based on the wrong data. It says that official police data, using the appropriate methodology for calculating road deaths and vehicle-type definitions shows the average figure for the years covered by the VCÖ ranking is 3.3 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants which would put Zagreb in 18th place in the ranking, just above Lisbon.