Portugal approves Vision Zero 2030 road safety strategy

Portugal’s Council of Ministers on 3 June approved the National Road Safety Strategy – Vision Zero 2030 (Estratégia Nacional de Segurança Rodoviária – Visão Zero 2030), the country’s road safety policy framework for the rest of the decade. 

According to the official Council of Ministers communiqué, the strategy sets the headline target of halving road deaths and serious injuries by 2030 and reaching zero deaths and zero serious injuries by 2050. It is built on the Safe System approach and structured around five pillars: safe users, safe infrastructure, safe vehicles, safe speeds, and post-crash response. The framework introduces interministerial governance and a continuous monitoring model.

The strategy is now in public consultation.  Among the substantive proposals in the draft strategy are recommendations to cap speed at 70 km/h on rural roads with one lane in each direction and no central separator, and at 30 km/h on urban roads. 

The strategy comes at a critical moment. ETSC’s latest PIN annual report shows that Portugal’s progress on road safety has stagnated over the past decade. 

The thrust of the package aligns with policies ETSC has long advocated. ETSC has highlighted evidence from 38 European cities showing that lower urban speed limits cut crashes, deaths and injuries substantially, and has long emphasised the need to improve safety on single-carriageway rural roads, especially with regard to safe speed limits.