17 September 2026 | Plovdiv, Bulgaria — The International Road Federation (IRF) has called for a stronger focus on the practical implementation of Safe System principles at Bulgaria’s 12^th  Annual Conference on Safe Road Infrastructure.

Organised by the Bulgarian Branch Association Road Safety (BBARS), the two-day conference in Plovdiv brought together road authorities, researchers, engineers, road safety specialists and industry representatives around the common challenge of delivering safer road infrastructure. The programme combined institutional perspectives with technical discussions on vehicle restraint systems, traffic organisation, infrastructure maintenance and the wider social and economic consequences of road crashes.

IRF participated in the event at an important moment for both the Bulgarian and European road communities. The conference also provided an opportunity to mark a new chapter in IRF’s engagement in Europe following the unification of the European Road Federation (ERF) and IRF, bringing longstanding ERF relationships in Bulgaria into a broader international network of road authorities, technical experts and industry.

Addressing the conference, IRF Senior Advisor Brendan Halleman argued that the road sector is increasingly moving beyond the question of what the Safe System requires towards the more difficult challenge of how to implement it consistently, at scale and throughout the lifetime of the road. Bulgaria, he noted, already has Safe System principles embedded in its national road safety framework, including the objective of more forgiving infrastructure. The practical challenge is therefore to translate those objectives into everyday decisions on road function, speed, roadside design, vehicle restraint systems, signs and markings, vulnerable road users, maintenance and renewal.

“Safe System performance is not something that we purchase once, on the day the road opens. It has to be preserved.”

The presentation used roadside safety systems to illustrate this wider implementation challenge. Europe has developed a sophisticated performance-based framework around EN 1317, providing a common technical language for vehicle restraint systems. At the same time, technical standards must continue to evolve in response to new knowledge, changing vehicle characteristics, electrification, simulation methods and growing attention to lifecycle performance and maintainability. IRF is actively contributing to that European discussion.

Yet certification alone does not guarantee performance in service. Correct system selection, installation quality, compatible transitions, repairs following impact and the condition of the asset over time all influence the safety ultimately delivered on the road. IRF therefore highlighted the growing importance of inventories, condition assessment, intervention thresholds and risk-based maintenance prioritisation as part of a broader whole-life approach to safety infrastructure.

This discussion is particularly timely as the European Commission prepares new guidance under the Road Infrastructure Safety Management framework covering forgiving roadsides, self-explaining and self-enforcing roads, and infrastructure quality for vulnerable road users.

IRF underlined the strategic significance of this work. European transport policy has long pursued ambitious connectivity and mobility objectives through the TEN-T network and EU infrastructure investment, while simultaneously committing to Vision Zero and Safe System principles. The new guidance provides an opportunity to connect those objectives much more directly in the planning, design, assessment and operation of road infrastructure.

Rather than replacing national standards, the emerging framework is intended to provide a practitioner-oriented European reference alongside them. It is expected to address issues ranging from human factors, road categorisation and speed environment to clear zones, roadside hazard treatment, vehicle restraint systems, signs and markings and infrastructure for vulnerable road users. It will also be relevant to existing networks through road safety audits, inspections, retrofitting, prioritisation of interventions, maintenance and continuous improvement.

“Ultimately, Safe System is a capability: the ability to make thousands of good infrastructure decisions, consistently, over the lifetime of a network. Standards, guidance and technology are all part of that – but the decisive element is people and institutions having the capacity to put those pieces together”, Brendan Halleman concluded.