Expert opinion: STA launches new transport survey series 

Safe, but not yet resilient. This is how experts currently view the state of the EU’s transport systems: lagging behind in two key areas - climate readiness and preventive maintenance, particularly prescient in an era of transport complexity, where the need for safer and more resilient transport systems is increasingly relevant in Europe and beyond.

To measure and monitor such expert opinion, the Smart Transportation Alliance (STA), the Brussels-based not-for-profit collaborative transport infrastructure innovation platform, has launched the STA Expert Perception Tracker, a recurrent, short-format survey designed to capture expert sentiment and qualitative insights on key transport topics.

The 1/2026 survey was held from 16 March 2026 to 31 March 2026, and gathered close to 180 responses from transport professionals across 27 countries, with the aim of gaining a better understanding of the current challenges and priorities.

Among the major findings from the first iteration of the STA Expert Perception Tracker were:

Mobility services are characterised as safe by users, with varying levels of perceived safety within countries.
A slight majority of respondents (56.89%) stated that the mobility services in their country are safe, with less than 3% expressing the opposite view. The findings also reveal significant intra-country variation, with 39.94% indicating that the performance of mobility services varies across regions inside the same country, for instance in Southern European countries (Greece, Italy, Spain), but also in Finland and the UK.

“The findings reveal significant intra-country variation, with almost 40% of respondents indicating that the performance of mobility services varies across regions inside the same country”

In contrast, respondents in Northern Europe (Sweden, Norway), as well as Austria, reported more consistent perceptions of safety within their own countries, and a more uniform level of service provision across regions.

Progress in road infrastructure safety is notable but not universal.
Some 62.87% of the experts witnessed significant improvements in road infrastructure safety over the past decade.

Emanuela Stocchi, President of PIARC (World Road Association) & Acting Director General of AISCAT (Italian Association of Toll Motorways and Tunnels Operators), noted that “while road safety has significantly improved in Europe, achieving zero fatalities and enhancing the climate resilience of infrastructure and mobility remain critical challenges.”
 

“While road safety has significantly improved in Europe, achieving zero fatalities and enhancing the climate resilience of infrastructure and mobility remain critical challenges.”

By contrast, more than a third of the respondents (37.13%) indicated no improvement or a deterioration, showing inconsistent progress in the key layer that protects all users – the infrastructure.

Transport infrastructures in Europe are still some way from being climate-proof.
The trend is clear concerning climate resilience across Europe: the vast majority of the respondents (87.42%) believe that their country is highly vulnerable to intensified and frequent climate extremes. Only 12.75% stated that transport systems are adequately designed to be resilient to climate emergencies.

Dr Elena De La Peña, Vice-President, Secretary and Chair of Technical Committee 2 on Safety & Resilience, and Deputy Director General at the AEC (Spanish Road Association), said:

“Infrastructure resilience is a key concern for users, with maintenance seen as essential for safety, comfort, and climate resilience”.

“Infrastructure resilience is a key concern for users, with maintenance seen as essential for safety, comfort, and climate resilience”

Preventive maintenance is key to prolonging infrastructure lifespan.
It is evident that preventive maintenance is no longer an option but a necessity for transport maintenance, with an overwhelming consensus (87.43%), and a further 11.38%, linking it to safer operations.

The findings reveal that European transport systems are generally perceived as safe. However, uneven outcomes within countries and major gaps in climate resilience suggest that safety is not yet consistent across European regions. Preventive maintenance emerges as a key factor in strengthening the resilience and reliability of transport infrastructures, serving as the core mechanism ramping up the safety and performance of the sector. To further address these gaps, stronger and continuous investment will be required at the European level to ensure a safer, more consistent, and resilient transport system for all.

The 2/2026 version of the STA Expert Perception Tracker will be launched in May 2026 and will focus on the financing and investment in transport infrastructures.

Overall, the findings point to the need for a more holistic approach to transport infrastructure management, aligned with European Union priorities for safer, more sustainable, and resilient transport infrastructure.

According to Dr José F. Papí, STA President and CEO of Estonian tech company Etelätär Innovation, the findings of the survey are both surprising and useful.

"Transport infrastructures in several European metropolitan areas and several concessions are reasonably safe but I believe that transport infrastructure safety conditions have declined across Europe over the past 10 years”

“Transport infrastructures in several European metropolitan areas and several concessions are reasonably safe but I believe that transport infrastructure safety conditions have declined across Europe over the past 10 years”

National health service
In addition to the Expert Perception Tracker, the STA have also launched another new initiative in the shape of the European Transport Sector Health Index.

This is a compact, data-driven tool designed to assess the overall “health” of transport systems. It is built on a series of indicators grouped into four dimensions, using publicly available data, with each indicator normalised (0–100) and aggregated into a single composite score.

“The main idea is to build a simple and comparable framework to benchmark performance across countries and track progress over time,” says Dr Papí.

It is structured around four pillars, each pillar including several indicators:
• Accessibility and usage;

• Safety and reliability;

• Environmental performance;

• Efficiency and integration.

In the coming months Intertraffic will be publishing regular contributions from the STA relating to both the Expert Perception Tracker and the European Transport Sector Health Index. For more information, interested readers can visit the STA’s EPT webpage HERE and scroll down to read the full, unexpurgated version of the Key Findings.