Prologue

Summary

Though seemingly intangible, a continent’s degree of security can be measured by the anxieties of a lone traveller wandering its roads. It all begins with the question of whether the roads are safe. Are they passable, maintained and marked well? Much of the European Union’s progress towards an ever closer union runs along interlinked road works, the growing availability of Italian coffee in roadside cafes and the increasingly standardized fares for gas station toilets. The number of toll gates may be on the rise again, but highway robbers have rarely been sighted in the last few decades. This process of an increasing European integration of safety and security on the roads has had its precursors in previous eras.