Analysis of Road Safety Management Systems in Europe

Abstract

The objective of this paper is the analysis of road safety management in European countries and the identification of "good practice". A road safety management investigation model was created, based on several "good practice" criteria. Road safety management systems have been thoroughly investigated in 14 European countries on 2010, by means of interviews with both governmental representatives and independent experts, who filled in an extensive questionnaire. A reliable and accurate picture ("profile") was created for each country, allowing country comparisons. Then, statistical methods were used to make rankings of countries, and analyse the relationship between road safety management and road safety performance. The results of the analyses suggest that it is not possible to identify one single "good practice". Nevertheless, there were several elements that emerged as "good practice" criteria. On the basis of the results, recommendations are proposed at national and European level.

Road Safety Management ‒ The Need for a Systematic Approach

“…The majority of the countries studied had adopted some kind of road safety vision, such as "Safe Systems", "Sustainable Safety" or "Vision Zero". Systematic consultations with regional authorities, NGOs, stakeholders and the public were found to largely affect the effectiveness of road safety management [24]. Elements that emerged as the most problematic "good practice" criteria were implementation, funding and monitoring of performance.…”

“…Also, lack of information on implementation costs of countermeasures and lack of knowledge about appropriate methods to calculate these costs were pointed out. As Muhlrad et al [24] formulated it, "Capacity building and training of road safety actors is seldom a systematic procedure with a dedicated budget" (p.7). It can be discussed if these five "good practice" elements are covering all and the only relevant issues in road safety management, as the outcome of the analyses showed that countries ranked as best in road safety management were not always the countries with the best road safety performance [24].…”

“…As Muhlrad et al [24] formulated it, "Capacity building and training of road safety actors is seldom a systematic procedure with a dedicated budget" (p.7). It can be discussed if these five "good practice" elements are covering all and the only relevant issues in road safety management, as the outcome of the analyses showed that countries ranked as best in road safety management were not always the countries with the best road safety performance [24]. However, even if no direct relationship between RSM and the final accident outcome could be found, "road safety management was found to be associated with safety performance indicators (SPIs), reflecting the operational level of road safety in each country" [24, p. 5], which advocates the usefulness of SPIs as intermediate safety measures.…”

Development of Strategic Goals of Road Safety Management: A Case Study of Montenegro

“…However, the analysis of traffic safety management in the European countries [21,22,23,24,25,26,27] shows that national "best practice" was not identified in either of them, but there were more elements that meet the criteria of "best practice" in the five main areas of Road Safety Management: institutional organisation, coordination and stakeholders' involvement; policy formulation and adoption; policy implementation and funding; monitoring and evaluation; scientific support and information, and capacity building.…”

Road Safety Management in Local Communities

“…Th e accepted approach is that road safety is produced [15, 10,18,13,6]. To achieve this goal, a management system is required, in which the management function promotes interventions, which in turn produce results [1].…”