Analysis of road safety management in the European countries. Deliverable 1.5 Vol.II of the EC FP7 project DaCoTA

Analysis of road safety management in the European countries. Deliverable 1.5 Vol.II of the EC FP7 project DaCoT

Stakeholder's contribution. Deliverable 1.3 of the EC FP7 Project DaCoTA

The aim of DaCoTA’s Work Package 1 is to shed light on road safety policy-making and management processes in Europe and to explore how these can be better supported by data and knowledge. This was done by assessing demands and views of stakeholders as well as by building a good practice model for road safety management investigation. Future versions of the European Road Safety Observatory (ERSO, www.erso.eu) are envisaged to be built on the findings of this project. This report describes the methodology and presents the first aggregated results of an on-line stakeholder consultation carried out in Task 1.3. The survey was successfully carried out among more than 3000 road safety stakeholders in Europe and beyond

Development of the European Road Safety Knowledge System

The objective of this paper is the presentation of the European Road Safety Knowledge System, which was developed within the DaCoTA research project of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission. This knowledge system includes a number of components, concerning data and tools, road safety issues and countries. A wealth of data was gathered, on road fatalities, exposure, safety performance indicators, socioeconomic indicators, health and causation indicators, road user attitudes & behaviours, traffic laws and regulations, road safety management etc., for 30 European countries. This data was used in road safety analyses leading to the Basic Fact Sheets, and the Annual Statistical report. Comprehensive syntheses of the literature on important road safety issues and methodologies were carried out, in the form of web-texts. Country analyses were also carried out, including road safety management “profiles”, “country overviews” and country forecasts. These were integrated through a web-based Road Safety Knowledge System. This System can be a very useful support for road safety research in Europe, and ideal to link research and policy making.

Needs for evidence-based road safety decision making in Europe

The objective of this research is the assessment of current needs for evidence-based road safety decision making in Europe, through the consultation of a panel of road safety experts. The members of this Experts Panel have extensive knowledge of road safety management processes and needs in their country, being either directly involved in decision making, or working closely with decision makers. Two consultation methods were implemented: semi-directive interviews and written contributions. The synthesis of the results was carried out by means of a predefined matrix, in which the road safety management tasks were separated into their components, and were then cross-tabulated with distinct categories of needs. The results provide valuable information on the current and future needs for evidence-based road safety management in Europe. A number of key issues were brought forward with wide consensus among Experts, such as the need to make the consideration of scientific evidence in road safety decisions compulsory in all countries. The establishment of appropriate procedures was emphasized, including institutional arrangements for road safety management, with the necessary links and interactive procedures for local needs. The results also include useful recommendations, for the setting of targets, the use of cost-benefit analyses, the analysis of combined effects of measures, the collection of data on measures implementation, the collection of exposure and behavioural data, the estimation of injury under-reporting and the standardization of analysis methods

Investigating road safety management processes in Europe

The work package 1 of the EC FP7 project DaCoTA investigates road safety management processes in Europe. It has drafted a model to investigate the state of the art of road safety policy-making and management at the national level and to define “good practice”. The DaCoTA “good practice” investigation model recommends no “one-best-way” solutions, either for attaining a particular objective or for organizing the road safety sector, as the national context always needs to be taken in account when determining policies with consequences in terms of road safety or when modelling road safety management processes. The model is put to test and will be enhanced through a campaign of face-to-face interviews with road safety experts and policy-makers, carried out in 2011. By December 2012 several case studies illustrating “good practice” will be made available to policy-makers, road safety experts and the public through the ERSO web site

Analysis of Road Safety Management Systems in Europe

This chapter presents the analysis of a road safety management framework in European countries and the identification of “good practice” for the optimization of road safety management processes, carried out within the DaCoTA research project. It then discusses the road safety management investigation model, and describes the data collection and handling procedures. Effective organization of road safety management is assumed to be one of the conditions for obtaining good road safety results at the country level. Country profiles of the road safety management systems in the 14 European countries were analyzed and compared to the reference “good practice” system. Road safety visions and targets appear to be strongly influenced by either European Union proposals or road safety “leader” countries in Europe. Almost all European countries have road safety strategies and programs, with the majority boasting the ambitious EU targets

Investigating road safety management processes in Europe

The work package 1 of the EC FP7 project DaCoTA investigates road safety management processes in Europe. It has drafted a model to investigate the state of the art of road safety policy-making and management at the national level and to define “good practice”. The DaCoTA “good practice” investigation model recommends no “one-best-way” solutions, either for attaining a particular objective or for organizing the road safety sector, as the national context always needs to be taken in account when determining policies with consequences in terms of road safety or when modelling road safety management processes. The model is put to test and will be enhanced through a campaign of face-to-face interviews with road safety experts and policy-makers, carried out in 2011. By December 2012 several case studies illustrating “good practice” will be made available to policy-makers, road safety experts and the public through the ERSO web site