Setting up an indicator system for monitoring road safety using the road safety target hierarchy

Abstract

Road safety is a relevant theme to study, due to the human as well as financial suffering caused by road crashes. To improve the level of road safety in a country, it is important to gain insight into this complex phenomenon. The development of a diverse set of road safety related indicators is valuable in this respect. Here, the concept of the road safety target hierarchy is used as a theoretical framework for presenting essential indicators of the safety management system. Special attention goes to final outcomes, intermediate outcomes, policy output and policy input. By listing indicators on the different levels of this hierarchy, not only final outcomes can be captured and monitored but also various aspects of road safety such as human behaviour, prevalent laws and economic background. This study aims at developing an appropriate indicator system for monitoring road safety in Europe. Possible indicators are formulated on each level of the hierarchy and subsequently evaluated using several criteria such as relevance and data availability. The final indicator set helps in offering a more complete picture of the road safety situation in a country or region and enables policymakers to better understand the underlying phenomena and take appropriate action at an early stage.