Get moving! Actions you can take

Moving from one key component to another, within the same pillar, means that we strive for further improvement of the safety in one pillar, by extending the approach to address more key components.

The complexity of spreading of the Safe System approach along the pillar strongly depends on the key component where progress has been achieved. For the first three key components, some cooperation between actors, or leadership, at least regarding this pillar, is likely to be in place. Let’s look in some detail to each of these key components and consider the options for spreading the Safe System from the other key components in the pillar.

Establish robust institutional governance

Create a climate for political change. High-level political will and commitment on the part of governments will facilitate substantive road-safety improvements. Similarly, private-sector organisations require strong buy-in at the highest corporate level .

Support training and skills development. Understanding the principles of the Safe System approach and the pillars of road safety is fundamental to advancing through the stages of Safe System development. Safety professionals will need to grow and acquire knowledge to successfully implement the Safe System in order for it to be accepted as standard procedure.

Provide adequate funding. Adequate funding is essential for the successful implementation of road safety plans. Data, facts and logic play critical roles in securing road-safety funding. They make the process of prioritising investments straightforward. They also make it easier to avoid investing in interventions for which there is no sound evidence for saving lives or reducing injuries.

Invest in monitoring, performance tracking and evaluation. Strategic goals and quantified targets require adequate evidence of existing road-safety problems. But regular collection and tracking of crash and casualty data alone are insufficient. Road authorities should also use appropriate safety performance indicators (SPIs).

Base strategies and interventions on evidence and data. Knowledge, data and information about interventions are critical tools for overcoming resistance from other public actors and stakeholders. The need for evidence is especially relevant when convincing the public and decision makers about new or innovative solutions with which they may be unfamiliar. But it also has an educative purpose. Lead agencies and governments need to be transparent about the data used to justify interventions. Partners, researchers and citizens require access to this information.

Develop integrated strategies and programmes. Defining a Safe System strategy requires setting ambitious and achievable targets that can be measured and evaluated. These targets make it possible to track performance and communicate results to decision makers and the public.

Co-ordinate activities between partners. The involvement of multiple partners is central to the Safe System approach. These actors’ vision, skills and commitment are critical factors for success. So, too, is their capacity to influence both the institutional system and the opinions of road users. If even one partner is missing, road-safety activities can prove difficult or even impossible.

Adopt an incremental approach and use the best tools available – Safe System interventions strive to reduce the risk of fatalities and serious injuries resulting from road crashes. However, a mature Safe System does not occur immediately. Individual projects and programmes should increase the overall safety of the system incrementally. Safe System implementation needs to merge a long-term strategic vision with a step-by-step approach, starting with high-priority easy wins. Achieving this requires effective institutional governance of safety-management processes.

Share responsibility

Maintain commitment and co-operation. Shared responsibility in road safety implies a multisector, multi-actor programmatic approach. All partners (including policy makers, police, road authorities, engineers, teachers and the private sector) must maintain regular contact at and between the national and local levels. Each partner must also identify opportunities for their area of responsibility to contribute to Safe System outcomes.

Provide access to information and data. Access to transparent and open data is a shared responsibility. It presents a variety of benefits and opportunities capable of increasing organisational efficiency, including increased discoverability of data; greater clarity in public policies across multiple organisations; and decisions responding to community needs rather than assumptions or intuition.

Consider a range of supporting actions. Co-operation between partners can open up new opportunities for Safe System implementation. For example, in a Safe System, road design could be adjusted to enforce safe speeds mechanically. This adjustment is more manageable when combined with plans to build new roads or other maintenance activities (e.g. construction or maintenance of sewerage systems).

Strengthen all pillars

Support the people working towards Safe System implementation. The individuals responsible for strengthening road safety need the energy and capacity to do so. They will naturally come with different skills and from various backgrounds. Social scientists, administrators, civil engineers, modellers, data analysts and legal professionals all have roles to play. Their skill sets become essential components of any team working towards Safe System implementation.

Co-ordinate and co-operate. Co-ordination between partners is essential when improving road safety (e.g. when changing a speed limit) but also when building new residential areas or schools, choosing the route of a bus line, or many other transport planning issues. Every transport planning intervention provides an opportunity for road safety improvement. But a transport planning department will only recognise this fact when it knows it is also responsible for road safety.

Prevent exposure to large forces

Combine road, vehicle and speed interventions. Effectively implemented and combined road, vehicle and speed interventions can reduce crash forces.

For roads: proper configuration of the road and environment is fundamental to preventing road deaths and serious injuries.

For vehicles: increasing the safety of vehicles through regulation and consumer programmes (e.g. new car assessment programmes) can substantially reduce the amount of crash force transferred to the occupants and thus the risk of injury.

For speeds: Speed limits should reflect the level of protection against crash risk that roads and vehicles can provide.

Support safe road user behaviour

Support safe road-user behaviour in a systematic way. Policies intended to reduce failures by changing road-user behaviour typically need support from other pillars. For example, changes in legislation relating to speed management need to be supported by a comprehensive package of other measures.

Use knowledge and data. Proactive and evidence-based safety programmes will be acknowledged by decision makers and accepted by the public. Road-safety partners can achieve buy-in by combining crash modelling, statistical analysis and risk analysis. All three methods help identify potential crash locations and recognise dangerous traffic interactions.

Use tools and actions to support safe road-user behaviour. Many tools and programmes support safe road-user behaviour. Examples include road-safety audits, star ratings for schools, or Safe System assessments. These tools can assist in identifying risks, selecting interventions and prioritising activities. They also provide road designers with real-world understandings of the impact of their decisions.