Development of Footprint Methodology for Road Safety

Progress in traffic safety is the result of many developments, including political decisions, the development of safety plans and actions, and the implementation of these plans and actions. This paper explores ways of presenting road safety information to help decision makers understand how the interaction between many factors leads to improvements in the safety quality components of the traffic system and finally to reductions in road casualties. Simple one-factor bar charts cannot be used to this effect. In the SUNflower+6 project, a methodology has been developed that results in a “road safety footprint” for a country or jurisdiction. This footprint helps to identify strong and weak points in the traffic system, to direct to further and more detailed analyses, and to assist in finding ways to further road safety improvements. The development of this method was one of the goals of the SUNflower+6 project, which aimed to assess the state of the art in road safety of nine European countries and presented recommendations for the improvement of road safety in these countries and the European Commission. A footprint provides a representation of the road safety status and development over time in a country and can be used for benchmarking purposes. At this stage, the proposed methodology is considered to be a first step that may eventually grow into a widespread tool for benchmarking road safety. In the near future, further research will be conducted to learn from practical application of the developed methodology in more countries and jurisdictions in the world.