SUNFLOWER - Comparative assessment of safety strategies in Sweden, Britain and the Netherlands
Overview
Background & policy context:
Although the traffic safety records of Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands are the best among the countries of the European Union, the strategies that have produced the relatively good results are quite different, at the detailed level, in these countries.
So, the question arises as to exactly what made them work well in coping with the traffic safety problem. Policies on traffic safety, as well as the resulting programmes of measures, of each of the countries are well documented in national policy plans and related official records. Such documents constituting the national policies and their backgrounds comprise the starting point of the study.
The aim is to undertake both a more detailed assessment of the data and assumptions supporting these policies, and to identify the more general social and transport policies in each country that influence the strategies adopted. This is part of a continuing programme of study intended to establish the best practice in national and European terms of policy and practice approaches to tackling road safety problems.
Objectives:
The aim of the study is to identify the underlying elements of the current policies and programmes of the SUN countries that make them particularly effective in coping with the traffic safety problem. If such elements can be identified, they may suggest new policies both for transfer of programmes between these countries, and for transfer to other countries that still have higher casualty rates.
Methodology:
A methodology for the meaningful comparisons of countries has been developed and applied in analyses of:
- national road safety strategies, mainly over the last two decades;
- fatality risks of comparable road types, road user modes and collisions between modes;
- four case study subjects: drinking and driving, seat belt and child restraint use, local infrastructural improvements on urban and minor rural roads, and safety on main inter-urban roads;
- changes in overall national risk and several more specific risk trends between 1980 and 2000.
- Based on these analyses, the fatality reductions between 1980-2000 are attributed to road safety measures and discussed in the context of the targeted fatality reductions up to 2010.
- Within the study it has not been possible to look at all policy areas in detail, so it is not possible to provide a full explanation of the effects of all policies on national risk levels.
Nevertheless the case studies provide an indication of the way in which the more detailed information provides more scope to understand the effect of specific policy changes.
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