Cost-benefit analysis of road safety measures
Overview
Background & policy context:
Road safety has a high political priority, partly because of the large number of traffic casualties every year. During the last few years, a large number of measures to improve road safety have been studied. In order to be able to make a choice between the various measures, it is essential to judge them in an unambiguous way, in which other effects than road safety are taken into account. A cost-benefit analysis makes this possible.
Objectives:
The purpose of the report was to offer a practical guideline (to researchers) for the carrying out of cost-benefit analyses for road safety measures.
Methodology:
In a cost-benefit analysis, the future situation without the measure (zero or reference alternative) is compared with the situation with the measure (project alternative). In this, the project effects are distinguished from the autonomous effects. Then the project effects are included in the cost-benefit analysis and discounted during a longer period. Discounting means that those effects that occur later are weighed less heavily than effects that occur sooner. To do this, a discount rate is used. The present value of a project effect is thus a weighted summation during the analysis period.
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