Economic appraisal of road safety measures is considered a very important tool in the hands of decision-makers. Within task group O7, an ad hoc group set up by the road safety group of the Conference of European Directors of Roads (CEDR), an effort to understand, identify, and disseminate best practice to ensure cost-effectiveness in road safety investments has been initiated. This initiative is part of a broader strategic plan which defines the priorities that the organisation has set for the four-year period 2005–2009; this plan aims to assist and guide national road authorities in their efforts to become more efficient, ensuring an improved contribution by road transport to the wider economy, safer transport, and a more harmonious relationship between road transport, transport users, society, and the environment.
Within the framework of task group O7 activities, two questionnaire-based surveys were carried out, with the aim of identifying road safety practices and cost-effective, infrastructure-related investments in various European countries. This exercise had to address a number of complex issues, some of which still exist, such as:
- difficulties in isolating the safety effect of a specific investment, as in many cases the estimation of a safety effect can be attributed to the implementation of more than one road safety measure,
- difficulties in aggregating the information/data collected due to the high diversification of road safety investments,
- difficulties in comparing information/data among countries due to:
- differences in the road environment and their related road elements,
- differences in methodologies for the calculation of safety effects,
- differences in actual investment costs among countries.
These issues require careful examination, to allow for the development of a clear overall picture of cost-effectiveness in infrastructure-related road safety investments at EU level.
The primary objective of this synthesis is to provide road directors with a best practice guide to assist them in their initial strategic choice of infrastructure-related investments that aim to improve road safety, by means of:
- gathering available information in an exhaustive literature review,
- organising and comparing existing experience based on the effectiveness of investments,
- identifying and analysing the most promising sets of investments,
- suggesting the conditions for optimum implementation of the selected investments.
The final output of this synthesis is a guide to best practice for cost-effective road safety infrastructure investments.
Best practice for cost-effective road safety infrastructure investments
This best practice guide is based on an analysis of a considerable amount of information/data. The majority of this information/data was collated from the results of two questionnaires (questionnaire 1 and questionnaire 2 issued by task group O7), and from information attained through an exhaustive review of the literature on the efficiency of road safety measures already implemented in European countries and worldwide.
In addition, this synthesis will complement an earlier CEDR report, Most Effective Short-, Medium- and Long-Term Measures to Improve Safety on European Roads, by quantifying and subsequently classifying several infrastructure-related road safety measures.
It should be noted, however, that this best practice guide does not in any way replace the subsequent specific studies that are necessary for the selection, design, and implementation of the measures that are appropriate for each specific case. |
