Citation

Peltola H. Proc. Road Saf. Four Continents Conf. 2007; 14: 8p.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Conference Sponsor)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Many countries have set ambitious quantified road safety targets. Targets alone can not guarantee enhanced safety but they can enhance implementation of cots-effective safety measures. To be able to build up a realistic safety program, the measures must be selected using latest scientific knowledge on their effects. In addition, evaluations need to be based on best estimates of current safety and take into consideration overlapping measures. By selecting the most cost-effective safety measures, it would be possible to improve safety considerably without any additional money. A tool for evaluating safety effects of road improvements uses Empirical Bayesian method to evaluate the current safety situation. Based on information about which measure will be implemented and where, the tool calculates the safety improvements expressed by the number of avoided injury accidents as well as avoided fatalities. Even a cost-effectiveness estimate will be calculated. Another tool for evaluating the safety effects of road safety programs combines the effects of different kinds of safety measures. A significant feature in this tool is the ability to manage several overlapping measures. The principles and use of these two evaluation methods will be explained to point out some problems in the evaluation process.