Road safety and its management

Abstract

The scientific evidence on the magnitude, risk factors and effective interventions for the prevention of road traffic injury is reasonably well documented and readily available. As with other policy areas, such knowledge alone cannot bring about a change in the road safety situation; the real challenge is how to translate that knowledge into sustainable solutions in different contexts. The evidence and the inclusion of road safety and sustainable transport targets in the Sustainable Development Goals are both essential, but the real issue is the leveraging of opportunities and challenges in different policy contexts. Need, therefore, to reflect on how to act and to take practical steps towards the improvement of the road safety and transport situation at local, national, regional and international levels. Change in road safety policy, as in other areas of policy, is generally a progressive and iterative process that requires continued improvements and innovations in the solutions summarized. It need to realize that improving road safety policy is not a one-off event, but rather the pursuit of a long-term collective action. To do so is to see the road safety targets of the Sustainable Development Goals as the beginning of a journey to change in road safety policy – a journey that needs to run its full course at both national and local levels.