The practice of medicine, these days, is supposed to be evidence-based. Important features of this are the use of randomised experimentation to compare treatment and control interventions, and the systematic reviewing of such research using meta-analysis. The present paper considers whether evaluation of road safety interventions should use similar methods, or whether evidence-based everything is a fad that we can safely ignore, impracticable in road safety. There is much in the statistical, medical, and social welfare literatures on the desirability of a control group, randomisation, and double-blinding, and the dangers of merely making a before-after comparison, of allocating experimental units to groups in a non-random manner, and of allowing either the experimental units or the researchers to know which is in which group. However, there are many issues in transport safety for which the disadvantages of a rigorous methodology will outweigh the advantages. (Author/publisher) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E211985.
Abstract