This paper details the initial areas of research carried out by the UK's Transport Research Laboratory into benchmarking safety indices for a sample of European roads. The work focuses on providing better information for the driver about road safety and aims for simple high-level indicators. Safety indicators must allow fair comparisons and the analysis should be presented as an indication of relative differences in safety. Comparisons should be drawn between road networks serving the same function in different countries. The study approach is to make comparisons at three levels: national data, route-based accident data, and a route-based audit process. Route-based data is less reliable and it is recommended that rates between countries be compared using the ratios of fatal to serious accidents in each country. A route-based audit would look at road design features which affect the safety quality of roads. The main envisaged output from the study should be maps of main roads showing safety indices.
Abstract