Reflections on road systems today stress a ranked view of infrastructures. Such a viewpoint integrates into the mesh of networks roads that carry heavy traffic and more protected areas laid out according to traffic-calming principles that have now been tested, recognised and diffused. These layout principles have thus spread to many countries in Europe. If these systems were initially designed for safety, however, their current use is much more widespread. Obviously, action on the urban environment is not taken in the sole aim of improving safety. Operations whose objective was to prevent accidents, especially on a large scale, have always considered other urban management objectives as having to be taken into account or integrated. Thus, safety today must confront and explicitly work with a set of other values and its consideration depends on the relations between actors with different objectives. National policies are naturally sector-based. This means that special systems are implemented in favour of safety, the environment or the integration of the handicapped in cities. They are often under the authority of particularly ministries and are implemented by technical services with limited authority. Obviously, local action quickly exceeds the framework of sector-based actions, as it deals with a complex system within which individual and collective regulations are at work. Increasingly, local governments are the ones who manage the networks where most fatal accidents occur. Behest are issued by the European Union and the National States. Sometimes elected officials set safety objectives for themselves. Locally, it is not so easy to act for prevention given the multitude of actors, procedures, objectives, constraints and therefore regulations. The local level thus invents special know-how that we need to be able to compare and discuss in terms of its most refined characteristics, integrating the specificities of institutional and technical contexts, and those of the legislative frameworks (such as that which defines the responsibility of technicians and elected officials if an accident occurs). Research undertaken in this area brings together both technical and political aspects in multidisciplinary processes. This discussion will mainly be based on French research to encourage a debate on the specificity of local action. (Author/publisher) This publication may be accessed by Internet users at: http://www.ictct.org/workshop.php?workshop_nr=25
Abstract