Road safety planning is about people and addressing their safety needs as road users. Good road safety planning is about setting casualty reduction objectives and implementing appropriate action plans to achieve them. This process should seek to satisfy the four rules of equity, economy, efficiency and effectiveness. Equity: all client groups have needs and a right that they should be addressed. Economy: actions must be affordable and represent good value for money in terms of expected casualty reduction. Efficiency: management of resources to achieve action plan targets to financial, technical and timing requirements. Effectiveness: consequence of the actions must be to meet the objectives. The other better known 4 E's of Engineering, Enforcement, Education and Encouragement are nothing more than the tools of the road safety practitioner's trade and rigid demarcation of effort along these lines can be a hindrance to the effectiveness of road safety delivery. Sensible planning requires all relevant agencies to meet as partners in a process where client groups are identified and agreed; possible actions formulated and evaluated; and a balanced action plan developed and implemented to conform with the rules of equity, economy, efficiency and effectiveness. (A)
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