In Sweden, a political goal for traffic safety is that the number killed or injured in traffic should be reduced by 30% over the next 10 years. Since road users find it hard to accept new traffic safety measures of proven effect, while measures that are easily accepted have unkown and uncertain safety effects, and in view of the fact that traffic has increased by 3-5% annually over the past few years and will probably continue to do so, there is little probability that this goal will be reached if present safety measures continue unchanged. The suggested short term strategy aims to ensure that only measures which improve traffic safety are taken. Measures must be evaluated both before and after introduction, and reversed if their effects is contrary to predictions. The aim of proposed long term strategy is to find new measures. The basic ideas of traffic safety theory must be questioned and new ones formulated. It is no longer the road user who has a safety problem but society. An alternative strategy may be based on `safety maintenance' instead of `accident avoidance'. It seems inevitable that future safety measures must involve a curtailment of the freedom of the road user.
Abstract