This study is aimed at the question of whether cooperation between various parties in the decision-making process contributes to a decisive road safety policy. A decisive road safety policy is effective (contributes to the targets set), efficient (the costs are less than the benefits), and ambitious (the targets deviate from the current situation). Before this study started, it was assumed that a suitable type of cooperation contributes towards a more decisive road safety policy. It was concretely assumed that this cooperation had to meet the requirements of at least one of the three developed organization principles, depending on the intensity in which was cooperated: 1) If there is personal consultation in the decision-making, the structure of the policy network in which one is working must be tuned to the policy question. This means that, if possible, the policy issue must be divided into smaller parts. Consultation must not take place with too many, or, on the contrary, too few parties about (parts of) the policy issue. The structure must be tuned to the policy task. 2) If there is no personal consultation, but there is a knowledge exchange, this must be such that the various parties can anticipate without having to continuously consult or collectively decide. There is exchange of knowledge and anticipation instead of decision-making. 3) If there is no personal consultation and no knowledge exchange either, it should be possible to reverse the steps that have been taken by individual parties with a minimum of time and money. There is flexible autonomous action. This report presents the results of a pilot study in the two municipalities of Eemsmond (in the north) and Hattem (in the east). The goal was to test the theoretical framework and the methodology of the project design (See C 26353 (ITRD E206758)) for their utility and to make adaptations when necessary.
Abstract