Ninety percent of road traffic deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, which claim less than half of the world's registered vehicle fleet. Iran and Georgia have a strategic position in the region and as a bridge, connect Europe to Asia. Almost all over the world, countries are planning and implementing solutions to stop the tsunami of road accidents. Necessarily same solutions do not lead to successful achievements. Cultural norms, educational and enforcement methods vary from one country to another, and regional road safety cooperation and sharing the experiences are a shortcut to improve the road safety indicators and benefit from each other. In this paper, the main challenges of road safety in both countries have been discussed, and then using a road safety survey among Iranian- Georgian experts, main findings and priorities have been identified and compared. Comparison of surveys showed that we have lots of similar problems in both countries, which mainly come from cultural unsafe habits and level of perceived risk by road users. Since both countries have close cultures and they are categorized as middle income countries, it could be predicted that successful efforts in one country could be effective in another one. Finally root cause analysis was used to clarify the deeper layers of current problems and possible solutions for future teamwork are presented. (Author/publisher)
Abstract