In Austria according to accident statistics more people die on the road than in European average. In the Austrian Road Safety Programme (RSP) it is stated that the main aim is to reduce the numbers of fatalities by 50% and of injury accidents by 20% until the year 2010. As an intermediate goal it has been envisaged to reduce fatalities by 25% and injury accidents by 10% until the year 2004. The reason why greater reduction within the first years was foreseen is that according to experiences in the first phases of such programs the potential for reduction is higher than towards the end (see also Verkehrssicherheitsprogramm 2002- 2010, BMVIT, Stand 2004). According to the latest accident statistics (2004) the ambitious aims for 2004 were not achieved (see graph 2). The reasons for not achieving the aims for the year 2004 - in spite of a clear improvement - are manifold. Basically, the Austrian RSP is an extensive document, including various important measures which certainly will help to improve traffic safety on Austrian roads even in the coming years. Two questions, however, have to be clarified: Are there other measures according to the state of the art which are missing in the programme but would support the aims of the RSP, and if you want to implement new measures and not only to have them written on paper, what kinds of problems do you have to be aware of (e.g. problems with respect to relevant actors, costs, time). For this purpose a comparison of the Austrian road safety programme with lists of suggested measures in the current literature on traffic safety, and with other traffic safety programmes from European countries appeared to be useful. The starting point of the project which is presented here was to compare proposed measures in current literature and in RSPs from other European countries with the measures presented in the Austrian RSP The aim is to find additional measures which could be useful to support the aim of the Austrian RSP, i.e., to reduce the number of accidents and fatalities. After the first part of this project it became clear that there exist many measures which can complete the Austrian RSP. The hypothesis of the project consortium that some important areas and measures are missing or only tackled insufficiently was approved. But if you look at the traffic system as a whole, individuals and communication, reflecting the Human behaviour plays an important role. The following diamond shows the connection between different components of the traffic system (Risser 2004). It also shows that the traffic system is more than a technical and juridical system but has a lot to do with human beings and their communication. In comparison to the Austrian RSP it has to be said that especially in the area of Individuals and Communication (Human behaviour) the Austrian RSP shows short-comings. Compared to this, technical and juridical aspects represented by Vehicle technology, Infrastructure and Society were covered quit well. So at least two parts of the traffic system were neglected. For a good RSP with a sustainable effect on reducing fatalities and injured people all parts of the traffic system have to be well tackled. To achieve this precondition interdisciplinary work is of great importance including experts from human sciences, technical and juridical disciplines. For the covering abstract see ITRD E138952. This paper is available from http://www.ictct.org/workshops/06-Minsk/Kaufmann.pdf.
Samenvatting