Benchmarking road safety; Stocktaking and recommendations for the development of road safety benchmarks in The Netherlands. Road safety policy has been decentralized in the Netherlands, giving regional and local governments a greater responsibility for road safety improvement in their jurisdiction. Methods to support this process and make it more efficient and effective can be of assistance. One method that may be of interest for this purpose is benchmarking, generally speaking a comparison with other fields in which study is made of what could be learned of the ‘best in class’. The present report therefore aims to develop benchmarking as a method to encourage effective and efficient road safety policymaking by regional and local governments. Central questions are: How to define benchmarking? What types of benchmarks can be distinguished? How can a road safety benchmark be developed for regional and local authorities? Which steps must be taken? Which factors must be taken into account? Which examples of benchmarks in the field of road safety or other traffic and transport themes do already exist in the Netherlands? What can these examples teach us and which opportunities do they provide? Based on administrative sciences literature and road safety research, study was made of the present opinions about benchmarking and of how benchmarking for road safety is being developed. It is noteworthy that administrative sciences literature focuses on the process and performing a benchmark study by or at least with the organization itself, whereas road safety literature focuses more on the technical development of benchmarking and choosing relevant (composite) indicators to compare the performances of different organizations (mainly countries). This is mainly done by researchers. Based on the literature we conclude that benchmarking for improvement of road safety policy may be defined as: a process of comparing performances, processes or strategies of similar organizations (e.g. governments like municipalities) by or together with these organizations, in which explanations are sought for differences, success factors are identified and lessons learned are implemented. Based on both administrative and road safety literature, this definition indicates ten steps that are to be taken within the benchmarking process.
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