Improving road safety is and has been a priority in most first world countries with the result that road crashes and resultant traffic injuries have thankfully been declining. However, improvements in road safety have also brought about new challenges for managing the remaining problems. One of these challenges is that the declining number of serious injury crashes mean a sparser distribution on the network whereby traditional reactive approaches such as black-spot analysis and remedial treatments are less effective. Consequently there is a need to understand the applicability and suitability of other more pro-active tools and methods for managing road safety. All road safety management tools require some level of data. These data typically include road accident, traffic, road geometry, vehicle, road user and other related data. The level of details also varies depending on the tool that is being applied. The frequency and manner in which such data are collected depend on both the nature of the required analysis and the purpose for which it is intended. In many cases such data are collected incidentally (i.e. for a specific purpose or study) and not applied or used generally whereas others may be collected structurally serving more than one application and purpose. This deliverable reviews data that are currently being collected within EU countries and recommends a minimum set of data that can provide a basis for basic road safety assessments. The guideline is intended to stimulate road authorities to collect a minimum set of data needed for conducting road safety evaluations and serves to provide a set of standard definitions for these data. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting