An effective road safety policy relies on sound and well-founded scientific research. But contrary to what is sometimes assumed, the outcome of research usually doesn't affect road safety policy directly, no matter how thorough the research may have been. In the process of developing road safety policy, the rationality of the decision maker repeatedly appears to differ from the rationality of the scientist. Not only objective information about for instance road safety measures plays a part in formulating policy, but the organization and development of the decision making process is at least as important. If the different choices are not weighed rationally against each other in these processes, the different interests of the parties involved will gain importance and be played off against each other. Especially in decisions about important projects, many parties with different interests are involved and depend on eachother. The negotiations about these interests often put a stamp on the policy as much as the scientifically based information that is used. Therefore it is interesting to see how the decision making process should be organised so that the dependencies and the negotiations contribute to a good and decisive road safety policy. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting