Geographical Information Systems (GIS) can be defined in a number of ways, depending on its application. The most appropriate and globally relevant definition is from Dueker and Kjerne: "GIS is a system of hardware, software, data, people, organisations, and institutional arrangements for collecting, storing, analysing and disseminating information about areas on the earth ". The value of GIS has been realised in a number of industries; road safety is just one of the areas in which potential benefits have been identified. Despite this realisation, GIS is still not widely accepted in the road safety community. By accurately spatially referencing the location of crashes, the potential for crash analysis and improved understanding is considerable. The aim of this paper is to discuss the ways in which GIS has been used in road safety so far, and present details on a project in which GIS has been extremely valuable. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E202275.
Samenvatting