Korea has achieved a 50% reduction in fatalities as compared with ten years ago. This is a strong performance that needs to be replicated in the coming decade if Korea is to reach its ambitious targets to rank among the best OECD countries. In 2014, it had the largest number of pedestrian fatalities per 100 00 population in the OECD, and the number of elderly fatalities per 100 000 was triple the OECD average. There is a desire within the Korean government to move towards zero fatalities and serious injuries. To achieve this, there is a need for a holistic road safety strategy, based on a Safe System approach. Safe system and “vision zero” goals, and aspirational targets in general, are vulnerable to criticism that they are unrealistic if they are not supported by operational targets. Most importantly, short-term targets backed by a package of interventions that have been agreed and funded by decision-makers are required. The measures need to be selected based on evidence of the results they can be expected to produce. Detailed ex-ante assessment is employed in countries at the leading edge of achievement. In the United Kingdom, for example, targets for specific users or types of crash are based on ex-ante assessments. In the Netherlands, overall targets for reducing deaths and serious injuries are tightened periodically and the accompanying measures modelled to assess whether they will deliver the improvement required to meet the new target. The United Nations adopted intermediate targets in September 2015 as part of its Sustainable Development Goals.1 The health goal requires cutting deaths and injuries by 50% by 2020 compared to the 2010 level. This target is based on benchmarking national performance by income group — low, middle and high income country. If all countries matched the best in class, deaths would be half their current rate. This provides a goal that is clearly achievable in principle but short-term operational targets, backed by specific interventions, will now need to be adopted country-by-country to realise the ambition. Korea is committed to meeting this ambitious goal. This report presents the findings of a short peer review of road safety policy organised by the International Transport Forum at the OECD and the Korea Transport Institute. The work was centred on roundtable discussions at a meeting of experts in Seoul to examine how Korea might achieved the step change in performance required to meet its targets on the basis of experience in leading road safety agencies and research institutes in other OECD countries. The aim was to address together the challenge of how to move Korea from its current position as one of the worst performers among the OECD countries in road safety (based on fatalities per 100 000 population and fatalities per 10 000 vehicles) to being one of the best, in line with the UN target. The roundtable discussions addressed the following key issues: road safety management; road safety data; enforcement policies; safety in an ageing population; and speed management. This report presents the input papers prepared for the roundtable meeting by international road safety leaders, the summary of discussions and key messages and recommendations to the attention of Korean stakeholders. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting