Exploratory study on regional differences in relation with road safety. Road safety policy making is decentralized in the Netherlands. Decentralized road safety policy making would enable policy makers to anticipate better on region-related conditions, possibilities and problems. This prompts the question whether policy in different regions should have different emphases. This study explores the extent to which region-related differences coincide with differences in road safety. The findings are intended to contribute to knowledge about and methods for region-specific policy. The research questions of this study were: • Which characteristics are important for road safety to identify a convenient number of homogeneous or comparable regions? • What are the similarities and differences between different homogeneous or comparable regions in relation with road safety? This study starts with an analysis of existing studies into regional differences. The aim is to investigate what is known about region-specific characteristics in relation with road safety: the so-called region-specific road safety indicators (GVIs). These concern both direct and indirect relations between indicators and road safety. There is a direct relation if, for example, a certain characteristic — e.g. unsafe road layout — results in a lower safety level and hence in more crashes. There is an indirect relation if a certain characteristic— e.g. high population density — results in greater mobility and hence in more crashes.
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