Road Safety Performance Indicators: Theory. Deliverable D3.6 of the EU FP6 project SafetyNet.

Abstract

This document provides details about the theory behind the development of Safety\nPerformance Indicators (SPIs) in seven major areas which are central to the fields of activity\nin road safety in Europe. The fields of activity were selected as a result of reviews of national\nroad safety plans in many of the EU countries and around the world and are considered the\ncentral themes of activity in road safety, necessary to bring about a significant improvement\nin road safety in the EU countries.\nWithin each field SPIs were developed which are directly related to that field of activity, can\nbe quantitatively measured, can provide the basis for the assessment of the level of road\nsafety in each country and can serve as an indicator to describe the level of activity in that\nfield and country and can provide a yardstick for comparison. Comparisons can be before\nand after certain actions are taken or can be comparisons between countries.\nAs stated above, this document deals with the theory behind the development of each of the\nseven SPIs. It provides the rationale behind their development, the proofs for their relevance\nin the specific fields and the existing limitations that led to the adoption of the specific SPIs.\nThe document provides also some recommendations for the possible improvements required\nto obtain better SPIs. Two companion documents are also being prepared. One is a manual\nwhich provides details on the procedures necessary to collects the required data for the\ndevelopment of each SPI in each country. The second document provides results on the\ndata collected so far for each of the 25 EU countries and the SPIs developed so far, based\non the data submitted by each of the countries. It can be seen that a lot of work still has to be\ndone, both in collecting the necessary data and in improving the SPIs, once better and more\ndetailed data becomes available.