RSDI

The purpose of this chapter is to briefly present the outline of this thesis as well as explaining the reasons why this study is of interest. A brief description of the concept of Road Safety Development Index (RSDI) is given and the aim of the study is highlighted. In addition, this chapter outlines the structure of the thesis. 

By keeping this goal, some two years ago. I, together with my advisor, met representatives of many departments and organisations in Sweden, such as the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), World Health Organisation (WHO) and Karolinska Institute where we have introduced a new concept of road safety performance, which we called RSDI Road Safety Development Index. We emphasised the broader concept of road safety development more than the accident rates that are currently used. 

To address national development in the area of road safely, it is desirable to view road safely level in a global context. Road safely is a complex issue and there is a high number of factors and indicators involved in the accidents. This situation leads me to examine several theories and models in order to compare the achievements in road safety between diffeient countries and regions. The problem itself is underestimated in many countries, especially in developing countries where the issue is challenging. The progress in any country will be minimum unless the country has a good and standard measurement to rely on (e.g. RSDI), in comparisons and problem formulation. 

Data can be converted into (htferent forms some common forms include percentages, rates, and indices. The national multidimensional index integrates and summarises much information and knowledge about road safety into measurable indicators that will be then converted into a single value. In this section, I will discuss the overall concept of criteria and macro-performance indicators. This will also be useful in designing a multidimensional index Road Safely Development Index (RSDI) (this will be discussed in Chapter five). Figure 3.2 shows hierarchical development of the data and availabihty from local to national level. I focus in this part of the study on the indicators that are used in national and international levels. 

The full summary list of the possible macro-indicators in each category is shown in Table 3.2. The indicators have been classified into three classes according to their data availability, quality and type. When dealing with data availability, as with quality, it is necessary to have clear description of what is meant by data quality or data availability . For instance, one acceptable indicator is fatalities per vehicle kilometre and it is an important element in road safety, but this measure is still not available in most developing countries. On the other hand, the indicator percentage of motorways per road network has poor quality of data and there is difference of definitions of road standards across countries. In fact, there are several indicators that may play an essential role in the development of RSDI, but unfortunately these indicators are hard to measure for now and they will be kept for further and future development. 

The proposed index in this study is the development of Road Safety Development Index (RSDI), which has been initiated from a desire to create a benchmark of national performance and development in road safety and to rank country s level on a global scale and over a time period. The first outline of the RSDI is shown in (A1 Haji Asp, 2003). 

As I move forward with this proposal, the concept of human development that is used by HDI does not end there and it is much more broader. The discussion in Chapter two has shown that there is a relationship between road accidents and each of the HDI components such as the level of income of the country, education and health level. Therefore, RSDI could be developed further to become a supplementary index to the HDI. 

RSDI integrates and summarises a lot of information and knowledge about road safety into measurable indicators, which will be then converted into a single value. 

RSDI describes the contributions of various indicators to the overall size of safety. 

RSDI is a simple format that allows direct comparison and ranks road safety progress internationally in a better way and more easily understandable form for ordinary people. 

RSDI can identify the performance in the country, which can increase the awareness of the problem among pubhc and policy makers. This wiU help pohcy makers to take appropriate decisions, setting targets and priorities for the future. 

RSDI re-evaluates the results over time and may be used to monitor the trends in road safety in a country and indicates the direction of progress ahead. 

RSDI must be drawn from annual and national accounts ... 

RSDI should be vahd and regularly updated based on comparable and available indicators and data ... 

RSDI should provide a clear description of the selected indicators and the theories behind what already discussed in this thesis and finally... 

RSDI should provide a simple and clear selection of methodologies. 

RSDI is the sum of many dimensions where each dimension is a sum of indicators. There will be as balanced and important indicators within each dimension as available of data as possible. Both indicators and dimensions will give a broad picture of road safety and not focus on one particular aspect. 

The major steps used in the process of constructing RSDI are the following and perhaps in some cases of process, the steps are interrelated ... 

Finding the key indicators and dimension (group of indicators) that will be used in the long term of RSDI and in the purpose of the case study,... 

Combining the chosen indicators into (RSDI) by using different techniques,... 

Applying RSDI for the ASEAN countries and performing an analysis of the results, and finally... 

Most composite indices follow the linear functional form. (Frederik, 2002) reported that the additive regression means that we can measure apples and oranges individually and then aggregate them into one index. The typical (standard) composite index of RSDI will take the form ... 

The first step in designing a road safety development index (RSDI) is to come up with a comprehensive set of indicators, which includes as far as possible aU the main parameters in road safely of human-vehicle-road-enviromnent-regulation, instead of considering a few factors such as accident rates per population or per kilometoe driven. In addition, this index should be as relevant as possible for different countries, especially in developing countries. The choice of accident risk and exposure variables is necessary to what is available in international data and what is considered necessary for meaningfiil comparisons. Commonly, frequencies of aimual numbers of vehicles, accidents, injured and killed people are some kind quantification and relatively easy to define and to measure in different countries. But differences in definitions, noncollection of data, non-rehabUity of data and under-reporting are problems for effective measurements of road safety. 

In principle, eight general themes have been selected in the construction of RSDI, which are traffic risk, personal risk, vehicle safety, roads situation, road user behaviour, socio-... 

The first chosen dimension is the level of traffic risk in a country, which deals with the fatalities rates. The fatality rate per vehicle is currently used, while fatality rate per vehicle-km or per person-km or per type of road user (pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and drivers) are all other indicators of this dimension and they can be used on the long term of RSDI. 

In the health sub-index, the currently used indicators are life expectancy, and severity index (number of fatalities per total population). Additional indicators that might be added in this sub-index in the long term of RSDI are the proportion of the physicians per capita, number of hospital beds per capita, and health care expenditures. 

The currently used indicator in the education sub-index is the literacy rate (the percentage of people over 15 years able to read and write in their home language). Data on public expenditure on education may be added in the long term to RSDI. 

The last proposed dimension of RSDI is the road safety organisational index that measures how much is the cooperation between the key bodies responsible for road safety actions in the country, how much funding is spent on road safety measures. It shows the level of development of national road safety council and NGOs. It shows how far each country is from the goal of national road safely programs (if there is any). This index can be developed further and benefit from other available indices especially those used to assess the management development and organisational culture between countries. This index is not used here because of lack of data. 

The indicators included in RSDI measure road safety development in terms of direct (output or ends) and indhect (means or input). The direct indicators are derived measures e.g. fatalities rates (traffic risk and personal risk) and they are considered as good measures for explaining national road safety development. The indirect indicators are individual means in the way they can describe the development in a particular relevant theme to road safety. Many international indices include both terms in the same index. For example, the Composite Health Index includes infant mortality rates as an ou ut (dhect) indicator of health index. 

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