The safe systems approach

Toward an integrated road safety strategy for PTW 7.4.1. The safe systems approach 

The safe system is variously described in a number of jurisdictions but has a single core principle a recognition that road users will make mistakes, or inappropriate decisions, and that the system, while also minimizing errors, should accommodate these errors so that no individual road user is exposed to crash forces likely to result in death or serious injury. The system then manages their safety by providing them with vehicles, road and roadside infrastracmre and travel speeds that combine to ensure that any crashes that do eventuate result in crash forces that are below tire level of human tolerance to physical harm. 

Another characteristic of safe system approaches is consideration of the interactions between the different elements of the system and between the effects of different interventions. Some aspects of this are well recognized, for example, the 

According to the recommended approach of the OECD s Towards Zero -Ambitious Road Safety Targets and the Safe System Approach [OEC 08], a strategic planning process on the basis of the Safe Systems approach principles can be outlined as follows  

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The Safe System approach has been fully adopted in countries such as Sweden, the Netherlands, and Australia, and is being pursued in Canada (Road Safety Strategy 2015) and in the United States (Toward Zero strategy). Further, it has been endorsed and recommended to aU countries by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its 2008 report Towards Zero Ambitious Road Safety Targets and the Safe System Approach (OECD/ITF, 2008). For a more detailed examination of the Safe System approach to road safety and a discussion of the implications of behavioural adaptation that may take place among organisations, see Chapter 22. 

Policies that relate to road users and their behaviour fall within the safer road users category of the Safe System approach to road safety. Within a safe road system, road safety authorities and road users are understood to share the responsibility of using the system safely and responsibly. Behavioural adaptation to road user-related policies can potentially take many forms, and so it is best if consideration of the potential for behavioural adaptation is conducted on a case-by-case basis. In this section, four examples of behavioural adaptation to road user policies are presented the requirement for vehicle occupants to wear seat belts, bans on mobile phone use by drivers, policies related to impaired driving, and the use of road safety cameras to monitor and change driver behaviour. 

Road safety policy, when considered in terms of the Safe System approach to road safety, can be designed to target safer vehicles , safer roads and roadsides , and safer road users . Based on the safer vehicles and safer road users examples reviewed above, as well as the safer roads and roadsides examples reviewed in Chapter 7, it is clear that behavioural adaptation can, and does, occur in response to the introduction of road safety-related policy. What is apparent is that, through their likely impacts on road user attitudes, perceptions, beliefs, and/ or motivation, some road safety policies are more likely to result in behavioural adaptation than others. 

OECD/ITF 2008. Towards Zero Ambitious Road Safety Targets and the Safe System Approach. Summary Report. Paris Joint Transport Research Centre of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Transport Forum (O. Puhlishing). 

This chapter discusses road traffic risks in a general sense and the possibilities that exist for managing these risks. This is followed by a brief introduction to road safety management. The Safe System approach to road safety management is introduced next this type of approach, which is currently used in Australia, the Netherlands and Sweden, is discussed and the similarities and differences among the three countries approaches identified. The chapter concludes with some lessons to be learned about the behavioural adaptation of organizations in relation to executing road safety policy, especially where policy is based on the Safe System approach. 

However, this approach may turn out to be suboptimal, because ultimately interventions are judged on their own merit. Focus, coherence, effectiveness and efficiency can be dealt with when designing a strategy (document) and defining tasks for stakeholders, resulting in their commitment. Management literature tells us that organizations execute policies more effectively if they can do so stand-alone. However, poor coordination remains a critical issue for effective road safety policies and deserves special attention. This is one of the considerations on which the development of the Safe System approach was based. 

These days, three countries— Australia, the Netherlands and Sweden—have made the Safe System approach a formal part of their road safety strategy. Many more countries claim to also embrace the Safe System strategy, albeit in the context of their own interpretation. It seems, therefore, that instead of expecting a... 

A brief description of the Safe System approach as it is used in each of the three above countries follows, with the aim of illustrating the underlying concepts, while at the same time indicating the similarities and differences among the three strategy implementations. 

This research was carried out by a working group of the OECD International Transport Foram, composed of experts from several countries. The chapter starts by presenting the basic trends and figures of PTW mobility, use and safety. Then, a comprehensive review of PTW crash contributory factors is presented (user-, vehicle- or infiastracture-related). Subsequently, the integration of PTW in the Safe Systems approach is discussed, with particular focus on the challenges and particularities involved. Finally, the most promising individual measures for the improvement of PTW mobility and safety are outlined. 

The Safe System approach assumes that road users will enter the system competent and will take measures to ensure that they remain compliant and alert. Licensing, training, education, enforcement and commimication campaigns are essential tools for improving riding safety. It is also important, in a complementarily way, to enhance the road environment and the vehicles toward this safety objective. 

The concepts of the safe system approach and the vision of zero accidents are becoming increasingly accepted by researchers, road safety practitioners and stakeholders internationally, and, within these concepts, the challenge to combine road safety with efficient traffic operations and capacity is investigated and promoted to decision makers. 

ITS applications becomes evident, and more frequently researchers and practitioners are applying a universal approach and interdisciplinary methodologies to address transport related issues, including global approaches in modeling. Furthermore, special focus is given to sustainability of presented traffic and safety solutions with special emphasis to the needs of vulnerable road users and to new concepts such as the safe system approach. 

The final form of the Australian strategy was achieved by consensus. Some states in their local safety strategies were prepared to go further. The Western Australian minister for road safety, in tabling his state s Towards Zero—Road Safety Strategy 2009-2020 in the WA parliament (March 2009), provided a strong endorsement of the Safe System approach when he commented ... 

The Safe System approach is a fundamental shift from traditional traffic safety thinking. It reframes the ways in which traffic safety is viewed and managed. Its aim is to support development of a transport system better able to accommodate inevitable human error. The recognition that humans do make, and will continue to make, errors of judgement as road users is one of the core shifts in thinking. 

The Safe System relies on considering a number of key cornerstones, which contribute together in any crash to the severity of the outcome. However, the benefit of the Safe System approach is that action taken in each cornerstone area can often be applied together in a complementary way. Careful planning of the potential individual adjustments that could be effectively applied at particular locations, or preferably at locations or along lengths across the network, can maximise the traffic safety performance benefits achieved. 

Enlist support for action on specific roads or road sections with high crash numbers. The 33,900 group has made a promising start along these lines with a push for action on a section of road in far north Queensland where local support and industry support are both high. The action plans will be anchored in the Safe System approach and will not mirror the traditional engineering black spot treatment protocol. 

The OECD set up an international expert group to examine how to improve the effectiveness of traffic safety efforts. The report—Towards Zero Ambitious Road Safety Targets and the Safe System Approach— was released in 2008. While it contains a useful overview of effective safety measures, its major contribution is its... 

OECD. Towards zero Ambitious road safety targets and the Safe System approach, ed. International Transport Forum. 2008, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris. 

The New Zealand Transport Agency updated its Road Safety Audit procedures to better embed the safe system approach in 2013. The procedure includes specific sections on the safe system , a risk assessment matrix that includes a focus on fatal and serious injuries, and an electronic report format for tracking audit responses. 

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