Best practices for road safety in Europe: a systematic approach

Decisions about road safety measures in general are a complex process strongly influenced by public opinion, political feasibility and a certain need for effectiveness. Taking a certain road safety problem as a starting point, a list of possible measures should be selected and rated. In order to support this process, the European Commission funded the SUPREME project (Summary and Publication of Best Practices in Road Safety in the EU Member States). 31 partners (including 4 international organizations) from 27 countries (EU25 plus Switzerland and Norway) collected road safety measures along nine categories, which were defined to cover the whole panopticon of road safety work. Eight criteria (including effectiveness, costs and benefits, sustainability, transferability and public acceptance) have been developed for further assessment. The collection was done by a detailed, webbased questionnaire collecting all relevant information about the candidate measures. Nine thematic reports (one for each category) were produced in order to document the measures and the process of best practice selection. These reports offer state-of-the-art information on road safety measures within the respective topic. The core products of SUPREME are two handbooks. The Handbook For Measures At The Country Level gives comprehensive information on measures suitable for implementation at local, regional or national level. Road safety measures which need to be addressed at supra-national level are summarized in the Handbook For Measures At The European Level. The SUPREME deliverables invite all stake holders, particularly decision makers and policy makers all over Europe, to select road safety activities from a list of measures that has been approved for being successful.