Local government
It is becoming increasingly common for local authorities to be responsible for the safety of the road infrastructure and road user information and publicity on local roads. Local road safety planning are carried out in several countries e.g. Denmark, France, Sweden (where road safety is integrated into urban plans), Netherlands.
Local authority activity is central to achieving good national performance reflected in the adoption of regional and sometimes local targets and regional and local road safety plans. In practice, a mixture of legislative duty, road safety plan, funding mechanism, Codes of Good Safety Practice and mutually supportive partnerships between central and local Government have contributed to a wealth of international best practice in countries who are slowly upgrading networks to be more responsive to user needs.
In some countries e.g. the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Sweden, responsibilities for road safety at regional/local level are defined in legislation which can facilitate interaction and contractual arrangements for positive road safety outcomes, while still leaving local authorities free to decide how to carry out that duty in all their local circumstances. For example, in the UK, the road safety functions of local highway authorities were set out in legislation in the 1970s. The UK also had a specific annual allocation in transport grants to local government for high risk site treatments or local safety schemes which required formal justification in road casualty reduction terms, as opposed to that required for minor works [32].
The EU-funded DUMAS project and the OECD have highlighted many examples of how local road safety planning and local delivery partnerships can contribute sustained improvements in road safety [34,13, 38].
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Urban safety management in Baden, Austria (OECD 1990)
In the town of Baden in Austria, an integrated transport and safety plan was introduced in 1988 through the strong mayoral leadership of local partnerships involving transport, planning, education departments, and community groups underpinned by strong research support.
The plan introduced a range of measures introduced:
- Constructing an urban through-pass
- Enlarging an existing pedestrian area
- Improving the network of cycling facilities
- Constructing roundabouts
- Implementing 30 km/h zones
- Setting up city bus lines
- Applying area-wide traffic calming
- Implementing parking management and car parks
- Strictly enforcing traffic rules treating high risk crash sites
About 75% of the road network is today part of a 30km/h zone or a residential street with an even lower limit. Since the introduction of the plan, road traffic injuries and deaths declined by about 60% between 1986 and 1999 making Baden is one of the safest towns in Austria.
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