Management Systems For Road Safety
Progress in the area of prevention is formulated in an environment of beliefs, called paradigms as can be seen in the next table. Some of them can be refereed as professional folklore, i.e. a widely supported set of beliefs with no real basis. For example, the “accident-prone driver” was a belief that was supported by the data in the sense that a small number of drivers do participate in a disproportionate number of accidents, it follows that the identification and removal of this drivers will reduce crashes. A more scientific analysis of the data indicate that this phenomenon can be explained simply by the random nature of the accidents, and not for a specific error-prone attitude of such drivers.
| ASPECTS | PARADIGM I | PARADIGM II | PARADIGM III | PARADIGM IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decennia of dominating position | 1900 - 1925/35 | 1925/35 - 1965/70 | 1965/70 - 1980/85 | 1980/85 - present |
| Description | Control of motorised carriage | Mastering traffic situations | Managing traffic system | Managing transport system |
| Main disciplines involved | Law enforcement | Car and road engineering, psychology | Traffic engineering, traffic
medicine, advanced statistics |
Advanced technology,
systems analysis, sociology, communications |
| Terms used about unwanted events | Collision | Accident | Crash, casualty | Suffering, costs |
| Premise concerning unsafety | Transitional problem, passing stage of maladjustment | Individual problem, inadequate moral and skills | Defective traffic system | Risk exposure |
| Data ideals in research | Basic statistics, answers on “What” | Causes of accidents; “Why” | Cost/benefit ratio of means “How” | Multidimensional |
| Organisational form of safety work | Separate efforts on trial and error basis | Co-ordinated efforts on voluntary basis | Programmed efforts, authorised politically | Decentralisation, local management |
| Typical countermeasures | Vehicle codes and inspection, school patrols | The three E’s doctrine, screening of accident prone drivers | Combined samples of measures for diminishing risks | Networking and pricing |
| Effects | Gradual increase in traffic risks and health risks | Rapid increase of health risk with decreasing traffic risk | Successive cycles of decrease of
health risks and traffic risks |
Continuous reduction of serious road accidents |
From: OECD Road Transport Research
(to be completed)
Read more about Management Systems For Road Safety: National Programs, Management Systems, Semantics
Famous quotes containing the words management, systems, road and/or safety:
“The care of a house, the conduct of a home, the management of children, the instruction and government of servants, are as deserving of scientific treatment and scientific professors and lectureships as are the care of farms, the management of manure and crops, and the raising and care of stock.”
—Catherine E. Beecher (1800–1878)
“The geometry of landscape and situation seems to create its own systems of time, the sense of a dynamic element which is cinematising the events of the canvas, translating a posture or ceremony into dynamic terms. The greatest movie of the 20th century is the Mona Lisa, just as the greatest novel is Gray’s Anatomy.”
—J.G. (James Graham)
“Such were the first rude beginnings of a town. They spoke of the practicability of a winter road to the Moosehead Carry, which would not cost much, and would connect them with steam and staging and all the busy world. I almost doubted if the lake would be there,—the self-same lake,—preserve its form and identity, when the shores should be cleared and settled; as if these lakes and streams which explorers report never awaited the advent of the citizen.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A lover is never a completely self-reliant person viewing the world through his own eyes, but a hostage to a certain delusion. He becomes a perjurer, all his thoughts and emotions being directed with reference, not to an accurate and just appraisal of the real world but rather to the safety and exaltation of his loved one, and the madness with which he pursues her, transmogrifying his attention, blinds him like a victim.”
—Alexander Theroux (b. 1940)