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While discussing the topic of safety data with experts in other countries, the scanning team did not, for the most part, identify better systems and technologies than those available throughout the United States. The scanning team did, however, identify several themes that supported a coordinated or strategic approach to collecting, managing, and using safety data in each of the countries. The issues the scanning team considered most important in the context of safety data can be grouped within the three major headings of strategy, efficiency, and utility.
Themes included as strategic issues focus on considering safety a core business function of government and placing emphasis on making resources available for using safety data for strategic decisionmaking. Themes included as efficiency issues focus on ensuring that the right safety data are collected simply, accurately, and at a reasonable cost. Themes included in utility issues relate to the ability to use data for research and analysis, including the analytical tools available to do so.
Strategic issues reflect management initiatives, laws affecting data ownership, funding of the systems, and planning for safety data improvements. Obtaining good safety data is often a result of relying on the data for decisionmaking and leadership support rather than any specific technology applied. Where this works well, the organizational structure and commitment of resources applied to safety research is considered the way of doing business. It is inclusive and shows evidence of broad-based, active participation among agencies and jurisdictions. Most important is the commitment to data-driven decisionmaking and extensive use of performance measures and metrics for the safety data themselves. The scanning team identified the following major themes as strategic issues:
Within the major strategic themes, the scanning team considered the following the most important issues:
Goals and accountability for safety start at the top. A strategic safety focus takes top leadership involvement, participation, and monitoring, but it does not include mandates to local jurisdictions. Clear measures are set from a national level and communicated consistently to the states through education and training. States can then develop supporting goals and accountability measures. Local agencies participated in particular safety programs because they saw the benefits. The new policy studies office at SWOV in the Netherlands highlights the importance of data to top officials. The countries visited are just beginning to develop advanced data systems. The majority of their safety accomplishments have been achieved without robust and linkable safety data systems.
The performance of the system is monitored. Resources are strategically allocated toward prevention of safety problems (proactive) instead of corrective actions, with the goal of achieving an appropriate balance. The safety data systems are supported by sufficient resources and continuously improved to support the kinds of decisions required. For example, as the safety programs have become more mature, it has become increasingly important to consider areas that may have potential for improvement before becoming a blackspot. Safety data are used in risk analysis and risk measurement, and safety improvements are approached in a strategic manner, with performance measures of the improvements established and tracked. New implementation strategies are measured to be sure the system improves as planned. Ultimately, safety data are used to measure how reliable mitigation measures are and whether the prediction matches the actual findings.
A strong safety management framework exists in the public agencies. Safety is defined as a core business of government. Managers meet frequently with their sole mission to improve safety. In addition to upper-level leadership and management, agencies have a dedicated safety staff. The push is from the top and involves the staff as well as academic resources. Safety is definitely established as a performance measure. Leaders also have a clear recognition of who owns the data and what the data mean.
Driver safety initiatives have high-level support. Drivers are viewed as lifelong customers. Driver-oriented safety initiatives are supported throughout the countries because these initiatives are supported by safety data that have been communicated to citizens. This education and communication is in the form of daily announcements focusing on fatalities and general statistics, goal setting, openness of public access to data, and linking of roadway safety and driver licensing programs.
The safety business model includes private and public participation.Safety programs, as well as safety data collection and use, are coordinated among agencies in all jurisdictions, as well as with private organizations. The team approach is used to improve safety and safety data accuracy.
In the area of efficiency are items that relate to overall return on investment in records, standards, data integration, and technology. Data quality is an efficiency issue in that better data ultimately saves money by supporting better decisions and is cheaper to collect and maintain than a system that suffers from inaccuracy and omissions. The scanning team identified the following major efficiency themes:
Within the major efficiency themes, the scanning team considered the following the most important issues:
Data linkage and integration limit the cost of data collection. If linkage is improved, not as much data must be collected, and it can be collected and recorded once for database use. Data linkage and integration strategies are used to limit the amount of data collection and input needed and eliminate data inconsistencies.
Safety data partnerships allow sharing of information. An example of multiple jurisdictions working cooperatively to improve safety data is "data-to-data partnerships" that involve sharing GIS network data with local jurisdictions willing to provide updates to the network to improve data coverage. These partnerships result in better and more current data for both the national and local jurisdictions to use for safety data planning. In addition, Web-based, password-protected uploads of data can be made to a centralized database by multiple agencies and jurisdictions.
Common definitions result in more consistent data. Common data definitions are shared among stakeholders to ensure data consistency and interoperability among various jurisdictions. This data consistency is important for benchmarking both safety data systems and safety programs.
Numerous methods are used to simplify field data collection. Law enforcement officers generally have other priorities besides data collection. To ensure their continued cooperation, an effort is made to streamline and simplify field data collection. The process of obtaining and processing data in the field is kept simple, and those entering data are included in the planning process. The basic questions are "who uses the data?" and "for what purpose?" Specific cost-benefit analyses are conducted before data elements are added for field collection. Sampling methods and estimation (getting data from market surveys, for example) are used to reduce onsite data collection. Even with strong privacy requirements, the Netherlands collects driver behavior and safety information from citizens using direct mail surveys. Incentives for survey completion (such as gift cards) result in return rates as high as 70 percent. In fact, safety goals in the Netherlands are established from crash estimates from numerous samples instead of reported crash data. In many cases, instead of creating a huge database, numerous smaller databases are connected for analysis using GIS location coding.
Training and data collection tools are made widely available. The German Institute for Traffic Engineering is an example of a public-private partnership. The institute provides extensive training on data collection and free crash data collection software to law enforcement officers. Also in Germany, the government has legislated preset definitions of data allowed on event data recorders. This way, the government could specify what safety items must be on the recorders from the manufacturers and only then could manufacturers add data they wished to collect.
New ways are identified to use existing technologies for data collection. Efforts to collect new data from existing methods and technologies continue. This includes using data extrapolation methods (statistical methods) to minimize additional data collection. It also includes using existing GIS, which traditionally would be used only for reporting and analysis, to help to identify accurate locations when entering crash data. In the case of roadway data collection, traffic loop data can be used to capture tailgating information for both traffic education and to focus police on potential problem areas. Roadway data can be collected using cameras that monitor speed or heavy vehicles, as well as traffic management centers and equipment, such as the Gipsi-Trac vans and asset location software used in Australia.
Utility issues include those that relate to access, marketing, research, and specific analyses in the driver, vehicle, and roadway areas, including analytical tools to support cost-benefit comparisons and safety analyses. The following major themes are included as utility issues:
Within the major utility themes, the scanning team considered the following the most important issues:
Safety data are open and accessible.In the Netherlands, officials are open about safety data that do not include personal information and distribute it widely. German officials were not as open to the public, but they shared their data throughout the government. While some data are used internally only because of privacy policies, most statistical crash data collected are openly available and shared. In some cases, these data are readily accessible via Web applications on the Internet. In support of an open access policy for safety information, a service center concept is deployed in the Netherlands to provide a call-in help desk for local jurisdictions and others to obtain statistical crash data and analyses.
Safety data support communication and marketing of safety programs. Tactics such as publications, billboards, and other public relations and marketing components are used to encourage crash prevention, but a greater emphasis is placed on communicating safety issues and costs to society. Marketing training emphasizes that buy-in can be achieved by showing numbers and data in pictures and keeping them simple. The purpose of this effort is to train people to avoid crashes. Attitudes are a major focus of marketing efforts. The goal is to change people from considering driving a right to recognizing it is a privilege that comes with the responsibility to stay safe. Blackspot programs can be effective marketing tools as well, if they involve the public, the actual users of the streets.
Drivers are included as an important component of safety programs. Driver licensing sanctions (such as points and demerits) are severe for failure to obey travel laws and regulations, but the tendency is to forgive bad driver behavior over time. Driver histories are cleansed after the sanction is served. The philosophy is that sanctions lead to rehabilitation, and initial punishment is enough. While personal driver information is not linked with other data, driver history information is shared for law enforcement and regulatory purposes countrywide, and a national database is available to determine driver fitness. Privacy of personal information is coveted and highly protected in Europe. As a rule, this requirement can hamper research and an accurate depiction of a driver's record and driving history. Nevertheless, driver data are used to help identify risk-taking behaviors and other issues that can be addressed in safety programs.
The scanning team identified numerous safety data issues in the host countries in the areas of strategy, efficiency, and utility. The team selected the items listed below as the most important themes to be used in developing recommendations and a strategy for implementation:
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