Proposing a framework for evidence-based road safety policy-making: connecting crash causation, countermeasures and policy

Effective evidence-based policy making within road safety is a several step cyclic process that involves gathering data about the causes of crashes, analysing these data, developing countermeasures and implementing and evaluating them. There are many examples of crash causation focused data collection activities available to policy makers but knowledge on how these finding may have led to countermeasure implementation and new policy is much less well established. This paper proposes a framework for best practice evidence-based policy making. To address existing gaps, the framework consists of three pillars: these are (1) Crash causation establishment; (2) Countermeasure development and implementation; and (3) road safety management. A key element in this framework is the recommendation for the establishment of an organisation responsible for road safety that has a strategic and coordination role. This framework, as a whole, aims to provide a practical high-level map by connecting evidence to policy at every point in the policy making cycle and ensuring that evidence-based road safety policy is a national priority. It is anticipated that using this framework to inform road safety policy development will enhance the success of any developed policy.