Road safety on four continents : Warsaw, Poland 5-7 October 2005. Conference proceedings

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Road Safety on Four Continents

, Warsaw, Poland, 5

-

7 October 2005

Conference Proceedings

National Transport Policy for the period of 2006-2025

(approved by the Council of Ministers on June 29th 2005)

Summary

One of the most urgent tasks in implementation of the policy of sustainable development of the country is to reach the civilization development level and standard of living of Western European countries. It requires, however, creation of strong structural foundations of economic growth, including an efficient transport system. From the point of view of Poland s development objectives and aspirations of its citizens it is therefore important that during the Lisbon Strategy implementation period transport not only stops being a barrier hindering economic development of the country but also becomes an element significantly contributing to its development, which can be achieved by building adequate infrastructure and providing high quality services on free, competitive and indiscriminative market. .

Availability of European funds provides Polish transport a historic opportunity that cannot be wasted. The volume of the funds available makes it possible to make up for essential civilization delays as soon as by 2025. It requires, however, special mobilisation and creating an efficient and effective system of absorbing European funds in a short time period. It is crucial to that the volume of European funds available for Poland will be decreasing in time, which means that the most important investments should be made as soon as possible.

With European assistance, building a network of motorways and express roads and modernisation of the most important railways lines is a feasible task. Delays in developing infrastructure in other transport sectors should also be made up for, so that we could focus on more technologically advanced undertakings.

Therefore, modernisation of the basic transport network and providing for high quality transport services so that transport contributes adequately to economic development is the most essential task for the upcoming years till to 2025. An efficient transport system will contribute to improvement of standard of living, to better accessibility to built-up areas, and to increase of foreign investments in Poland. At the same time the increasing demand for transport posed by the economy will be subject to control in accordance with the principle of sustainable development. Completing restructuring and privatisation of transport companies and finalizing the process of liberasition of transport markets is the second key task. All those processes should be completed during the current decade. It means, however, that the growing economic crisis of the railway sector

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fleet and of modernisation of passenger rolling stock and city transport must be considered priorities.

The third task is creating effective co-operation regarding transport issues between the government and local authorities. This co-operation is necessary to provide coherent and complementary system of activities on national and regional scale. Closer co-operation between the government and local authorities will be necessary in the following areas: liberalisation of the market of regional passenger railway transport, inland water navigation, small sea ports, inter-modal transport and road safety.

Providing for transport safety is the fourth task. It refers to all types of transport but due to the extent of threats, the first priority is road safety. The state is to make sure that risk to human health and life in road transport is significantly reduced. To achieve that the state must allocate adequate funds for that purpose, but also to provide for efficient co-ordination of operations of all the entities involved in working for road safety.

The objective of the National Transport Policy is therefore to meet rational expectations of the society caused by increased mobility, which means increased demand for transport availability. The fact that transport system has for decades been underinvested and the following factors must be taken into consideration:

the pace of economic growth, exceeding now 5% GDP annually, will further increase the demand for transport,

spatial transformations and life style changes will continue to cause longer travel time,

difficulties in establishing and maintaining balance between various types of transport will increase; it will be caused by the growing and difficult to control growth of demand for road transport.

We are convinced that by the year 2025 the transport system of Poland will have met all the requirements that the transport system of highly developed countries must meet and that it will be able to meet Polish and international transport users expectations in terms of mobility and high quality transport services in line with environmental standards . Implementation of the National Transport Policy requires further actions in order to create specific documents to develop each separate objective.

This document has been developed with the purpose of presenting it to the Parliament so that transport policy could be formulated by a legislative body, as it is the practice in most European Union countries, so that it sets directions for activities of executive bodies and creates conditions for activities of local authorities. It requires amending the law in such a way that the practice of formulating a political document by the Parliament becomes a part of the process of strategic planning in the country, including adopting assumptions to National Development Plans (NDP).

1. INTRODUCTION

During the system transformation which started in 1989, the Council of Ministers accepted the principles of national transport policy twice. In 1995 the principles were included in the document entitled Transport policy a programme to transform transport into a system adapted to the requirements of market economy and new conditions of co-operation in Europe 1. Due to the

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National Transport Policy (NTP), which is a continuation of previous transport policies, and which takes into consideration the conditions resulting from Poland s joining the European Union.

The consequences of Poland s joining the European Union are, inter alia, as follows: change of legal environment in which transport sector functions,

opportunities for acquiring significant funds, supporting development of transport sector to reach full integration the EU system,

facilitated exchange of people and goods between countries, within an open, free and indiscriminativemarket.

It was necessary to modify to a certain extent the objectives and directions of transport policy also due to European Union policy2.

Development of NTP focused on formulating development objectives and indications of the ways of attaining them, both within an integrated system and individual branches of transport. Connections of transport with other sectors of the economy in international, national, regional and local scale were also taken into consideration. Emphasis was put on legal, organisational, financial fiscal ones included mechanisms of attaining objectives. It is assumed that specific tasks will be included in the National Transport Development Strategy for the Period of 2007-2013 , which was developed parallel to this document.

2. DIAGNOSIS TRENDS AND PROBLEMS

Trends

In terms of transport, the turn of the centuries was marked by some significant phenomena connected with entering a new phase of social and economic transformation after the transitional phase of the 1990s, the following being the most important ones:

increased mobility of people and stabilisation of the volume of freight transport, simultaneously with the change of it s structure decrease in bulk cargo transport and increase in valuable cargo transport,

continued trend of significant increase in number of cars and road freight transport; the last one caused by mentioned above change in the transport structure,

recent significant increase of air transport,

decreased share of railway freight and passenger transport the market being taken over by road transport, the positive trend is that in recent years the stabilisation of freight railway transport,

decreased share of public transport in local transport in most Polish cities,

stabilisation of the volume of sea and inland water transport at a relatively low level: in recent years a certain increase has been observed, especially in short distance sea transport,

growing user requirements concerning transport subsystems (comfort, reliability, safety, travel time, travel surety, low costs, etc.),

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growing burden on the environment negative impact of transport system functioning.

Problems

Some of the problems that need to be solved result from many years of delay in development of transport sector, from unclear transport policy and insufficient funds available for transport, and some from new phenomena, such as:

road traffic congestion, on the most important national roads and in urban areas in particular, insufficient number of ring roads and by-passes around cities, towns and villages, which means that transit transport must go through the main roads of cities and towns,

growing negative impact of transport on the natural environment and the human environment as well as the quality of life,

insufficient road safety, with still too many fatal accidents, especially affecting pedestrians, bad condition of technical infrastructure, caused by delays in repair and maintenance works, low quality and bad technical condition of public transport, rolling stock and trams in particular; depreciation process is caused mainly by delays in rolling stock replacement,

surface structures of roads and bridges not suitable for traffic of lorries of increased axle load, often exceeding permitted values, which accelerates road surface wear and tear,

low quality of railway services and difficulties in its financing; unfavourable situation in the job market (high unemployment and insufficient number of job offers) hinders restructuring of this sector, which is one of the biggest employers in the country,

opening of the market treated as a threat to not very effective national carriers, which have to face strong competition of international companies and that of transport subsystems of neighbouring countries,

relatively low economic potential of private sector as a potential partner in development projects, investment ones included,

frequent changes of concepts, mainly in public sector organisation, in legal instruments of planning and management, and too long planning and implementation processes; many concepts do not match the economic reality and make insufficient use of possible and permitted market and regulatory mechanisms,

the more and more frequent social protests against new investments also have a negative impact on stability of planning decisions,

no mechanisms for effective solving of such problems, staff problems (in terms of quantity and quality) of state and local administration responsible for transport subsystems (inter alia, due to very low competitiveness of employment conditions against those of private sector, and politicising professional personnel), which hinders implementation of programmes and projects considerably,

ineffective co-operation of state and local administration of various levels in terms of public transport, its financing in particular, as well as coordination of operation and development of roads on national and regional level, the consequence being low transport system integrity at various territorial scales,

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insufficient use of financing infrastructure investments from EU funds (no advanced projects, no funds to co-finance projects, and not enough human resources in services responsible for investment preparation and implementation),

limited funds for research and development in transport and transport-related sectors; which hinders technological progress in the national transport system and in the industries producing means of transportations, traffic control facilities, etc, as well as in construction industry.

Very low level of involvement of public funds in modernisation and development of transport infrastructure also constitutes a significant problem in transport functioning after 1989. Considerably smaller parts of the central budget and local budgets are allocated for that purpose in Poland than in other European countries, both in the old EU countries and in the ones that recently became EU members. Very few motorways and express roads, bad condition of other roads, deteriorating technical condition of railways and inland water courses and aging of rolling stock become a more and more tangible barrier to development of mobility, economy, as well as a factor increasing threats to human life and health and nuisance to natural environment. Despite that, government programmes usually do not indicate the need to increase financial support for investments in transport infrastructure and public transport. No long-term financial plans, based on proven international practice and trying to make transport a market-based, de-monopolised sector, which would guarantee stable financing of transport sector, is also a hindrance.

3. OBJECTIVES OF TRANSPORT POLICY

Substantial improvement of the quality of transport system and its development following the principles of sustainable development is the main objective of transport policy. Quality of transport system will be the decisive factor, conditioning quality of living of the residents and economic development of the country as a whole and its individual regions. Observing the principles of sustainable development will provide for the balance between social, economic, spatial and environmental protection aspects in the conditions of developing market economy. Poland s aiming at achieving its objectives will be conditioned by the objectives, tasks and rules set out by the European Union, as well as by the commitments and obligations resulting from national defence, NATO membership included.

Social aspect means mainly providing equal access to transport (to facilitate access to workplaces, schools, services , recreation and tourism), aiming at reducing the number of accidents and transport nuisance for the residents.

Economic aspect has two dimensions the first one is providing conditions for economic growth in macroeconomic scale by removing barriers and creating new conditions for that development, the second one refers to development of transport as sector of economy, protection of the market and competition.

Spatial aspect means co-ordination of spatial planning and transport system to reduce the dynamics of generated traffic growth and transport volume, and locating transport facilities according to the principles of rational spatial development and conditions of spatial governance. Ecological aspect means sustainable development, in the broad sense of the term, with its essential feature being aiming at maintaining a balance between meeting the needs of man and providing for man s safety and preservation of natural assets and natural non-renewable resources, providing for the interests of future generations.

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preservation of assets of natural, human and cultural environment. 4. PRINCIPLES OF TRANSPORT POLICY

The principles specified in European Treaty and European Union transport policy require that: free competition among transport companies is guaranteed,

carriers and transport system users are equally treated by all EU Member States, policy of investing in infrastructure of international significance is co-ordinated,

transport tariffs are improved, which also refers to charges for using the infrastructure, paid for the services provided, taking into consideration all the costs involved, also the ones connected with burdening the environment, according to the rule that it is the user that pays ,

development of public transport, as more environment and civilisation friendly, is supported; it refers to urban areas in particular,

threats to human health and life in all kinds of transport are reduced to the minimum, public obligation principle is applied in transport sector3.

In the light of the conditions specified above, the objectives set out in chapter 3 and the principle of sustainable development of transport system, the following basic principles were adopted in formulating transport policy:

the principle of influencing demand for transport and the ways of meeting the demand; it

refers both to the pace of growth of traffic and transport in selected transport subsystems (e.g. individual transport in cities), reducing travel distance (e.g. in non-obligatory travels) as well as to modal split; it is justified by the interrelations between transport intensity of the national economy and mobility and energy consumption and impact on the environmental (e.g. green-house gases, or waste production); the influence can be exercised through: spatial policy, individual consumption model, motorization policy and fiscal instruments,

the principle of supporting transport branches and forms that use less energy and are less of

a burden to the environment: railway, sea and inland water transport, bicycle transport and pedestrian traffic. According to this principle it is expected, inter alia, that environmentally friendly technologies will be supported, that quality of public transport will be continually improved, that the State will influence individual transport mainly by using fiscal instruments, enforcement of regulations regarding vehicle quality regime and by traffic management,

the principle of providing for the balance between meeting the needs of international (transit

and tourist transport included), national, regional and local transport; according to this principle, in programming infrastructure investments, priority should be given to projects serving the largest possible number of users,

the principle of rationalising transit traffic servicing, by including transport routes or transit

network junctions in the national network, and by minimising the effects of transit traffic (nuisance to the environment, accident rate, crime rate) and maximising the benefits of using the means of transportation that use less energy (taking over goods by railway and sea transport),

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maintenance and modernisation of the existing one, making up for the backlogs and modernisation of transport infrastructure should be of two-fold character: modernisation of existing elements and construction of new ones; in both cases the principle of maximisation of benefits-costs rates should be observed, solutions appropriate for the scale, time and place should be applied,

the principles of role distribution in management, market regulation and privatisation:

- leaving as many market segments as possible to free market game; regulation only in very few cases, where regulation can improve service organisation, according to public service obligation ,

- the State s influencing the railway market in the way increasing attractiveness of services on the one hand, and leading to real competition among carriers on the other hand; preparing Polish carriers of public ownership for opening of the market (also by effective use and shortening protection period),

- supporting local authorities in playing the role of public transport organizer in the regional and local scale, also by programmes of co-financing development of infrastructure and purchases of vehicles and rolling stock,

- creating joint state and local programmes and projects, supporting establishing metropolitan agreements in strict connection with government agencies (national roads authority, railways, airports in which the state has interest) to support public transport in cities.

the principles of financing:

- the basic sources of financing transport infrastructure include the state and local budgets, EU grants, loans from international finance institutions, and in the case of commercial investments (sea ports and airports, logistics centres) involvement of private funds or in the system of public-private partnership,

- gradual introduction of the user pays rule, taking into consideration external costs; charge for using infrastructure and public transport subordinated to commercial rules, taking, however, into consideration the principles of organising transport and public service obligation, in particular compensating from public funds income decrease due to fare reductions and charges exemptions, as well as the carriers losses connected with providing services under public service obligation,

- the target solution will consist of charges for using public infrastructure, road infrastructure included, pro rata to the distance and type of vehicle, congestion, costs of investment and maintenance, environmental impact and nuisance; it means that the national policy will aim at introducing an electronic system of toll collection, first for motorways and express roads and then for other selected elements of public road network; all the income on tolls and other charges will be allocated for road investments and maintenance, and in time, also for supporting other types of transport; the system will replace the current forms of payments (taxes, charges) and, in principle, will be fiscally neutral,

- additionally, a legal framework will be developed enabling local authorities to introduce charges for entering selected city areas to provide a tool for controlling accessibility of some areas (e.g. areas of historical significance), to protect city centres against congestion and to increase effectiveness of public spending on public transport,

- non-commercial investments (services provided to suburban areas, ring roads, regional railway lines, environmental protection investments, investments to increase safety, etc.) will

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inland ports,

- it is assumed that the State should also co-finance maintenance of generally available railway infrastructure, which will enable gradual reduction of fees for access to railway lines;

privatisation principles

- further privatisation of long distance, suburban and city bus transport, of passenger and freight railway transport, airports and local public transport will be supported.

5. PRIORITIES

The diagnosis of the current situation, forecast of transport growth, and taking into consideration the directions of European Union transport policy has led to adoption the following ten (10) priorities of national transport policy:

radical improvement of the condition of roads of all categories (rehabilitation and strengthening of pavements), development of motorway and express roads network in heavy traffic corridors , and connected with TEN. Network,

modernisation of railway by increasing competition between operators (in passenger and freight transport) to adapt this subsystem to the needs of the market and maintaining the market share, with simultaneous improvement of effectiveness; radical improvement of the condition of infrastructure, with simultaneous reduction of costs of access to the infrastructure,

improved safety in transport, including radical reduction of fatal accidents,

improved quality of transport in cities, by, inter alia, improved competitiveness of public transport against individual transport, improved conditions for pedestrian and bicycle traffic, with special emphasis on meeting needs of disabled users4,

improved quality and competitiveness of public transport in metropolitan areas by, inter alia, facilitating and creating incentives (co-financing) for organisation of network of agglomeration railways, rolling stock replacement, extension and modernisation of technical infrastructure,

development of inter-modal system5 by determining the forms of the State s assistance and introduction of legal and tax incentives,

development of air services market elimination of barriers, for small carriers and regional airports in particular,

increased role of sea ports and airports, improved access to them on regional and national scale,

supporting carriers in developing offers for trans-European and intercontinental passenger and freight transport,

improved conditions of inland water transport operating through modernisation of selected parts of infrastructure and supporting operators in the fleet renewal.

Special attention must be paid to the measures taken in the sectors and branches in which the effects will be perceived by as many users as possible, or which may be important for the economy of the region or the country. Therefore, the following is considered to be of great significance:

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improved functioning of transport in metropolitan areas, treated as both national network junctions and self-sufficient transport system, cumulating significant traffic and problems to be solved,

supporting development of the carriers offers for passenger and freight transport in trans-European and intercontinental connections.

6. TRANSPORT SAFETY

The development of transport determines economic growth. However, at the same time, in the current form, it constitutes a threat for the life and health of its users. This is related to the increase of fumes and noise emission, and also to the risk of health impairment or death in accidents. The awareness of the negative consequences of a poorly designed and managed transport system has in recent years lead to the change in the approach to the transport safety in Europe. The European Parliament, the European Commission and the European Conference of Ministers of Transport agree that the European Union citizens right to move freely is inseparably connected with their right to safety, and providing the safety to all transport system users shall be recognized as a priority task.

The UE road traffic safety policy, formulated in the year 2001 in the document entitled European Transport Policy for 2010: time to decide assigns Poland a new task: necessity to reduce the number of deaths in road accidents by half until the year 2010. This means that the actions for the improvement of road traffic safety must be recognized as one of the priorities in the National Transport Policy.

A long-term vision of the road traffic safety in Poland shall consist in aiming at complete elimination of deaths and heavy injuries in road accidents. The so formulated Polish Vision Zero means the following:

human life and health are more important than mobility and other objectives of the transport system functioning,

all should feel responsible for road accidents and for eliminating their effects,

the road system and vehicles shall be designed, build and operated in such a manner as to minimize and compensate for the errors of traffic participants,

all procedures in the transport management system shall take into consideration the safety of its participants.

In order to achieve the adopted long-term goal, strategic phase objectives are provided for, i.e. reducing the number of deaths to 2800 people in the year 2013, and to 1000 people in the year 2025. Within this approach, during the next 20 years the total number of deaths is expected to be decreased by 40 thousand people.

The following objectives formulated in the National Programme of Road Traffic Safety GAMBIT 2005, adopted by the Council of Minister on 19 April 2005 as the programme for Poland for the years 2005-2013, are proposed to be adopted as specific objectives:

creation and development of the basis for performing effective and long-term actions to improve RTS,

shaping an aware and cultured road traffic participant, respecting law and the rights of other road traffic participants,

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Creating basis for performing effective and long-term actions to improve RTS. This objective means that improving the whole RTS system is necessary as an action determining the effective realization of the other four objectives. The following actions shall be performed for the purpose of implementing this objective:

developing RTS system structures improving the organizational structures responsible for RTS and preparing tools such as database, RTS monitoring and information system, catalogues and guides,

legislative actions introduction of necessary changes in acts and secondary legislation,

RTS system management action coordination, programming, monitoring, cooperation with non-governmental organizations and self-government units, supporting regional and local activities,

Financing RTS actions preparing a system of financing actions for the improvement of RTS, financing central actions, financial support for regional and local activities,

Scientific research and international cooperation in-depth recognition of factors influencing the occurrence of accidents, specifying the efficiency of RTS measures in use, developing decision methods and procedures.

Shaping an aware an cultured road traffic participant respecting law and the rights of other road traffic participants. In this objective lies the biggest potential for decreasing the number of deaths in road accidents. Including educational, preventive and repressive actions, these activities shall first of all relate to decreasing the number of speeding events, increasing the use of safety belts and eliminating alcohol drinking among road users. These three circumstances occur in more than half of accidents resulting in deaths in Poland. Particular attention shall be paid to the issue of speeding, which is a key factor determining the probability of an accident and its consequences. The priority task shall be to lead to keeping speed on roads of different categories in accordance with speed limits determined by regulations and road signs. In addition, those activities shall contribute to the reduction of environmental pollution and noise level and decrease the feeling of uncertainty and threat by vulnerable road users.

Protection of pedestrians, children and cyclists. Vulnerable road traffic participants are a group requiring special protection, as almost half of road accident casualties come from this group, and this share is even larger in city areas. This objective shall be achieved by the following means: legal changes increasing the role of vulnerable participants in road traffic, common use of physical protection devices for pedestrians, building separate paths for cyclists, a system for protecting of children on their way to school.

Development and maintenance of a safe road infrastructure together with surroundings and accompanying elements. It is assumed that road infrastructure contributes directly or indirectly to 30% of road accidents. The characteristics of a road directly influences the behaviour of road traffic participants, and a big potential for decreasing the number of road accidents casualties lies in the proper shape of particular road infrastructure elements. First of all, this objective shall be achieved by the following means: development of a safe and hierarchical network of roads and streets and modern road traffic management. The requirement shall be introduced that each new road solution project (designed or modernized) shall be obligatory evaluated in relation to its influence on the road traffic safety level.

Reducing the gravity of accidents. Very high accident gravity levels are characteristic for Poland, they are many times as high as in the safest EU countries. Main reasons for such high accident gravity are: speeding, lack of devices protecting traffic participants and hard road surrounding. More

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implementation of a assistance system for accident casualties.

Therefore, the designers and managers of the system are responsible for its safety (institutions making laws, government, car manufacturers, road specialists designers and contractors, institutions responsible for law observance on roads etc.). The following shall constitute the basis for implementing actions limiting the threats occurring in the road transport system: national and regional programmes for road traffic safety improvement, which shall be monitored and regularly up-dated. The basic document determining the scope of system and sector activities carried out at the central level shall be the National Road Safety Programme consisting of a long-term vision of road traffic safety, middle-term strategic programmes, and short-term operational programmes. At the central and regional level it shall be the road administration s obligation to ensure financial resources for carrying out actions limiting the threat for the transport system users. Those resources shall be first of all allocated for the implementation of those solutions, the efficiency and effectiveness of which has been confirmed at different locations (including in other European Union countries). Solutions financed and co-financed by the national budged and EU funds shall be subject to evaluations of the implementation method and of effects, independent from contractors. The transport safety, including the road traffic safety, is a multidisciplinary issue, and therefore the transport department, being the main entity responsible for carrying out actions for the improvement of traffic safety, shall encourage the following institutions to engage in the implementation of those actions: the department of internal affairs and administration, the department of justice, the department of finance, the department of health, the department of social welfare, the department of science and information society technologies, the defence department, as well as territorial self-governments and social and non-governmental organization. This way, coordinated system, sector and regional actions shall allow to achieve the target objective.

7. CONCLUSION

On 11 January 2005, the Council of Ministers adopted for implementation the National Development Plan for the period of 2007-2013. The Plan is necessary for Poland to be able to properly modernise its economy through implementation of a comprehensive social development programme. The development is to be based on high economic growth, at the level of 5% GDP annually. Reaching it is conditioned by modernisation and development of transport system, which means that it is one of the most important challenges for the economy.

The National Transport Policy presented in this document is based on the understanding of the basic role of transport system in economic and social development of Polish society. It was developed from the belief that Poland will significantly benefit from having a well developed transport system, which will also provide development opportunities in the future. On the other hand, a badly managed transport system will generate social and environmental costs borne by all the people, not only by the system users. That is why the vision of transport system development was based on the strategy of sustainable transport, a transport system that meets the needs and aspirations of Polish people, a system developed in the way integrating all of its branches, but with emphasis on the issues connected with efficiency of functioning, with safety and reducing negative environmental impact.

Vision presented in this document requires further work in order to its development through formulation of concrete tasks, in quantitative form, taking into account analysis of environmental consequences of adopted transport policy. The new document would be transferral between the

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Swedish Development in Road Safety

by Dr Urban Karlström

Director General, VTI

Introduction

In spite of great progress in international traffic safety work, traffic accidents cause a large and increasing number of fatalities and severe injuries. Within the OECD region, about 125,000 people die every year. International studies rank road traffic accidents as the ninth most serious cause of death in the world in the year 1990. According to forecasts, the number of traffic accidents will increase to such an extent that by the year 2020 they will be the third most serious cause of death.

Work on reducing the number of traffic accidents is being intensified all over the world. This is an important part of the inputs for a road traffic system that will be sustainable in the long term. For many years, traffic safety issues have occupied a prominent place in Swedish transport policy. Sweden can therefore show that the numbers of traffic fatalities and severe injuries are very low in an

international comparison. Swedish traffic safety work is an integral part of transport policy. This paper will give an overview of Swedish traffic safety work. A number of important experiences, which may be of broader international interest, may be drawn from Swedish work to improve traffic safety.

Sweden in an international perspective

Sweden has a leading position among the world s countries in regard to traffic safety. The number of fatalities in relation to the size of the population is among the lowest in the world. An international comparison of OECD countries is given in Fig. 1 (page 2). The comparison is based on the number of fatalities in relation to population. The most relevant comparison would be to relate the number of fatalities in traffic to the number of vehicle km, but there are very few statistics regarding this internationally. The number of fatalities is therefore shown in relation to the size of the population as an approximate measure of the traffic safety situation in different countries.

The figure shows that there are large differences among countries. Countries with the highest traffic safety standard have a figure as low as about seven fatalities per 100,000 population. In OECD

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2

Road traffic fatalities per 100 000 inhabitants

(IRTAD 2003) 0,0 5,0 10,0 15,0 20,0 25,0 G re e c e S o u th K o re a P o rt u g a l P o la n d U S A B e lg iu m T je c k ie n S p a n ie n H u n g a ry S lo v e n ia L u x e m b u rg It a ly A u s tr ia N e w Z e e la n d S lo v a k ia F ra n c e Ir la n d C a n a d a A u s tr a li a D e n m a rk G e rm a n y Ic e la n d S w it z e rl a n d F in la n d J a p a n N e th e rl a n d s N o rw a y G re a t B ri ta in S w e d e n FIG. 1

60 years of traffic safety work in Sweden

Traffic safety has been an important issue ever since vehicular traffic achieved its breakthrough in Sweden. As early as seventy years ago, the traffic safety issue was noted at political level. A proposal was drawn up for measures to deal with the problem. Traffic education became obligatory in the school curriculum. A National Society for Traffic Safety (NTL) was formed and work on traffic safety began. But it was not until the 1950s that traffic safety work began to be carried out systematically. During the 1960s, broad-based and specific traffic safety work was carried out. It acquired special importance when traffic was changed from the left to the right in 1967. Work was performed in many directions. What characterised the work was a system approach to traffic safety issues, with the emphasis on the importance of factual and coordinated measures concerning road users, vehicles and the traffic environment.

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3

During the 1970s intensive work on traffic safety continued. A special State authority, the Swedish Road Safety Office, had been set up in 1968. Strong focus was placed on the use of seat belts. After an intensive campaign and new legislation on obligatory seat belt use, belt use increased from 35% to 85% in a few years. Other legislation concerning helmets, daytime running lights, safety devices for children, etc was also brought in. Traffic safety issues were also considered in conjunction with housing construction and the design of the urban environment.

Traffic safety work over a few decades produced an effect. Fig. 2 and 3 shows the development of traffic fatalities and vehicle km since 1950. The absolutely lowest number of traffic fatalities in 30 years was achieved at the beginning of the 1980s. The work had accomplished results. Development during the period shows that it was possible to break the long term trend that the number of traffic fatalities bore a close relationship to the increase in the number of traffic km.

Traffic Safety Development in Sweden

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1 9 5 0 1 9 6 0 1 9 7 0 1 9 8 0 1 9 9 0 2 0 0 0 Year N o o f fa ta li ti e s 0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000 80000 M il li o n s o f v e h ic le k m

Traffic fatalities Millions of vehicle km

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4

Number of fatalities and number of fatalities per 1000 million vehicle km

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1 9 5 0 1 9 6 0 1 9 7 0 1 9 8 0 1 9 9 0 2 0 0 0 Year N o o f fa ta li ti e s 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 D e a th r a te

Traffic fatalities Death rate

FIG. 3

But traffic safety work in Sweden was broadened. At the beginning of the 1980s, for the first time, the Swedish parliament set up a goal for traffic safety work. The goal was set high and traffic safety work was integrated with other transport policy. The goal has been revised a few times since then, but traffic safety work is today a very important and well integrated part of Swedish transport policy.

Traffic safety is an integral part of transport policy

The goal of Swedish transport policy is to create a well functioning transport system that shall contribute to sustainable societal development comprising economic, ecological, social and cultural aspects. Road traffic occupies a dominant role in the Swedish transport system. The majority of all passenger and freight transport today goes by road. For a large number of years, the rate of increase in the number of tonne km by road has been about 2% annually. Forecasts indicate that this

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5

Swedish transport policy has several goals for the development of the traffic sector; see Fig. 4. These goals have been resolved by the Swedish parliament and form the basis for the work on the

development of the transport system in Sweden. The traffic safety goal is a goal at the same level as the others.

Policy goals

The Swedish national transport policy objectives

Accessible transport system

Sound environment

High transport quality

Safe transports

Positive regional development

Gender equality

FIG. 4

The traffic safety goal is motivated by public health reasons. From the standpoint of public health, work towards a safe transport system is very important since injuries resulting from traffic accidents are one of the serious public health issues. In spite of successful traffic safety work, the accident level in Sweden is still unacceptably high. About 500 people die in traffic every year, and the number of severe injuries is very high. Between 4 and 5% of each cohort of the Swedish population is killed or permanently disabled by traffic accidents. This causes great human suffering and costs a lot of money. The social costs of the road traffic accidents which occur in Sweden account for about 1% of GNP.