Targets aid management

A country's focus on results and how they are to be achieved is at the core of an effective national road safety management system and the driver of an effective national road safety strategy. Quantitative targets form an important part of the road safety management system. In this system, key institutional management functions provide the foundation for system-wide interventions to achieve a range of results expressed as different types of quantitative targets [4].

The road safety management system [4].

This Figure has been adapted further from the original road safety management pyramid outlined in the consultation document of the Road Safety Strategy 2010 of New Zealand, and further developed by Wegman ed., 2001 and Koornstra et al, 2003 'Institutional management functions' used in this manual equate with 'implementation' and 'structure and culture' in these documents

The overarching management function which is orchestrated on behalf of government by a lead agency/department/bureau is results focus which 1) determines the level of ambition expressed in quantitative targets which a country wishes to achieve in road safety and 2) ascertains how this desired result is to be achieved [4].

The more ambitious the target(s), the more effective the institutional arrangements will need to be to deliver the system-wide intervention set needed to achieve the target(s). The level of ambition drives the intervention set. Ambitious targets require safe system approaches which require 1) understanding of the safety principles which determine risk e.g. speed and crash protection, and 2) political willingness to implement the necessary interventions based on these principles. The ambitious intervention set, in turn, necessitates multi-sectoral implementation which is properly orchestrated and accountable in its focus on achieving the targets agreed across the partnership.

Targets provide the framework for the national road safety strategy. Targets drive decisions about coordination needs, legislative needs, funding and resource allocation, promotion needs, monitoring and evaluation, as well as research, development and knowledge transfer.

The adoption of quantitative targets and achieving agreement on a clear means of achieving them provides the focus of an effective road safety management system.