Prepared by:

G.J. Forbes
Intus Road Safety Engineering Inc.

B.J. Malone
Synectics Transportation Consulting Inc.

The issue of road safety is a far-reaching social issue that touches many people and professions. It is a primary concern of transportation engineers, health care professionals, law enforcement providers, elected officials, and the general public (among others). However, while each of these groups has the common goal of making the surface transportation system safer, they often differ on where to focus remedial efforts and scarce resources. This difference of opinions on solutions is in part due to differences in opinions on what constitutes a safety problem.

This paper examines different techniques used by road safety professionals to identify systemic safety problems. The strengths and weaknesses of each technique are discussed, as is the data required to successfully undertake problem definition using each procedure.

As crashes are the most obvious result of a system failure, the problem-definition techniques presented herein are rooted in crash data. The five systemic safety problem-definition techniques are:

1. Comparison of crashes within the jurisdiction
    
2. Comparison of crashes with other jurisdiction(s)
    
3. Relative risk assessment
    
4. Collision severity distribution
    
5. Public health perspective

For a complete copy of this paper, please contact: jsuggett@synectics-inc.net