Identification of Liability-Related Impediments to Sharing §409 Safety Data among Transportation Agencies and a Synthesis of Best Practices: Appendixes B through E (2006)

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Appendix E Example from International Safety Data Scan

NCHRP Project 8-54 Identification of Liability-Related Impediments to Sharing §409 Safety Data Among Transportation Agencies and Synthesis of Best Practices Making Use of European Road Assessment Program (EuroRAP) Data Peter Mak Senior Account Manager, Transport Research Centre (AVV) Ministry of Transport, the Netherlands How does the Transport Research Centre in the Netherlands work with information and the sharing of information? As a brief introduction, the AVV is one of the specialist services of the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, working for the Ministry and other government bodies active in the field of traffic and transport. What is important is that it has a mission to deliver contemporary knowledge to support the development and implemen- tation of Dutch transport and traffic policy. Just-in-time knowledge means that we have to know the what, why, where and how of traffic and transport within the Netherlands, which is a very transport conscious country, exporting and importing via the highways, rail and inland waterway networks. As a knowledge broker, AVV is recognized as an integral advisor within the full policy circle, from the lowest level to cabinet ministers. It has close contact with all relevant organizations, both political and private, translating questions into client-orientated products – something that is rather new to civil servants in the Netherlands and elsewhere. So it prepares, implements, executes, monitors, and evaluates. It does all these things, but does it do them right? Is this the correct solution? AVV also translates international scientific knowledge, keeping in close contact with organiza- tions proactively and providing advice, answers, and feedback for our customers both in the public services and in businesses such as Philips and Siemens. Using our feedback and applying an innovative process of improving our products has given our customers new ideas about using and cooperating with the Ministry of Transport. International audits have shown that we are a good example of how to work within this sphere. The question, of course, is why we share information and how we share it? Some things are very important. First of all you have to be a reliable partner. What you say has to be the most solid rock-bottom data available, with clear methodologies. Sharing information means knowing what is going out there, using the contexts, implementing the new knowledge and ideas to explain unexplainable policies, because road-users are hardly ever aware of the process of policy-making in all those different departments of governments. Cambridge Systematics, Inc. E-1

NCHRP Project 8-54 Identification of Liability-Related Impediments to Sharing §409 Safety Data Among Transportation Agencies and Synthesis of Best Practices We therefore have to have two-way, open communication; that is basic. What also is basic is that we have to improve transparency. We must be able to share any information or knowledge with our partners, and the other way round as well. In doing so, we help other authorities struggling with their information chaos. As you will probably be aware, although it is a very ordinary word nowadays ‘information’ is still chaos; I like to refer to it as a swamp. What we also have to keep in mind is that we live with a multilevel philosophy. In the Netherlands we have water boards, municipalities, provinces and then the national govern- mental. We all share the same ideas on traffic and environmental safety, and we have contacts within each level, but we have to be accessible to every one. We use the Internet as an exchange platform, not only for leaflets in portable data file format with good graphics, but also to provide access to database servers through which policy-makers and ordinary engineers can select their own data. Ordinary data sets are available to everyone. You can use your own data in combination with what is shared. But it is not always that easy, so we have to have self-explanatory tools and applications as well. You have to have the willingness to learn, to adapt new technologies, and to be open to criticism. The complaint is the best help for a new product. I may sound com- mercial, but I am a civil servant! Using the Internet, you can surf your way round in the World Wide Web and can find the AVV web site. From there, using very simple navigation, you can find all you want on road safety, traffic counts, road details, environmental issues, transport and passengers and heavy goods. This shares information with our contacts. We have to know all the relevant international products and programs from the EU, the UN, and the World Bank. EuroRAP is one of AVV’s important strategic alliances, governed, as are those with other international organizations, by a memorandum of understanding. We always stress that communication is everything. It gives openness and added value to best practice. But sharing information is not the only answer. It has to mean something. AVV has to be pro- active, coming up with products and answering questions even before the questions are asked. Cambridge Systematics, Inc. E-2

NCHRP Project 8-54 Identification of Liability-Related Impediments to Sharing §409 Safety Data Among Transportation Agencies and Synthesis of Best Practices The link between the Dutch program and EuroRAP is that AVV also has a risk atlas. To create it required one national policy program for sustainable safety, clear objectives and targets, identical and easy-to-understand methods and the tools. All the developments that are going on, at every level and with every idea, using all the feedback there is, must be monitored, and we have to show that national goals translate into local goals. We can say that in the Netherlands approximately 1,000 people die each year in road accidents, and we want to bring that figure down to 750 in five years’ time. But how do we translate that into something that people will understand? That is one of the roles that AVV has to play. It also must put itself under the magnifying glass, be willing to be open and transparent and to listen to criticism. In working towards the risk atlas, we also had to say that AVV is not the only organization that is working around sustainable safety. We use the Internet to disseminate relevant information, but also to have one information point, a kind of portal where road authorities and others can find all the information that they need, not only from the Ministry but also from other authori- ties like the provinces. Sustainable safety is nothing else than an infrastructure environment that is adapted to human limitations. In the Netherlands, the cost to society of traffic jams is roughly €1 billion, while traffic and safety, including all insurances, costs roughly €9 billion. Yet more than 60 per cent of the budget goes into solving traffic jams, and only bits of the budget go into road safety. That is mainly because of a lack of information and information integration, and we want that to change. Another thing that AVV is interested in is the road safety audit. The audit is a proactive result. It should be stable and thorough – you should be able to rely on the audit whether it is for a rural road in Spain, in former Yugoslavia, in Poland or in London. It allows us to indicate, and afterwards to change, what deficiencies there are in road infrastructure planning, design and so forth. Cambridge Systematics, Inc. E-3

NCHRP Project 8-54 Identification of Liability-Related Impediments to Sharing §409 Safety Data Among Transportation Agencies and Synthesis of Best Practices Of course, like in every country, the Netherlands has new ideas and new approaches – priority regulation for bicycles on roundabouts; for instance, enforcement using speed cameras, priority on main roads for vulnerable road users. So far as sharing information is concerned, we have to show what we can provide to others and what we want from others. We have found – not only in sustainable safety but in other fields in the traffic and transport world as well – that we have to share information as reliable partners. We call this a ‘data-for-data’ partnership. It saves a lot of taxpayers’ money. We should not forget that a Euro spent may only be spent once. So AVV provides all the support it can to local and regional initiatives and shares what it has on technology and know-how as a two-way process. Once again, I cannot stress enough that transparency is of the utmost importance. Using the Internet, it is not very difficult to show what information is available to everyone. AVV has many on-line bulletins that show in just a minor set of six or seven diagrams and tables, infor- mation on the number of fatal and injury casualties per annum, casualties admitted to hospital or injuries that did not require hospital admission. This is not only for policy-makers. These pages, especially when data for a new year comes on line, have hits of tens of thousands per day from all kinds of organizations, people, students, and schools. One of the important issues is: keep it simple, make it easy to understand. It must convey the message. What also is vitally important is that we are fighting death tolls on each and every level. So we have to bring together national, regional, provincial, and local authorities, the police and many other representatives. That is why the Ministry of Transport in the Netherlands has said that AVV is a very good initiative and joins with it in a sustainable road safety program, with both of us sharing information on a daily basis. Cambridge Systematics, Inc. E-4

NCHRP Project 8-54 Identification of Liability-Related Impediments to Sharing §409 Safety Data Among Transportation Agencies and Synthesis of Best Practices We also have to convey the message using campaigns. Anyone who has been to the Netherlands on holiday will have seen billboards showing that we are all responsible for road safety. We have a moral obligation: we all have to play a role in road safety. It is no good blaming other people – just look in the mirror. When we create a risk atlas, it is one of the successes of sharing information. We have reliable accident data through contracts with the police authorities. We have a reliable provision of other data relevant to traffic safety analysis from hospital records, insurance information, weather records, vehicle information and so on. The calculations and methods used are avail- able through the Internet, so everyone knows what we are doing. As an interactive process, it needs to identify simple self-explanatory indicators and to offer comparability without competition. Competition is one of the things that a lot of road authori- ties have worried about, and there are different points of views on sharing information. Do we want to share the information or do we as road authorities think that we have all the wisdom? At AVV, we do not. The wisdom is out there... Cambridge Systematics, Inc. E-5

NCHRP Project 8-54 Identification of Liability-Related Impediments to Sharing §409 Safety Data Among Transportation Agencies and Synthesis of Best Practices The risk atlas shows casualties per million vehicle kilometers on the highway network in 2000. As you can see from the examples above, the detailed map also can be used to pinpoint each and every location. But it is not only the locations that we are interested in. What is important is to change the yellow, red and even the purple municipalities into the beautiful color of ‘No data available’. Sharing information with others within the field of decision-making, policy, road design and maintenance and enforcement, is the essence of real road safety. Peter M Mak, Senior Account Manager for clients and users of basic transport and traffic data in the Transport Research Centre – a division of the Directorate-General of Public Works and Water Management within the Ministry of Transport in the Netherlands – has worked in the field of traffic and transport information since he joined the Ministry in 1984. He is the Dutch government’s representative on EuroRAP’s Technical Committee. Cambridge Systematics, Inc. E-6