4.8 Safe System Implementation

Progress in LMICs will depend heavily on substantial expert support to accelerate a ‘learning by doing’ approach. A key thread running throughout this manual is practical guidance concerning the implementation of the Safe System approach. A suggested path for road safety agencies in LMICs for moving from weak to stronger institutional capacity, by implementing effective practice through demonstration programmes (or projects), is outlined in Road Safety Targets, Investment Strategies, Plans and Projects. The programmes should include area-based projects involving all relevant agencies and some national level policy reviews. This approach will support the production of steady improvement in road safety results from all agencies.

Development of a more complete understanding and uptake of a Safe System approach, after adoption as official policy by a country, will take time. It will rely upon a continuous improvement process that examines and implements options, often in innovative ways, to improve performance.

While the key principles of a Safe System are well established (OECD, 2008 and 2016) and underpin the UN Global Plan for the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety (WHO, 2021), the challenge now is to translate these aspirations into practical policy implementation. This is especially important in low-and middle-income countries, where the burden of road injury is highest.

A joint International Transport Forum - World Bank Working Group on "Implementing the Safe System" has developed a theoretical framework to guide those seeking to implement the Safe System approach (ITF, 2022). The framework describes how to improve safety across each of the Safe System pillars through the various key components of a Safe System

The framework provides a mechanism to help identify the current level of Safe System progress, which can be applied to a project, region, country, or organisation, as well as to interventions and activities.. It can be tailored to the relevant stage of Safe System development (emerging, advancing, mature). The framework makes it possible to evaluate the extent to which an existing or planned road-safety project can be considered to align with the Safe System approach and where there is room for improvement.

The Safe System framework serves several possible purposes:

1. To provide general guidance about interventions that should be considered by countries applying the Safe System approach, depending on their stage of development:
2. To analyse the Safe System alignment of existing projects or sets of interventions to encourage improvement by evaluating lessons learned, and collecting information about possible future steps to enhance effectiveness; and
3. To assess pilots, planned Safe System projects or sets of interventions to help improve their Safe System content, identify opportunities for improvement and provide guidance to maximise effectiveness.

The Safe System framework is structured around three dimensions:

1. the five key components of the Safe System;
2. the six traditional pillars of road safety; and 
3. the three stages of development of any Safe System intervention.

The five key components build on the four fundamental principles of a Safe System by adding institutional governance as a critical enabler of a Safe System. Institutional government is required to organise government intervention covering research, funding, legislation, regulation and licencing and requires mechanisms for coordinating and funding actions as well as maintaining a focus on delivering improved road safety outcomes.

The Safe System framework is based on a matrix that can be used to describe any example of a Safe System intervention based on two dimensions: key components and pillars (see Table 4.5). Within such a matrix it is possible to define the current level of alignment to Safe System for an individual cell or any combination of cells as well as to evaluate the expected level of progress that would occur through improvements leading to better Safe System alignment. In each of the cells, improvements in safety can be made, Safe System principles can be implemented and assessed, and opportunities for improvement can be identified.

To assess progress towards a Safe System and to identify implementation gaps the framework also includes five possible stages of Safe System development (see Table 4.6) applicable to any country, region or city. At one end of the scale, an emerging system combines straightforward interventions and an initial process of co-operation and integration. At the other, a mature system combines sophisticated interventions and progress towards an ideal situation. For some countries or cities working towards Safe System implementation progress may be in the starting stage in some cells, and in the emerging or advancing stage in other cells.

At a strategic level the framework examines the combination of key components and pillars in terms of a conceptual alignment with the Safe System. For example, speed limits that aim to prevent exposure to large forces (refer Cell 4.4 or Table 4.5) are set based on human vulnerability and supported by road design, enforcement , driver education and vehicle technologies. At an operational level the framework outlines descriptions of what road-safety situations to expect in each of the three different stages of development of Safe System implementation. An example three-dimensional framework for Safer Speeds (refer Cell 4.4 of Table 4.5) is presented in Box 4.4.

box 4.4: example safe system framework for safe speeds to prevent injury (Cell 4.4)

The Working Group also present lessons from 17 case studies of road-safety interventions across the Safe System with reference to the Safe System framework in the Safe System Approach in Action  research report. The case studies demonstrate that there is no simple recipe for successful implementation of the safe System approach and requires tailor-made adjustments depending on context including consideration of the specific socio-economic circumstance of each country, city or region.

Pathway to Safe System Implementation

 The following four case studies from New Zealand, Mexico, Paraguay and Slovenia show how each country is improving road safety. New Zealand uses a safe systems approach with Mexico, Paraguay and Slovenia using the iRAP to assess the risk on the road network to allow for safety plan and programme development.