Our Journey towards the Safe System. Where are we and what do we need to do?
Today, Agilysis publish a new white paper which evaluates the current climate in the UK for delivery of a Safe Systems approach in Road Safety. Expanding on the work and results from the Safe System Capacity Survey published in summer of 2022, this white paper is intended to empower stakeholders to better understand where we are and what the sector needs to do to make tangible progress towards a Safe System.
Professionals and practitioners across the road safety sector have understood for decades that enhancing the level of safety experienced by all who use our road transport system is a social mission, a precondition to the improvement of society and the realisation of equitable and sustainable mobility.
In the UK, the permeation of the Safe System approach into national road safety and broader transport policy is a relatively recent development; a process still in its early stages. In 2015, the Department for Transport acknowledged the Safe System approach for the first time as a key priority in building a safer road transport system at the national level.
To meet the internationally agreed UN target to halve the number of road deaths and serious injuries by 2030 (WHO, 2021), road safety in the UK must be radically re-galvanized based on this approach, if we are serious about fulfilling the promise of Vision Zero and providing global leadership to unify our efforts into a shared strategy. Common approaches will only be achieved through honest appraisal of current performance and will require dialogue between those actors in all areas of the Safe System.
Tanya Fosdick, Research Director at Agilysis says that “The Safe System Capacity Survey was the first step towards understanding the state of play in the UK, and just how well prepared we all are for delivering on a safe systems approach in road safety”.
The Safe System Capacity Survey has been used to diagnose where we are as a sector on this journey, bringing into focus what we need to do and the next steps for us all. The aim of this exercise was to present a snapshot of current sectoral capacity to understand, apply, and implement the Safe System at all levels. This has allowed us to identify areas of strategic focus where comprehensive efforts are currently being made, as well as gaps and looming vulnerability in the system where capacity is most in need of expansion and attention.
The detailed findings have been outlined within the new white paper. The intention is to open the Safe System Capacity Survey once again in the Summer of 2023 to further explore our collective competencies as a sector to understand, apply, and embed safe system principles and actions, within road safety.
The whitepaper can be downloaded and read via our publications page here.
