Expected Effects of In-Service Road Safety Reviews

Abstract

Despite the popularity of in-service road safety review as an effective tool to identify the safety problems on roads, there have been very few studies performed to gauge its benefits. This study analysed collision data on selected in- service road safety review locations in Alberta to examine whether the reviews are associated with any reduction in collisions on roads to provide policy makers with some evidence on which to base future investment decisions. Our results showed that the expected reductions in collision are highly sensitive to the evaluation methodology used. Association of Canada (TAC) has recently published two guides to conducting road safety audits (5) and in-service road safety reviews (6). The Alberta Traffic Safety Plan has also recommended maintaining the government's commitment to ongoing road safety audits and in-service road safety reviews to improve road safety. Despite the increasing use of such reviews and the enormous amount of resources invested to improve safety on Albertan roads, very few studies have been conducted to examine the overall effectiveness of conducting these reviews. Though there have been some studies around the globe on the effectiveness of such reviews, these evaluations (7-8) tend to focus on the success or failure of the implemented recommendations and not on the impact of the review itself. The decision to invest in the review however, has to be based solely on the expected benefits of conducting the review itself and not on the expected benefits of implementing the individual recommendations from the review. Hence, there is a strong need to look at the effectiveness of such reviews in the aggregate level in order to make proper use of economic resources in future. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of in- service road safety reviews in Alberta to get an insight on whether such reviews are, on average, expected to reduce the number of collisions on roads. In addition, this study will also examine the robustness of the result with respect to different model specifications and evaluation methods used.