Adaptive nature of coordinated road traffic injury prevention responses in some OECD countries

Canoquena, Joao Manuel da Costa; King, Mark · 2015 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2015.06.008

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Summary

This study investigates the context, triggers, and strategic preferences for coordinated road traffic injury prevention responses at the local level in selected OECD countries. While global road traffic fatalities remain high, particularly in low- and middle-income nations, high-income OECD countries have achieved steady declines through coordinated, multi-sectoral approaches. However, existing literature lacks insight into how these coordinated responses are practically implemented at the county or municipal level, where enforcement and strategy execution occur. The research aims to fill this gap by examining practitioners’ perspectives on coordination, addressing the need for actionable knowledge to facilitate the transfer of successful road safety strategies to other regions. The authors employed a mixed-methodology design involving qualitative interviews and a quantitative survey. First, 22 semi-structured interviews were conducted with road safety experts from five OECD countries (primarily Australia, with participants from Sweden, the UK, New Zealand, and Finland). Participants were selected based on at least five years of experience in local-level road safety coordination. The interview data were analyzed inductively to identify themes regarding the context and coping strategies of coordination. Second, a self-administered online survey was distributed to professional stakeholders across seven OECD nations. Of 269 invited participants, 31 completed the survey. The survey utilized five-point Likert scales to measure agreement with statements concerning resource limitations, inter-dependence, and various coordination mechanisms, including legal mandates and funding structures. Statistical analysis included frequency distributions and Chi-square tests to examine relationships between respondent characteristics and coordination preferences. The findings reveal that local-level coordination is characterized by resource limitations and inter-dependence among stakeholders. Qualitative analysis identified a range of coping strategies, such as partnering with community groups, seeking industry input, and leveraging existing relationships to mitigate resource scarcity. Quantitative results confirmed that the primary trigger for coordinated responses is the realization of resource dependency; 67.7% of survey respondents agreed that joint work is initiated due to insufficient individual resources, and 74.2% acknowledged inter-dependence among stakeholders. Regarding strategic preferences, experts favored informal, adaptive mechanisms, specifically self-organizing community groups and the funding of community partnerships. Conversely, the study found little support for formalizing coordinated responses through legal mandates or rigid hierarchical structures. The study concludes that coordinated road traffic injury prevention at the local level is inherently adaptive, driven by mutual understanding of resource scarcity rather than top-down legislative requirements. The authors suggest that national models and legislation should focus on identifying opportunities to interact with and fund self-organized community groups rather than imposing formal coordination mandates. This perspective implies that effective road safety implementation relies on flexible, partnership-based approaches that leverage existing community networks and stakeholder inter-dependency, offering a practical framework for other nations seeking to adopt coordinated injury prevention strategies.

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Topics

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• comparative international
• regulatory evaluation
• incidence prevalence
• traffic safety culture

Information type

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• Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation
• Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes