VIA and Veilig Verkeer Nederland (the Dutch Road Safety Association) developed and launched the Road Safety Report System (RSRS) in 2012, financially supported by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment. VIA adjusted the software in such way that it is now open to NGO’s and ministries all around the world.

The Dutch have extensive experience in field of road safety. Nevertheless the number traffic casualties, cyclist in particular, increased over the past few years. The accident registration needed to be complemented by another source of road safety information. For that reason a road safety project was started in which citizens were involved. After all citizens are the experience experts. They have proven to be able to report experiences of unsafe situations accurately. In order to improve the involvement of citizens, we collaborated with road safety organizations (NGO’s). Both public road safety organizations as well as specific target organizations, such as representatives of motorcyclists and elderly, co-created. The result: the Road Safety Report System (RSRS). The Dutch RSRS is successful and therefore an important component to the Dutch national road safety policy.

Coalition

Coalition is needed to implement the RSRS successfully. The coalition is most promising if both NGO’s and ministries (national, regional and local) are involved and work together. NGO’s will be asked to facilitate and support contact with citizens. For example NGO’s have to make sure that the RSRS becomes widely known. The amount of reports is key to the success of the RSRS. Using the reports and the connection with citizens, NGO’s can get started with road safety projects.

All of the reports will be included in the Subjective Road Safety Database, available within the monitoring and analyses tool ViaStat. This database is valuable to road authorities. Subjective data allows for a preventive road safety policy. NGO’s can help in carrying out this preventive road safety policy.

Advantages

  • Citizens participate, together with NGO’s and authorities, in local projects to improve the road safety in their neighborhood.
  • NGO’s gain insight into traffic experiences and are facilitated with a tool that makes their work more effective and focused.
  • Road authorities complement the curative data (accidents) by subjective data (reports) to formulate an even more accurate road safety policy.
  • Commercial organizations are provided with the opportunity to display corporate social responsibility by sponsoring the RSRS.

RSRS is a unique opportunity for citizens, NGO’s, road authorities and commercial organizations to all cooperate in the improvement of road safety.