Sharing responsibility - central and local government partnership

During the last decennia, a great deal of knowledge has been developed about the effectiveness of certain measures in improving road safety. However, there is a lot less knowledge about the implementation of measures. It is exactly this implementation that eventually leads to potentially effective measures actually resulting in less traffic victims. It is the cooperation between various government departments during the implementation of measures that determines the success of policy. This proposition can be illustrated by the introduction of the ‘sustainably-safe' approach in the Netherlands. Sustainably-safe takes the point of view that the current road transport is intrinsically unsafe, and that a better implementation of existing policy will not result in a drastic reduction of the number of traffic victims. Sustainably-safe is based on the notion that mankind should be the measure of all things, and that the road user should be provided with such a traffic environment that the chance of making mistakes (with the resulting serious accidents) is reduced considerably. This sustainably-safe approach has been introduced in the Netherlands, and is now an official element of Dutch road safety policy. The introduction process was carried out with a great deal of care and intensity, in order to obtain the cooperation of all parties that bare a responsibility for road safety. The ambition was, and still is, to involve all parties in the implementation of the sustainably-safe approach. This ambition makes great demands of the introduction process.