The role of safety research in road safety management

Mobility is a matter of great importance in daily life: However, it also causes costs and involves accident risks. To make mobility safer and reduce accident risks, a scientifically based road safety management is needed. Within such a safety management system, a concert of adequate and efficient strategies, tools and measures is developed and implemented. To ensure that the chosen means are efficient they should be derived from research evidence. Secondly, research is also needed to regularly monitor the impact of road safety management tools, serving as a “controlling instrument” for the appropriateness of safety management efforts. This article explains the main strategic aspects of safety management in Germany and illustrates it exemplarily on the basis of two recently implemented road safety measures.