Improving Road Safety
in the OIC Member States
139
Safe Systems Approach
In two of the safest countries in the world, Sweden and the Netherlands, it was realized that all
of the elements, as included in the five pillars, have to work together as a system. The Swedish
Vision Zero and Dutch Sustainable Safety were the inspiration for the internationally accepted
Safe Systems Approach. There is no Safe Systems blueprint; hence it is called the Safe Systems
Approach. The approach is universally applicable, but putting Safe Systems thinking into
practice requires local knowledge and consideration.
A framework for road safety is used in this project, based on the Safe Systems Approach and the
five defined road safety pillars. This framework is used for benchmarking road safety
management in the OIC member countries is conducted as a basis for developing strategic
directions and providing policy recommendations.
Road safety development phases
A clear relationship can be established between road safety initiatives and policies and the
longer term effects on road safety, as described in Chapter 5. This pattern shows a number of
road safety development phases, i.e. establishment, growth and maturity, as indicated i
The curve indicates an increasing road safety problem, with growing number of road safety
casualties, due to rapid motorisation and an eventual reverse of the curve as a result of road
safety policy and measures. Almost all countries go through a similar phased road safety
development. As such, countries can learn from other countries that are in a similar
development phase or have proceeded to a next development phase. A country can focus on how
to best deal with the current situation, based on its current development phase, but also
anticipate on challenges ahead, linked to a next development phase.
Figure 21: Road safety development phases
Investment in road safety
Road safety casualties
Time
Establishment Growth Maturity
Typical road safety management characteristics have been developed per road safety
development phase for the five road safety pillars, as well as road safety data. These
characteristics are summarised i . These characteristics, as part of the framework for
road safety, are applied to the OIC member countries, as indicated below.