R Elvik

..At the current state of knowledge, a more stringent evaluation of the extent to which theory can explain the findings of road safety evaluation studies is, in most cases, not possible...

..These car owners might have had a higher accident rate than other car owners irrespective of the technical condition of the car...

..Brief examples, taken from road safety research, are given of all these techniques...

..It is important to assess the extent to which current value-of-life estimates depend on study methods and social context...

..Lack of control for confounding factors remains the most serious threat to the validity of road safety evaluation studies...

..These results are not statistically significant and highly uncertain. The study clearly illustrates many of the difficulties often encountered in non-experimental accident research...

..Simple before-and-after studies, not controlling for any confounding factors should never be trusted and are likely to overstate the effects of road safety measures...

..The results of evaluation studies are robust with respect to study design. There is no evidence of publication bias in evaluation studies. Study findings are found to have high external validity...

..Perhaps the most important issue for the applicability of cost-benefit analysis is whether people in general have sufficiently well ordered preferences for economic valuations based on these preferences to make sense...

..3% of the gross national product. When valuation of lost quality of life is included, costs ranged from 0.5 to 5.7% of GNP. When valuation of lost quality of life is disregarded, costs ranged from 0.3 to 2.8% of GNP...

..These analyses indicate that inclusion of these effects in cost-benefit analyses could make a major difference for the results of those analyses...

..For a number of reasons, this study must be regarded as exploratory and its results as indicative only. The study does, however, point to a line of research that might be worth pursuing in larger and more rigorous studies...

..The results of these studies are consistent with the most recent estimates of the effect on accidents of banning studded tires. It is concluded that studded tires probably confer a slight safety benefit during wintertime...

..This possibility must be regarded as a moral dilemma by advocates of Vision Zero, who have invoked the ethical principle that 'one must always do everything in one's power to prevent death or serious injury' to justify the vision...

..It is hoped that proposing a few basic mechanisms that can summarise the impact of a number of risk factors will stimulate research that may lead to a more general theory of accident causation...

..Total annual bicycle injury costs are huge, but these costs must be balanced against the benefits of bicycling, related to health and environment. Accident reporting and data should be enhanced to enable a reduction of bicycle injuries...

..During the years 1995-2004, the rates for fixed penalties for traffic offences in Norway increased substantially. This paper evaluates the effects on compliance of these increases...

..It is therefore by no means certain that the objective of reducing fatalities and serious injuries by 50% will be realised...

..The experience so far suggests that deregulation of railways is associated with improved rail safety. This association does, however, not necessarily imply a causal relationship...

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..On the whole, the research that has been reported so far regarding road safety effects of porous asphalt is inconclusive. The studies are not of high quality and the findings are inconsistent...

..These effects almost cancel each other, leading to a very small net change in the expected number of accidents...

..All cost-effective measures can be funded within current budgets, provided the use of inefficient measures ceases...

..Speed and speeding is used as an example of a road safety problem to illustrate how the various dimensions can be measured...