Symposium

Traffic Safety Culture anda Roadmap for Vision Zero
Professor Nicholas WardDirector, Center for Health and Safety Culture
7TH GLOBAL INTERACTIVE FORUM ON TRAFFIC AND SAFETY, TOKYO, 2021

Accidents
Crashes“It is difficult to expect that people will change
their behavior easily when many forcesin the social environment
conspire against such change.”[Source: Syme & Belfour, 1998]

Safe System

CultureBehavior

EU Safety 2019 Conference
Luxemburg, October 3 – 4, 2019

Social Beings

EU Safety 2019 Conference
Luxemburg, October 3 – 4, 2019

Identity[source: unsplash.com]
EU Safety 2019 Conference
Luxemburg, October 3 – 4, 2019

Cooperation[source: historiaija.blogspot.com]
EU Safety 2019 Conference
Luxemburg, October 3 – 4, 2019

BelongingGroup AcceptanceGroup Rejection[source: verywellfamily.com]
EU Safety 2019 Conference
Luxemburg, October 3 – 4, 2019

Road Users

Safety Stakeholders

Transformation
Stakeholder

Users

ActionCultureBehavior
CultureCommon Language:
Key concepts and standard terminology.

Traffic Safety Culture"Traffic safety culture encompasses the shared values,
assumptions, and beliefs that influence road user behaviors
and stakeholder actions." FHWA Compass

Safey System Approach"The safe system approach to road safety is a holistic view which
provides a framework to assess, guide and improve travel safety. At
the core of this is the need for responsibility for reducing risk to beshared by road users and those [stakeholders] who design, maintainand operate all parts of the road transport system." RoadWise Program

Vision Zero
Vision Zero represents the goal of eliminating all traffic
fatalities and serious injuries. It is a moral declaration that"zero" is the only acceptable number of traffic fatalities andserious injuries in our society.
EU Safety 2019 Conference
Luxemburg, October 3 – 4, 201913

Shared Understanding:
Understanding relationship amongst concepts.

Traffic Safety
Culture is ourfoundation.

The Safe System
Approach is ourstrategy.

Vision Zero is ourtarget.

“Creating a positive traffic safety culture (TSC) is
integral to helping our nation move toward a visionof a highway system with no fatalities.” AASHTO

RTZ Coalition

EU Safety 2019 Conference
Luxemburg, October 3 – 4, 201914

Process(Positive Culture Framework)

Research Roadmap
Step 1.
q What level is most effective (e.g., national, local)
q How to identify and recruit critical stakeholders
q How to create a “generative” vision of goal (success)Research Roadmap
Step 2.
q What is a standard measure traffic safety culture
q How to measure parts of culture that matters (beliefs, values).
q How to define and represent “shared”

Research Roadmap
Step 3.
q How to measure influence of culture
q How to analyze relationships across social ecology
q How to identify and prioritize opportunities for growthResearch Roadmap
Step 4.
q How to document and catalogue strategies across ecology
q How to align current efforts and identify gaps
q How to develop strategies (belief change) that are scalable

Research Roadmap
Step 5.
q What are best practices for pilot testing (rapid prototyping)q How to measure process of belief change
q How to measure possible psychological reactanceResearch Roadmap
Step 6.
q How to build capacity for implementation (sustainability)
q What are best practices for implementation
q How to document process to support technical transfer

Research Roadmap
Step 7.
q How to evaluate complex strategies deployed on a large
scale where true “experimental designs” are not possible
q How to create a stakeholder culture that supports“evaluative thinking”
q How to measure and maintain process with coalitions“Evaluative thinking is a cognitive process in the context of evaluation, motivated by an attitudeof inquisitiveness and a belief in the value of evidence, that involves skills such as identifying
assumptions, posing thoughtful questions, pursuing deeper understanding through reflection
and perspective taking and making informed decisions in preparation for action”(Archibald, 2013).

All of us!

Thank you!

Contact Us

Email (Nic Ward: nward@montana.edu
Phone: (406) 994-5942#CHSCulture
Join our email list for announcements on upcoming events!

www.chsculture.org