Abstract:
Overseeing road safety progress at regular intervals has and will continue to be advocated as the most promising means to achieve continuous safety improvement. Thus, a scientific approach that can be capable of doing so is disparately required. This study aims to propose a brand-new and efficient methodology for overseeing overall road safety progress at the regional level. To this end, CV-PROMETHEE Ⅱ-JSS, which seamlessly incorporates Coefficient of Variation (CV), Preference Ranking Organization METHod for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE), and Joint Singular value decomposition and Semi-discrete decomposition (JSS) in an integrative manner, is developed. Specifically, this is designed to combine the retrospective examination and benchmarking analysis in a comprehensive and systematic framework. Based on the proposed methodology, the road safety development of the European Union (EU) Member States is examined over the past decade (2010–2020), whilst simultaneously benchmarking safety performance looking forward to the next decade (2020–2030). As a result, a detailed picture of changes in road safety for each country is quantitatively depicted, providing policymakers with deeper insights into how progress was achieved. The appropriate benchmarks are also scientifically identified for each laggard member to use as a meaningful reference, which largely avoids the need for reinventing the wheel and trial and error approaches. This study provides the EU27 + 3 countries with a practical paradigm to perform both diagnostics and treatment to improve overall road safety levels in an effective way; supporting the government officials and policymakers in the charting of future strategic directions and intervention priorities, and helping them define ways to accelerate action on proven strategies and policies for better lives. Moreover, this study enriches the existing Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) mechanism by introducing the CV-PROMETHEE Ⅱ-JSS, and implies its feasibility and effectiveness in future MCDM cases involving safety-related issues.
