KOTI - Korea Transport institute

In 2018, New Korean Government has pledged to reduce the number of road fatalities under 2,000 by 2020. It is a rather ambitious target since it means more than a half reduction compared to that of 2017. To achieve the target it is imperative to reduce the number of fatalities from the roads managed by local governments. According to the statistics around 76.8% of fatalities has occurred in those roads whereas 23.2% has occurred in the roads managed by central governments. In this respect, this study has attempted to help local governments benchmark good practices in other governments by comparing Safety Performance Indicators (SPIs).
SPIs has been developed by applying road safety management system which made up of four categories as: (a) institutional management, (b) intervention (c) intermediate outcomes and (d) final outcome. Each category includes SPIs in view of road users, vehicles and road infrastructure. The total number of SPIs is 25. They are applied to 17 metropolitan areas and provinces in Korea. The results show that Incheon and Seoul have got the highest scores in aggregate at 89.99 and 88.86 respectively. In the area of institutional management, Incheon and Daegu have got the highest scores at 93.88 and 90.27. In the area of intervention, Incheon and Seoul have got the highest scores at 93.68 and 91.10. In the area of intermediate outcomes, Ulsan and Sejong have got the highest scores at 90.90 and 88.40. Finally in the area of the final outcomes, Seoul and Ulsan have got the highest scores at 88.35 and 88.05 respectively.
The evaluation and comparison of SPIs for local governments in Korea will guide to identify the strong and weak points of local governments comparatively when it comes to the road safety management system. It surely helps local governments find solutions to improve road safety since no local governments wish to leave SPIs with lower scores unchanged. It should enhance accountability of local government for safer road system in Korea.