Road safety in Maltese transport policy : does road infrastructure effectively support road safety?

Abstract

Road safety is a main concern for many stakeholders and road users alike. An increased demand in traffic brings a higher flow of cars onto the roads which calls for safer measures. To understand the challenges being faced by road safety, these are viewed in the light of the international and national context. The UN report 2011 states that countries must have effective measures of road safety features such as urban management, improved road design, independent road safety, road infrastructure audit assessments, internationally harmonized road safety laws in place. Road safety is an issue of shared responsibility shouldered collectively by all society. In the light of the above, this dissertation examines the local context of Malta‟s road safety policies and attempts to examine whether Maltese road infrastructure effectively supports road safety i.e. whether the present road infrastructure provides or hinders safety on the roads. A qualitative approach is adopted using two research instruments namely document analysis and semi-structured in-depth interviewing with key strategic actors in the transport field. The overall findings from this dissertation are that road infrastructure in Malta does not fully support road safety. The four themes - road safety is never enough, education is key, limited use of resources and lack of political will, that emerged from the in-depth interviews were thematically analysed. The findings identified some gaps in the national policies namely lack of political will and limited use of resources using document analysis.