Road Traffic Safety Research and Education in Israel – Peer review ...

קרן רן נאור לקידום מחקר בטיחות בדרכים
R A N N A O R F O U N D A T I O N
for advancemenent of road safety research
Road traffic safety research and
education in Israel
Peer review by an International Experts' Advisory Committee

Dear Reader
March 2007
We have the pleasure to present you a copy of the final report of an International
Experts' Advisory Committee on the subject of:
" Road Traffic Safety Research and Education in Israel".
The experts were invited by the Ran Naor Foundation for the Advancement
of Road Safety Research and Yad Hanadiv (the Rothschild Foundation) in
the thought that independent road safety experts of international standing
could provide useful insights concerning the scope and quality of road safety
research in Israel, identify strengths and gaps, and recommend improvements.
The preparation of the next generation of road safety research and the planning
and implementation of research were an integral part of the evaluation. The
Committee completed its review in December 2006.
We believe this report provides, for the first time, a comprehensive description
of road safety research in Israel.
The Ran Naor Foundation has already taken a decision to work towards
implementation of the recommendations, both in its own work and at the
National level, in cooperation with other agencies funding road safety research.
We hope the report will be of use to you in your road safety work.
Sincerely,
Avi Naor
Chairman of the Board,
Ran Naor Foundation
Ariel Weiss
Director
Yad Hanadiv
(the Rothschild Foundation)

Table of Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 The aim of the report
1.2 The road safety situation in Israel
1.3 International thinking on road safety
1.4 The implications for road safety research in Israel
5
6
7
8
10
2 Current state of affairs in Israel
2.1 Road safety research
2.2 Clients of research
2.3 Professional education and practitioner training
2.4 Knowledge transfer
2.5 International cooperation
13
13
14
14
15
17
3 Conclusions and recommendations
3.1 Organization and funding of research and professional education
3.2 Future road safety research themes
21
21
24
4 References
29
5 Annexes
31
Annex I
Annex II
Annex III
Annex IV
Annex V
Annex VI
The International Experts' Advisory Committee
The Terms of Reference
Excerpt from the Sheinin-report
The providers of research
The clients of research
PowerPoint presentation
31
32
34
37
41
47

Book Name
5
Introduction
Israel’s ambition to reduce the number of casualties (killed and injured people) of road
crashes has recently been reconfirmed by the government through the approval of a national
programme for road safety based on the so-called Sheinin-report (named after the chairman
of the committee that prepared the report) (Sheinin, 2005). Further, The Knesset on the
12th of July 2006 approved the Governmental proposal to establish a strengthened National
Road Safety Authority with significantly increased funding. On 29 November 2006, when
addressing the 5th Or Yarok road safety conference the Prime-Minister Mr. Ehud Olmert
publicly announced that Israel will work with a quantitative target for road safety and set a
target of no more than 300 deaths per annum by the year 2015.
Israel’s position in setting quantitative targets is not unique; many countries take a similar
position. The European Union has a quantitative target of a 50% reduction in the number of
fatalities over the ten years 2000 - 2010 (European Commission, 2001); other countries such as
individual EU member states, Australia, USA and Canada have set similar targets, with the
Russian Federation being a recent example (ECMT, 2006). At the highest level of government the
wish has been expressed in some countries to reduce the death toll on the roads, by for example
president Chirac in his so-called Bastille-speech on 14 July 2002 and president Putin when he
addressed the Duma in 2005 and 2006. Developing countries are also starting to put road safety
higher on their political agenda (Peden et al.,, 2004, Commission for Global Road Safety, 2006).
Road safety has been improved dramatically in many highly-motorized countries. The number
of fatalities in the Netherlands, for example, decreased from more than 3200 in 1972 to about
800 in 2005, a reduction of 75% in thirty years, despite motorisation increasing dramatically
along with the number of kilometres travelled. Other countries are able to report similar
successful developments. In Israel too, the number of fatalities decreased from 740 in the
early 1970’s to less than 400 in the mid 1980’s, however it has since remained around 450
fatalities in the 2000’s. Despite these gains road trauma remains the single major cause of
premature death in motorised societies.
About 23,000 people died in Israel due to wars and terrorism since the birth of
the State of Israel. About 29,000 died in a road crash in the same time period.
Source: Central Bureau of Statistics Israel
A wealth of evidence is available from all over the world suggesting that at least a part of
these improvements is caused by many successful road safety interventions (Johnston,
2006, Peden et al., 2004, Wegman et al., 2006). Modern cars are safer for their occupants
than cars built twenty, or even only ten years ago, modern planning and design of roads and
streets result in lower crash and injury risks. Legislation and enforcement of important safety
behaviours, such as drinking and driving, using safety belts and speed management, have
resulted in major steps forward in many countries during the last two to three decades, as
have improvements in trauma care.

6
1. Introduction
7
1. Introduction
1.1 The aim of the
report
These reductions in the number of road casualties and even more in the risks run on our
roads have resulted not only in substantially less pain and suffering of those involved in road
crashes but also in greatly reduced economic costs to society.
In recent years several steps were taken to improve road safety in Israel, not least due to the
activities of Or Yarok. The Sheinin report (Sheinin, 2005) did a sound analysis of road safety
in Israel - see also Annex 3. - and the report contains several important recommendations.
The Minister of Transport and Road Safety established a new National Road Safety Authority
to consolidate road safety policies and to minimize the number of road traffic crashes and,
as already noted, recently a law was accepted by the Knesset approving this reorganization
and providing its financial base. These can be considered as important first steps towards
intensified efforts to bring down the toll of road crashes in Israel; the next steps will be to
focus on the implementation of sound strategies and countermeasures. In preparing for the
Sheinin report's implementation, the institutional changes of the Government and the road
safety law, it became evident that acute problems exist with the road safety knowledge and
research base in Israel. An International Experts' Advisory Committee (see Annex 1) was
invited to study the current state of affairs on road safety research and academic education
and to recommend ways to improve the situation. The invitation was sent out by two
foundations: the Ran Naor Foundation for the Advancement of Road Safety Research and Yad
Hanadiv (the Rothschild Foundation). Both foundations expressed their desire to contribute
to further improvements in the field of road safety research. By implication it was stated that
Israel could not solely rely on international research. National capacity is needed to identify
local problems and needs and to assess the effects of interventions (ex-ante and ex-post).
Developing research capacity nationally is a critical underpinning for effective evidencebased
strategies, policies and practices and essential for Israel to achieve its stated goals of
a reduced road toll.
The members of this International Experts' Advisory Committee met in Israel in mid July
2006. A full week programme was prepared. For this visit extensive background information
was collected and studied. Study of the background material and initial discussions of the
committee resulted in a proposal on how to structure the final report and how to structure
interviews and discussions with our colleagues from the academic world and the potential
clients of research results. Due to unexpected events in Israel the visit had to be curtailed.
However, initial thoughts of the committee were formed and preliminarily documented in
an interim report. This initial and informal exchange of opinions and ideas supported the
preparations for the committee’s second visit in late November 2006, to complete its tasks.
In this full week programme, visits were paid to providers (universities) and clients of road
safety research (see Annexes 4 and 5). At the end of this week the initial results were presented
to both Foundations (see Annex 6).
The aims of the Advisory Committee as formulated by the Ran Naor Foundation and Yad
Hanadiv were to:
. Produce a detailed report summarizing the current state of Israel’s research in the area of
road safety, and the state of academic education in that area.
. Produce a report outlining directions, research activities and goals that should set clear
guidelines for the future of road safety research in Israel.
. Provide a detailed set of recommendations as to how best to achieve the outlined goals.
. Recommend international research collaboration in the area of road safety.
. Discuss successful models from other countries.
It was anticipated that the respective roles of academia, government and NGO’s be identified,
highlighting the areas to which non-governmental support might most appropriately and
effectively be directed.
In the Terms of Reference it was stated that the Advisory Committee should address the
following questions:
Suggest a system to develop the next generation of researchers.
. Define the research needs in road safety in Israel, research activities and suggested
priorities.
. Define the needs of academic education in road safety:
The level of education (1st, 2nd and 3rd degree).
The leading areas of education (engineering/human factor/public policy/public health etc.)
. The optimal system to promote research according to needs (calls for papers, small teams
of researchers, specialists in a specific field of research, study location at the ‘Ran Naor
Foundation’ for the period of research, ‘tender’, international exchange of researchers).
. Other topics that the Committee considers appropriate.
Over the last years there has not been a clear and consistent trend in the number of fatalities.
Although during the last two years there has been a reduction of about 10% each in fatalities,
this cannot yet be considered a sustained downward trend. (fig 1).
road fatalities in Israel
Figure 1.
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
1990 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
In terms of fatalities per population the record of Israel is good compared with many other
countries. However, due to the low level of motorization, the level of fatalities per vehicles
or per million vehicle-kms travelled is high compared with those countries with very good
safety records. Figure 2 represents Israel benchmarked against nine European countries:
three Western European countries leading in road safety: Sweden, the United Kingdom and
the Netherlands; Three Southern European countries: Spain, Portugal and Greece; and three
Central European countries: Czech republic, Hungary and Slovenia.(fig 2).
1.2. The road safety
situation in Israel
Road Fatalities in Israel
Development of the number of
road fatalities
in Israel in the period
1990 - 2006
(Central Bureau of Statistics-
Annual reports)

8
1. Introduction
9
1. Introduction
Figure 2. Road safety situations
in SUNflower+6 countries and
Israel for 2001-2003 (mean value)
as personal safety (fatalities per
100 000 inhabitants) versus traffic
safety rate (fatalities per 10 000
vehicles)
source Wegman et al.,
2006 and CBS,2005)
A description of some key-findings of the road safety situation, as appears in the Sheinin
report, is attached in Annex 2
Personal safety
International comparison – SUN + 6
2. International Comparison - SUN +6
IL
Period Characteristic
1900 - 1920 Crashes as chance phenomena
1920 - 1950 Crashes caused by the crash-prone
1940 - 1960 Crashes are mono-causal
1950 - 1980 A combination of crash causes fitting within a ‘system approach’
1980 - 2000 The road user is the weak link: more behavioural influence
2000 - - Better implementation of existing policies
- Systems management perspective, such as ‘Sustainably Safety' in the
Netherlands and Vision Zero in Sweden
It is important to understand that there are various ideas among road safety professionals
about what the most important crash causes are, and what the best ways to prevent them are.
A discussion about these paradigms can possibly uncover a difference of insight, and then lead
to a consensus. Social organizations can make an important contribution to these discussions
among professionals and with the public. This difference in insight is just as important if one
is trying, for certain road safety measures, to win the support of social organizations and
interest groups, and ultimately the population and the politicians. Obviously, the support of
the population is critical for winning political support in many countries. Various groups play
an important part in this: politicians, social organizations, scientific institutes, policy makers,
civil servants and the media. There are complicated interactions that do not follow fixed
patterns, and their results are not predictable. In any case, it is important that such debate
and discussions will be conducted on the basis of solid evidence, coming from road safety
research and results in concensus amongst key stakeholders and road safety professionals
in Israel.
During the last few years we have seen the appearance of two main lines (paradigms) in
road safety. The first one is especially aimed at effective and efficient policy implementation.
A lot of information has become available about many road safety interventions (see e.g.
Elvik & Vaa, 2004, Johnston, 2006), and the idea here is not so much to develop new policy
interventions but to improve the quality of implementing existing ones using evidencebased
or research-based information. Greater effectiveness is a matter of scale and quality.
Improving road safety in such a way that the number of casualties substantially decreases,
generally requires a considerable effort, given the relatively low frequency of crashes, their
low densities in space, and the modest effects of most safety interventions. Large enough
scale is a matter of sufficient means. There is also the quality of interventions and with it not
only the effectiveness, but also the efficiency of investments; as much possible effect per
invested NIS. Knowledge and expertise are features of quality, and promoting road safety
requires professional knowledge and should not be left to well-meaning amateurs. The
second one is the Sustainable Safety concept (see e.g. Wegman & Aarts, 2006) and Vision
Zero from Sweden (Tingvall & Haworth, 1999). This paradigm starts from two observations:
a) the current traffic system is inherently dangerous and b) intensifying current efforts (the
first paradigm) could lead to fewer casualties indeed, but not to substantially safer traffic. For
substantially safer traffic a paradigm shift is needed.
Table 1. Road safety ‘causes’
as seen in time
(derived from OECD, 1997)
Traffic safety rate
Personal safety – average fatalities in 2001-2003 for 100,000 population
Traffic safety - average fatalities in 2001-2003 for 10,000 vehicles
Personal safety - average fatalities in 2001-2003 for 100,000 population
Traffic safety - average fatalities in 2001-2003 for 10,000 vehicles
1.3 International
thinking on road
safety
”Human action is a contributory factor in over 90% of road crashes. The principal emphasis of
all road safety strategies must therefore be on improving road user behaviour. This behaviour
needs to be informed and trained, and to be modified, so as to improve interaction between
road users, to ensure consideration for others and to reduce risk. In this way a culture of
road use is created that is both precautionary and proactive in relation to road safety”. These
sorts of sentences can be found in many policy reports on road safety and while superficially
appealing, have held back safety progress.
Human errors (in observations, decisions, and actions) play their part in just about every
crash, and the point is to eliminate them; and if they still do occur, not to let them lead to
severe consequences. This sentence gives the impression that human errors are much more
important than errors in road design, and that vehicle factors hardly play a part in causing
crashes. A second conclusion for a superficial reader could be that crashes should mainly be
combated by behavioural changes to be achieved by police surveillance, education, public
information, and driving courses. Furthermore, it could be concluded that technical measures
could prevent only a marginal part of all crashes. These conclusions are not logical and,
moreover, do not reflect the most recent road safety insights.
During the years of motorized traffic, there have been very many different ways of tracing
crash causes, and how they can best be avoided. Table 1 presents, by means of a few words,
what the dominant thoughts in the OECD countries were (see also OECD, 1997).

10
1. Introduction
1.4 The Implications
for Road Safety
Research in Israel
There is no process at present for setting an effective national road safety research agenda in
Israel. An effective process is one which brings together the end users (or clients) of the research
outputs, the research funders and the research providers. At present, road safety research is
organized along lines of commissioned, incidental grants, which can be won in competition.
Topics of research are determined by individual clients of research. Little coordination and
cooperation between providers and clients of research has been observed by the Advisory
Committee. This lack of coordination and continuity most probably has resulted in diminished
quality and efficiency of road safety research in Israel. Career development is not seriously
dealt with, making it less attractive to work in this field for an extended period of time.
The Advisory Committee recommends organizing such that a national road safety research
agenda will be established; however, while establishing such a process is an essential step,
it is not sufficient in itself. First, a change is required in the way road safety is conceptualized
in Israel. As a generalization, road safety appears to be viewed as an inevitable by-product of
road transport development; a by-product dominated by inappropriate road user behaviour,
idiosyncratic but with strong socio-cultural underpinnings.
As presented in 1.3., those highly motorized countries with the best road safety records share
a common belief that road trauma results from characteristics of the road transport system
design and its operation and that human error and behaviour is best approached from a
systems management perspective.
For a truly effective research agenda setting process to emerge, this belief needs to become
a shared value of clients, funders and providers. It is not that attitude, personality, individual
behaviour and cultural context are unimportant - far from it - it is rather that conceiving
behaviour as an element of a complex road transport system has proven the most valuable
path to effective safety interventions.
The second fundamental need for effective research agenda setting is a systematic process
for problem identification and prioritization. Taking the topic of trauma as an example, what
are the trends in trauma What are the emerging problems and what is currently known about
those that comprise the largest components of overall trauma What has worked so far and
what has not And why Those nations with the best road safety records have systematic
mechanisms for monitoring progress, evaluating their actions and interactively improving
their interventions as a result. At present, in Israel, it is the impression of the Advisory
Committee that there is:
. Little systematic issue monitoring and problem identification (and none that is integrated
across narrow agency interests). For example the lack of systematic research upon the
pedestrian safety problem (one third of the fatalities in Israel) was a surprising finding.
. Rather too much emphasis upon research focused upon individual and cultural determinants
of behaviour and rather too little upon the system implications of road use.
. Almost no research attention on the public policy process, particularly the dynamics of
inter- and intra-organizational attitudes and behaviour, despite the importance of these to
effective planning for - and implementation of - road safety countermeasure programmes.
Fortunately, these relative weaknesses can be addressed. The opportunity provided by a
renewed interest in a systematic research programme and the commitment to a revitalised
national authority provide the means to lead this change in thinking and approach.

13
2. Current state of affairs in Israel
The International Experts' Advisory Committee decided it would be worthwhile not
only to pay attention to road safety research and academic education in this field, as
stated in the Terms of Reference, but also to introduce the clients of research and the
users of road safety knowledge and research results as key players.
Based on the documentation submitted by several research groups and institutes, which the
Advisory Committee received before and during our July and November visits, we deduced
that some relevant research areas are reasonably well covered in Israel (traffic engineering,
human factors, public health), while others are largely missing (public policy, economic
evaluation and modelling, spatial/transportation planning). Most importantly we found
limited capacities to analyse road crashes at a general level, or to evaluate interventions to
improve road safety (ex-ante or ex-post). Although the National Road Safety Administration,
the Central Bureau of Statistics and the National Police produce overviews of road safety
developments regularly, an impartial and continuous analysis trying to explain developments
in road crashes and link these to implemented policies, is not common practice. This capacity
is urgently needed when Israel starts to develop strategies to achieve quantitative road
safety targets.
A second observation is that, for the most part, research activities take place in isolation.
There is no obvious coordination. Research groups define their own areas of interests and
priorities, or respond to requests for proposals (RFP ’s). Problem statements have very much
an academic nature. A strong partnership between research providers and the end users of
research results appears to be lacking.
It was not the task of the Advisory Committee to audit the quality of the individual projects
that comprise the road safety research effort in Israel. However, from the material submitted
as well as from the meetings and visits to universities and research institutes, the Committee
formed the view that the quality at the individual project and researcher level seems to be
sound. Much of the research has been published in peer reviewed journals, researchers
participate in international conferences and forums and several researchers participate in
international (e.g. by the European Union sponsored) research projects. All research groups
expressed their ambition and interests in additional financing for their research.
Research groups work to a large extent with hired/junior staff and students and only a few
examples were presented to the Committee on systematic programmes for scholarships,
PhD-programmes, post-doc-programmes or other forms of sustainable research training in
road safety. We acknowledge that the Ran Naor Foundation runs M.Sc and PhD scholarships
and so does, to a limited extent the Road Safety Authority. The Committee was informed that
from 2006 on, the Ran Naor Foundation will co-finance two graduate programmes in road
safety to be run at Ben Gurion University and at the Technion.
Only a few research groups have developed a tradition to communicate their research results
with potential clients.
2.1 Road safety
research

14
2. Current state of affair in Israel
15
2. Current state of affair in Israel
2.2 Clients of
research
2.3 Professional
education and
practitioner training
The Advisory Committee concludes that the road safety research effort in Israel should be
strengthened, structured and coordinated in many areas in order to form a solid scientific
basis to support policy making, without interfering with the impartiality of the researchers.
The Committee sees quite some opportunities to do so, especially through the formation
of a partnership between the research providers and the end users. Given the existing
research quality and the interests expressed to contribute to research growth, the basics
for a productive partnership exist. A system of quality assurance should be developed.
International collaboration should be formalised and expanded.
Generally speaking, the Advisory Committee defined the following major client groups for
results of safety research: the Ministry of Transport and Road Safety, the National Road
Safety Authority, (an independent part of the Ministry of Transport and Road Safety with an
advisory function), the National Traffic Police, the Central Bureau of Statistics, the National
Roads Company, Or Yarok and local authorities. Further clients can be found in various other
ministries, NGO’s, the public health sector, the educational sector, the physical planning
sector, politicians, the press and the public.
The Advisory Committee found only a few indications of a structured, systematic relationship
between the results of research and its use by potential clients, or even between the research
community and its potential clients. Of course, various research projects are commissioned,
but in neither the general direction setting of road safety research nor the translation of actual
research projects into an implementation process could a clear link be discovered between
the research results and the actions of decision/policy makers and practitioners.
The conclusion can be drawn that policy making in Israel does not fully profit from road safety
research results, nor is it fully using the available knowledge and capacities in this field. The
Advisory Committee found no good explanation. We have the impression that policy makers
and researchers do not - as a general rule - know each other personally. It may be explained
by the fact that Israel fails to have a high profile road safety policy so far and, consequently,
no real interest in partnerships as can be found in many countries (at least the four countries
represented in the Committee). But Israel seems to have no tradition in bringing together the
policy makers and researchers. Nobody feels him/herself responsible to bridge this gap. No
organization is held responsible for this. The Advisory Committee learned during the 5th Or
Yarok Annual Conference that this in the future (legalised by law) will be one of the duties of
the new National Road Safety Authority. starting in January 2007.
The Advisory Committee found two types of educational activities ongoing in Israel.
These are discussed separately.
Professional Education
Improving road safety and carrying out road safety research are activities which require
adequate education in order to deliver good quality. Road safety problems require public
expenditure which, in turn, deserves an appropriate professional understanding of the nature
of road crashes and how best to prevent them. For all involved in road safety policy a certain
level of knowledge and understanding of road safety is required, this is the case at both the
national and the local level.
There are programmes in Israel specifically granting graduate level degrees with specialization
in road safety. A small number of trained researchers emerge from these programmes. To
take full advantage of these graduates a career path must be available. Without a continuing
and consistent base of funding for road safety research such paths are rare. Hence many
graduates move to other fields or other countries. Also, continuing funding makes succession
planning and development possible, a necessity given the scarcity and age of full professors
of road safety at present in Israel.
To increase the number and quality of new road safety researchers, resources supporting
graduate study are important. Recently the Ran Naor foundation began providing scholarships
for a Masters level road safety graduate programme at the Technion and Ben Gurion
Universities. Hopefully, this can be expanded to accommodate more road safety graduate
students if other universities are also involved. This would provide support for a greater
diversity of disciplines needed in road safety research and programmes.
All of the universities performing road safety research do so on a project by project basis,
e.g. relatively short term and on very specific topics. This does not provide the continuity or
flexibility of resources needed to build and sustain a truly functional road safety academic and
research programme. The Advisory Committee recommends that mechanisms and resources
be developed to allow this type of capacity building for road safety research in Israel. See
section 3.1 for suggestions on models to do this.
Practitioner Training
To strengthen the road safety programme in Israel, training is needed for the safety and
safety-related practitioners. A wide spectrum of jobs is included in this category. This means
that road safety officers in local jurisdictions, traffic law enforcement, judiciary, highway
maintenance and public health workers to name but a few types of jobs, need to be trained
to varying degrees in road safety.
Bar Ilan University provides a two-year certificate programme which is regularly attended by
practitioners. Additional types of training of varying lengths, technical content complexity
and specificity would fill the training needs of those entering road safety jobs and of those
already in road safety and related jobs.
To assume a baseline of knowledge, skill and understanding of road safety workers, both
professionals and practitioners, a set of core competencies could be the basis for curriculum
development. Once these fundamentals are known, education and training would continue
into more technical detail or specialization. See, for example, Core Competencies for Highway
Safety Professionals (Research Results Digest 302, 2006), available from the Transportation
Research Board, USA (www.trb.org).
Different types of awareness and training materials may also be useful for people who are
not in road safety or related careers but would benefit from knowledge about road safety.
Decision makers, e.g. elected officials, and media who regularly cover transportation news are
two examples. An important feature for these groups is the ‘conceptualisation’ of road safety.
Research on effective communication techniques with such groups may be appropriate.
Knowledge transfer is an important aspect of any policy field, in order to design and implement
effective and efficient policies and intervention practices and so it is for road safety research.
This knowledge not only relates to the ‘what to do question’ but should also deal with the
‘how to do it’ This knowledge is broader than actual research findings. Often new research
2.4. Knowledge
transfer

16
2. Current state of affair in Israel
17
2. Current state of affair in Israel
findings have to be brought into the existing stock-of-knowledge. Organizations having
responsibility for policy development and implementation should direct their staff to fully
profit from available knowledge, professionals involved in road safety policies, whatever
their position, should be trained to use and trust impartial knowledge arriving from road
safety researchers coming from either Israel or coming from abroad.
The researchers have an obligation to ensure that their results are correctly understood and
interpreted. Both sides have to learn to play and consider themselves as partners.
It is the Committee’s impression that not enough emphasis is put on implementation of road
safety research and knowledge, both on the part of the researchers and on the part of those
who commission research.
On the part of the researchers, more emphasis should be put on making research results
widely known and available. This could be done through workshops, internet sites and joint
committees with research sponsors. Universities should bring this important aspect into their
systems of crediting researchers.
The preparation of fact sheets and position papers is also a well established and recommended
method of dissemination, and, obviously, relevant information can be made easily accessible
through the Internet.
Some knowledge transfer activities do exist on the part of the various research sponsors.
Both the National Road Safety Authority and the Ran Naor Foundation hold workshops with
professionals and researchers, where new findings from road safety studies are presented
and discussed. The Land Division of the Ministry of Transport also holds implementation
meetings where new or recent knowledge is discussed and distributed. One technique to
speed up the implementation process is to involve research users in project oversight so that
they can develop implementation plans at the same time as the project is concluding.
A few examples can be provided of successful attempts of knowledge transfer in Israel:
1. The Land Division of the Ministry of Transport commissioned the preparation of guidelines
for traffic calming in residential areas. A steering committee of some 20-30 professionals from
all agencies involved in this subject regularly met to evaluate interim progress and findings.
At the end of the project a manual was produced which received wide circulation and was put
on the internet site of the Land Division. A similar process is followed on other guidelines and
projects that the Land Division commissions.
2. A similar process has been developed for all guidelines prepared as the result of the
Commission on road safety devices chaired by the Land Division of the MOT. Subjects cover
crash barriers, crash cushions, barriers at road works, raised pavement markers and more. The
preparation of guidelines is accompanied by a steering committee of some 30 professionals
from most agencies involved. The finished guidelines are generally discussed at a conference
and a workshop and then put on the website of the Land Division. Further training courses are
then conducted with other parts of the safety community.
3. Or Yarok took part in the SARTRE III survey with comparison to 23 European countries. The
results were widely publicized. In particular, results relating to self reports on driving under
the influence and number of times checked for alcohol, were presented to the police. The
very low performance of Israel compared to other countries, in conjunction with a literature
review on random breath tests, were instrumental in inviting the police to adopt a new policy
for alcohol checks. This policy resulted in increasing the number of yearly alcohol checks from
2,000 to 20,000 in 2006, and setting a target of 90,000 alcohol checks for 2007.
4. Or Yarok initiated a proposal for a comprehensive Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL)
process for young new drivers. The proposal was based on: world-wide research, experts'
opinions, and dedicated surveys evaluating public acceptance of the new suggested system.
The results were presented to all relevant stakeholders during a workshop for which two
international experts were invited. Later on, the adjusted GDL process was presented to the
new Minister of Transport and Road Safety who is currently pursuing an overall effort to adopt
such a system.
To conclude, on the part of the road safety authorities and professionals a greater effort
should be made to cause a wider dissemination and implementation of the research findings.
The results of research should be used in policy development, whether it is in regulations,
laws, engineering programmes, public education or other activities. This is what is known as
evidence-based decision making.
It seems impossible and a waste of resources for any country in the world to carry out all
the necessary research on its own. A lot of research knowledge is available world-wide in
technical reports and in scientific journals. Every country should develop capacities to digest
this knowledge, to understand the implications of research results from abroad and adapt
it to its conditions. This component of international cooperation seems well performed by
Israel’s universities concerning their specialist topics of road safety research.
Another component of international cooperation is studying abroad or participating in
foreign research projects. This kind of international project-level collaboration also seems
widespread among Israel’s scientific community, however possibilities for deepening and
broadening this collaboration were detected by the Advisory Committee.
A lot of the universities visited by the Advisory Committee were in favour of participating
in international research projects to improve their research competence. Entering the
international research network is considered as a very good means to speed up knowledge
growth and continuous knowledge transfer and the Advisory Committee supports this view
strongly. International cooperation is assumed even more necessary for a small country
like Israel to maintain and improve continuously the competence level of its scientific
community.
The Committee can illustrate this view with the following example. A long-term fruitful
bilateral cooperation exists between the Technion and the BASt (German Federal Highway
Research Institute) on the basis of a Memorandum of Understanding. Both sides profit from
this collaboration. This example could be used as a model for other bilateral international
cooperation between universities in Israel and other research institutes abroad.
In spite of the high quality of the visited research institutes the committee found only limited
and not permanent organized participation of researchers from Israel in international road
safety research. There is some participation in the EU Research and development programmes,
but it seems mostly being organized by individual researchers and not at the level of research
institutes or as consortia between institutes. The Advisory Committee recommends to
consider partnerships or memberships of international organizations such as,
. FERSI (Forum of European Road Safety Research Institutes)
. FEHRL (Forum of European Highway Research Laboratories)
. ECTRI (European Conference of Transport Research Institutes)
2.5. International
cooperation

18
2. Current state of affair in Israel
ETSC (European Transport Safety Council)
ERTICO (Intelligent Transport Systems and Services Europe)
IRTAD (International Road Traffic and Accident Database)
TRB (Transportation Research Board)
ICADTS (International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety)
PIARC (World Road Association “PIARC”)
. TISPOL (European Traffic Police Network)
These international organizations are prepared to plan, to initiate and to organize research
consortia of excellence concerning participations in international research projects sponsored
by the European Commission or in the US and to compete with others. When participating
in these international organizations internal communication about opportunities for Israeli
researchers is essential.

21
3. Conclusions and recommendations
First of all, we have to define what we expect from research. Road safety research is applied
research, and has not the character of l’art pour l’art. From this the Committee concludes that
the road safety research agenda has to be set up and its implementation has to be carried
out in close relationship with the road safety situation in Israel and road safety policies. This
applied research can be split into two simple questions:
1. to understand causes of road crashes; what are the main contributing factors
2. to understand how to prevent crashes (most effectively and most efficiently)
3.1. Organization
and funding of
research and
professional education
Research can be carried out at a micro level (individual crash or crash type), on a meso level
(a city, a road type, an age group, the motorway network, etc.) and a macro level (all crashes
in a country). This research can be carried out ex-ante and ex-post. The Committee concludes
that there is a need for a strong emphasis on research of type I and that research of this type
should mainly be carried out at a micro- and meso level. The second type of research (II) deals
with road safety policy development and its effective implementation in general. This type of
research is meant to understand road safety trends in the past and their underlying forces
(through evaluation and assessment) and to foresee future developments, threats (emerging
road safety problems) and opportunities. The emphasis of research type II is on a meso- and
macro level. Little type ll research was reported to the Committee.
The road safety research reported to the Committee coming from Israeli Universities was
most notable at the Technion and at Ben Gurion University. These two universities have
a wide range of areas covered and both have a group of researchers active in the field of
road safety. Human factor research seems to be an area where both universities are active,
however in that area, the track record in road safety of Ben Gurion is more impressive (with
some good research in behavioural science also at Bar Ilan). Moreover, Bar-Ilan, Haifa and
Tel Aviv Universities have done road safety research in the past, but these universities have
to rely primarily on contributions from individual researchers. The Gertner Institute is also
involved in road safety research and maintains a high quality trauma registry. Research
outside universities comes from consultants in the field of traffic/transport engineering in
relation to draft guidelines and manuals on road design. Cooperation in road safety research
between these universities is more an exception than a rule. Few examples are reported on
interaction with US road safety research but more widespread participation in European
research projects was found.
The Advisory Committee concludes that in type l research dealing with ‘why crashes occur’
many examples are found of good, very good to excellent research. Some of the presented
lists of publications are impressive. However many of the researchers choose a rather narrow
scope for their research and the research deals with specialized/specific problems. More
research in Israel has a focus on analysis of (contributing factors to) crashes (type I) than on
effects of interventions (type II).
Israel has no national agenda of safety research. The research agenda is a result of those

22
3. Conclusions and recommendations
23
3. Conclusions and recommendations
topics commissioned by (important) stakeholders such as the National Road Safety Authority,
the National Roads Company, and recently the Ran Naor Foundation, and fields of interests as
defined by individual members of the research community. Safety research is lacking a strategic
planning based on and derived from a national road safety strategy and its action plans.
this round table of potential funders of road safety research is to come to an agreement on
future cooperation in planning and coordination of future research. Based on this agreement
and understanding next steps could be defined. The new Road Safety Authority has to play a
key-role in this roundtable.
The Committee recommends to establish a national partnership among the principal
road safety research funders with six main tasks:
. translating the national road safety strategy and its action plans into a strategic plan of
research.
setting up a research action plan, covering for example a period of 4-5 years.
monitoring progress and quality of research.
supporting dissemination and implementation of results.
encouraging research collaboration across Israel’s Universities.
. to coordinate funding between all key stakeholders: the National Road Safety Agency,
the Ministry of Transportation, the Roads Company, the Ran Naor Foundation and Or Yarok.
Funding coming from other sources such as allowing for medical research, research to support
operations by the police, activities of local authorities, could be added to this if sponsors are
interested to join. The Advisory Committee recommends to invite these other sponsors only
if that is considered appropriate.
This planning and coordinaton of research should avoid duplications in research and should
address the current gaps. Coordination is essential for prioritisation of research in the
perspective of defined research needs and road safety policies.
Two models for such a partnership can be considered:
. A model in which the National Road Safety Authority, responsible for coordination purposes,
invites the relevant other funders to accept this coordination, takes the lead and accepts
accountability.
. A model in which the funders of safety research form a partnership committee outside existing
organizations and this committee has the authority (given by the funding organizations) to
decide on the research agenda and the implementation of it.
In the first model (but also in the second one) the chief scientist in the NRSA and his/her staff
will play a very important role and only a very highly-qualified, knowledgeable and experienced
researcher in the field of road safety research can carry out such a task successfully.
This planning and coordinating work has to be carried out in close consultation with
respresentatives of the clients of research results and with the providers of research. In
principle, all funders of research should be prepared to bring in their resources to one ‘road
safety research budget’ and procedures have to be agreed upon how decisions are taken to
spend the budget. But, having agreed on the research agenda and research priorities, the
budget allocation could also be coordinated but handled separately by each of the partners.
This last option is recommended to start with, and the first option should only be considered
if all partners are willing to act according to this model.
Whatever model is chosen, the committee recommends an initial round table meeting at the
beginning of the process to pave the way for a Road Safety Research Partnership. The aim of
While the planning and prioritisation process has yet to occur, the Committee considers that
there are four substantial research themes that require longer-term core funding, also to
ensure capacity building.
The committee proposes to fund these four areas with programme funding for a period of
4-5 years:
Road safety policy development and evaluation
Behavioural research
Engineering research
. Public health research
The rationale for facilitating these four fields of research is to enable high-quality research to
be sustained in an efficient manner. Such programmatic funding creates good conditions for
capacity building, career paths in road safety research and succession planning. Finally, the
Committee expects a critical mass of researchers can be organised because research groups
are less vulnerable.
It is recommended to establish these four areas of research within the Universities. The
Committee recommends to invite all universities to apply for hosting a core area of research
based on a proposal submitted to the Road Safety Research Partnership. In these proposals
it has to be made crystal clear how multi-disciplinary programmes and projects will be
effectively nurtured and how success will be measured.
These four areas can be grouped, if proposed by Universities and accepted by the Road
Safety Research Partnership. It should be be permissible for cross faculty consortia within
a university or cross-university consortia to be formed. In either case, however, the bidders
must demonstrate how effective governance and co-ordination will be achieved. Besides
competencies, experiences in safety research etc. critical mass and economics of scale are
factors to be included. At the end of the initial contract period covered, an independent
scientific review should be carried out by international experts based on the performances
reported. Based on these results decisions can be taken on continuation of a center or on
modifications.
In addition to the core programmes, a part of the total funding for research should be set
aside to commission individual projects. All research groups and researchers from outside
these groups should have the opportunity to prepare and submit proposals.
The Committee defined several functional requirements of a core group dealing with one
or more of the four areas described. The group should be impartial (connected with but at
“arm’s length” from the end user community, should deliver high quality and academically
rigorous research, should be able to deal with multi-disciplinary research, should be prepared
to contribute to knowledge transfer, and should carry out professional education.

24
3. Conclusions and recommendations
25
3. Conclusions and recommendations
Figure 3. Proposal for future
road safety research partnership
in Israel
3.2 Future road safety
research themes
The ideas of the Advisory Committee are illustrated in Figure 3.
Several models exist internationally on how to organise and finance road safety research. To
mention the most important models:
. A road safety research department in a broader highway research institute working under
the commission of the government. Germany (BASt), France (Inrets)
. A stand alone road safety research organization. the Netherlands (SWOV)
. A road safety research group inside a broader research organization. Sweden (VTI), Finland
(VTT), Norway (TØI)
. A research organization (with strong emphasis on safety) related to a university - Australia.
(MUARC), USA (HSRC, UMTRI, TTI)
All models are working but no ideal model could be recommended. It depends on local
conditions which model should be preferred.
The Committee recommends to organise the programmatic core research in Israeli
universities, but outside existing faculty structures. It goes without saying that this research
should be carried out independent of policy making. Researchers should have the possibility
to publish all results. The key indicators for success would include: high scientific quality,
stock of new knowledge, the development of advanced scientific methods, research results
which are respected by other researchers, and acceptance by decision makers for their utility
by policymakers and practitioners.
The Advisory Committee has been impressed with the range and quality of the
individual road safety research projects we have learned about from our discussions
with the various university groups. The concept of ‘gaps’ is therefore a relative one. We
have identified research themes which are either absent or under-represented from
the perspective of where Israel needs to focus its major research effort in order to
underpin its attempts to achieve its ambitious safety targets.
The first set of research themes recommended for special attention is designed to strengthen
the road safety strategic planning, programme implementation and programme evaluation
process.
1. Research to underpin Israeli road safety management systems. It is vital that there be
ongoing monitoring of trends to underpin issue identification, accompanied by a scientifically
rigorous programme to evaluate all countermeasure efforts. While evaluation methods are
at reasonable current strength there is scope for considerable expansion. Similarly, while
some trend analyses exist, the field requires further development. The new area of research
is around the development of valid performance indicators and ongoing data sets with
explanatory power. It is not enough to know that something did not work; it is important to
understand why not, and what might be changed to produce a different outcome.
2. Research into the strategy and policy formulation process and the factors affecting effective
implementation of action plans. A range of issues around organizational behaviour and both
institutional and societal cultural norms are relevant here. It is common in many nations to fail
to implement known solutions not through lack of effort but through a lack of understanding
of the risk factors in the implementation process.
3. Research into the economic costs and benefits of the road safety system in Israel and the
development of suitable economic performance indicators.
4. Research into the relationships between safety, mobility, urban amenity, social equity and
environmental impacts - each of which is an objective of a sustainable road transport system.
In conjunction with item 2. above. This research must be undertaken within the Israeli system
as international results can be no more than indicative.
In addition to these four essentially untapped research themes there are three more specific
areas of research that are significantly under-developed in Israel:
. Research into vulnerable road user safety, especially, in the first instance, pedestrian
safety. Israel has a very high proportion of pedestrian fatalities and the absence of systematic
research is surprising.
. Research surrounding regulations, enforcement and the judicial process is sparse, yet
systematic, intense, evidence-based enforcement has enormous potential to contribute to
the achievement of Israel’s safety targets.
. Research to quantify the incidence and nature of alcohol, drugs and medicines in road
crashes in Israel.
Finally, no country can hope to undertake research on all aspects of road safety. The focus
needs to be on those topics where local factors are likely to prevent the simple adoption
of research results from elsewhere. As an example, the physiological effects of alcohol on
steering performance can be assumed to apply globally while the incidence of alcohol across
different crash types must be locally determined.
It is critical, therefore, to establish a ‘clearing house’ or repository of research findings to
ensure ready access to international knowledge. This exists via journals and web-sites, but
can be augmented by local state-of-the-art reviews on topics of greater relevance.

26
3. Conclusions and recommendations
In this report the Committee recommends strategic research and action planning, a
coordinated and focused research approach to road safety research, and greater emphasis
on usefulness and implementation of research. When the emphasis shifts to more applied
and more immediately useable research there is the danger of ignoring longer term more
basic research and new and interesting research ideas that come from the research (or other)
communities. The current research situation in Israel is that basic, longer-term and new idea
research receives attention and funding. The Committee wishes to point out that these are
important elements of a road safety programme and should not be lost in the process of
refocusing or reorganizing the research process in Israel. Basic, longer range and new idea
research should be included in any research strategic and action planning process.

29
4. References
Commission for Global Road Safety (2006). Make roads safe. FIA Foundation, London.
Elvik, R. and Vaa, T. (2004). The Handbook of Road Safety Measures. NY, Amsterdam, Elsevier
Science.
European Commission (2001). European transport policy for 2010; Time to decide. White
paper. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg.
European Conference of Ministers of Transport (2006). Road safety performance. National
peer review: Russian Federation. OECD, Paris.
European Transport Safety Council (2003). Transport safety performance in the EU.
A statistical overview. ETSC, Brussels.
Johnston, I. (2006). Halving roadway fatalities. A case study from Victoria, Australia 1989-
2004. FHWA, Office of International Programs, Washington, DC.
OECD (1997). Road safety principles and models. Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development OECD, Paris.
Peden, M., Scurfield, R., Sleet, D., Mohan, D., Hyder, A.A., Jarawan, E. & Mathers, C. eds.
(2004). World report on road traffic injury prevention. World Health Organization WHO,
Geneva.
Sheinin,2005, The committee for the preparation of a National, Multi-Year Road Safety Plan,
The Ministry of Transport and Road Safety, Jerusalem
Tingvall, C. & Haworth, N. (1999). Vision Zero: An ethical approach to safety and mobility. In:
Proceedings of the 6th ITE International Conference - Road safety and Traffic Enforcement:
Beyond 2000, Melbourne.
Transportation Research Board (2006). Core compentencies for highway safety professionals.
Research Results Digest 302. TRB, Washington
Wegman, F. & Aarts, L. eds. (2006). Advancing Sustainable Safety. SWOV, Leidschendam.

31
5. Annexes
Annex I
The International Committee
Fred Wegman (chairman)
Managing director, SWOV
Institute for Road Safety
Research, the Netherlands
Ian Johnston
Director, Monash University
Accident Research Centre,
Australia
Günter Kroj
Former director of the
department Behaviour and
Safety in the Federal Highway
Research Institute BASt,
Germany
Richard Pain
Transportation safety
coordinator, Transportation
Research Board, United States
of America
Advisors to the Committee:
Shalom Hakkert
Scientific director, Ran Naor
Foundation for the advancement
of road safety research, Israel
Tsippy Lotan
Chief scientist, Or Yarok, Israel

32 33
5. Annexes
5. Annexes
Annex II
The Terms of Reference (June 2006)
The Challenges:
Every year, Israel has to deal with the epidemic of road traffic accidents which result in more
than 40,000 injuries and approximately 500 deaths.
This year, the Minister of Transport established a National Committee to consolidate policy
and minimize road traffic accidents.
One of the acute problems raised by the committee was the lack of research and education
and the need to establish a new young generation of researchers, as well as issues concerning
the complteness and reliability of road safety data.
help in strengthening the area.
5. The participants in the Committee will be able to discuss and present successful models
used in other countries that will be evaluated for the Israeli setting. It is hoped that the roles
of the academia, the government and NGO’s can be identified, highlighting the areas in which
philanthropy might most appropriately and effectively intervene.
Terms of Reference
The Advisory Committee should address the following questions on issues regarding road
safety research in Israel:
1. Suggest a system to establish a new and young generation of researchers.
2. Define the research needs in road safety in Israel, accompanying research activities and
suggested priorities.
3. Define the needs of academic education on road safety:
the level of education (1st, 2nd and 3rd degree).
the leading area of education (engineering/human factor/public policy/public health etc).
. the optimal system to promote research according to needs: call for papers \ small team
of researchers, specialists in a specific field of research, study location at the “Ran Naor
Foundation” for the period of research \ “tender” \ international exchange of researchers.
In light of this urgent need to improve the state of research and the academic education in this
field in Israel. Mr. Avi Naor and his family established the “Ran Naor Research Foundation”, a
non-profit Israeli foundation for the advancement of road safety research.
The Ran Naor Foundation, in cooperation with Yad Hanadiv, plans to convene an International
Expert Advisory Committee on Road Safety for a week of meetings during the first half of the
year 2006.
This international team of experts will meet with representatives from the academic
institutions in Israel, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Homeland Security, the Ministry
of Education, the Road Safety Authority, the scientific director of Ran Naor Foundation and
the senior scientific staff of “Or Yarok”, researchers, leading academics from relevant fields,
and representatives of the road safety community.
International Expert Advisory Committee on Road Safety
Background material for these meetings will be provided in advance so that the committee
will be prepared for the meetings with the relevant organizations.
The aim of the Advisory Committee will be:
1. To produce a detailed report summarizing the current state of Israel’s research in the area
of road safety and the state of academic education in that area.
2. To produce a report outlining directions, research activities and goals that should set clear
guidelines for the future of road safety research in Israel.
3. To provide a detailed set o f recommendations as to how best achieve the outlined goals.
4. To recommend international research collaborations in the area of road safety which could

34
5. Annexes
35
5. Annexes
2.2 The problem of road
safety in Israel
Annex III
Excerpt from the Sheinin report
The following parts are taken from the Sheinin report (Sheinin 2005) which describes the
road safety situation in Israel (section numbering is according to the original report):
More than 500 people are killed on the roads each year, more than 3,000 are seriously injured,
and tens of thousands suffer from bodily harm and property damage.
The number of fatalities in road crashes per km of vehicle traveled in Israel is more than 70%
higher than in England or Holland.
The index of road safety, according to the number of fatalities per kilometer of road traveled,
shows that Israel is placed 16th in the world.
The number of pedestrians killed in Israel out of the total road-crash fatalities is exceptional,
about 35%, as opposed to about 15% in the developed countries.
The direct economic damage caused by road crashes, based on actual insurance company
payments, is about NIS 6.3 billion a year.
With the addition of indirect damage, the amount exceeds NIS 10 billion a year, about 2% of
the national product.
Fatalities Per Kilometer Traveled - Comparison Between Countries
A. The number of road crash fatalities in Israel in the past 10 years, from 1995 to 2004, ranges
between 450 and 550 a year, with only a marginal decreasing trend of about 1% a year.
Ignoring this trend, the average annual number of fatalities is 511 with a standard deviation
of about 0.36. The number of fatalities in 2004 according to the trend of the past decade is
only about 490.
B. During this period, the country’s population grew by about 26%, the number of vehicles
grew by about 50%, and the overall kilometers per vehicle traveled grew by about 42%.
Despite this growth, the number of road crash fatalities remained constant.
C. During the 1990s there was a decline of about 4% a year in the number of fatalities per km
traveled. However, in the past five years from 2000 to 2004, the trend has remained constant
and no significant improvement in safety was recorded.
D. Between 1992 and 2000 there was a significant growth in investments in the road system
in Israel. In the past five years, however, there has been a significant decline in investments.
E. The dominant factors leading to the decline in fatalities per km traveled during the 1990s
were, apparently, an improvement in vehicle safety (including safety belts, air bags, and the
braking system), and infrastructure improvements - roads and interchanges.
A. The level of motorization in Israel - the number of vehicles relative to the population - is still
very low, only about 50% of that in the European countries. An increase in living standards
implies an increase in the level of motorization.
B. The rate of population growth in Israel, and especially the adult population of 18 years and
older, is about 2% a year, vastly different from the 0.2% European growth rate.
C. According to projections made by “Economic Models”, within ten years the number of
vehicles in Israel is expected to grow by about 46%, and the kilometers traveled per vehicle
by about 30% (on condition that mass transit systems will be in operation). This growth is
highly exceptional and does not exist in most of the developed countries, which have reached
a saturation point in the number of vehicles.
D. Accordingly, the transportation problem and road crashes in Israel are expected to
exacerbate in the coming years...”
2.3 Developments in
Israel in the last decade
2.4 Monitorization
forecast for the next
decade
Country
Fatalities per
billion kilometers
traveled
Country
1. Great Britain (2003) 7.2 11. Germany (2003) 9.7
2. Finland (2003) 7.6 12. Ireland (2001) 10.9
3. Holland (2003) 7.7 13. Japan (2003) 11.2
4. Australia (2003) 8.0 14. Austria (2003) 11.7
5. Sweden (1999) 8.3 15. New Zealand (2000) 12.4
6. Norway (2001) 8.3 16. Israel (2004) 13.0
7. Switzerland (2003) 8.8 17. France (2002) 13.8
8. Canada (2002) 9.3 18. Iceland (2000) 16.0
9. USA (2001) 9.4 19. Belgium (2001) 16.3
10. Denmark (2002) 9.7 20. Slovenia (2000) 16.7
Fatalities per
billion kilometers
traveled
A. The European Union - EU 15, has declared a European plan to reduce the number of
fatalities by 50% within the 10 years from 2000 to 2010. In 2005 the Union is expecting to
reach half way toward achieving the goal.
B. The “vision of zero fatalities” in road crashes is gathering momentum in the European
Community, and it appears that the improved-safety trend will also continue in the second
decade of the century.
C. Road maintenance and road infrastructure in the European Union are significantly better
than in Israel. There is currently a trend in the European Union to integrate advanced
technology as an integral part of the road and vehicle system, enabling warning in real time.
D. The developed countries are experiencing a severe problem of drink driving and driving
under the influence of drugs. These countries are searching for ways to drastically reduce the
dimensions of the phenomenon in order to significantly reduce the number of fatalities.
The three principles of the European plan are:
A. Improved driving habits and obeying the traffic rules.
2.5 The trend in
developing countries

36
5. Annexes
37
5. Annexes
B. Safer cars, especially in the area of electronics (e-safety).
C. Better road infrastructure.
The European plan claims that most road crashes are a result of driver error in obeying
the traffic laws, and lack of understanding of the driving and control systems. A forgiving
infrastructure thus reduces the damage from human error, which will always exist.
In light of the European determination to reduce the number of fatalities, it is reasonable to
assume that the fatalities per km traveled in the leading countries will be less than 6 deaths
per billion km (in 2000 the rate was about 8 deaths per billion km)…”
To the above a number of observations can be added:
Over the past few years the number of fatalities and injury accidents has continued to
decrease and it now seems likely that the number of fatalities in 2006 will be around 400. As
a result of this, in terms of fatalities per 1000 population the record in Israel will be very good
compared to other countries. Due to the low level of motorization, the level of fatalities per
1000 vehicles or per million vehicle-kms traveled will still be high compared to the countries
with very good safety records.
The attitude of road safety professionals and decision makers in those countries with very
good safety records is not to put too much focus and attention to their safety position in
comparison with other countries. They are looking for ways to improve the safety situation
further through the identification of actions that will lead to further improvements. This is
almost invariable through the establishment of multi-year road safety plans, with quantitative
target setting, a programme of performance monitoring and the cooperation and commitment
of all government agents involved. This is the situation in countries such as the Netherlands,
the United Kingdom, the Scandinavian countries, Australia and others.
Annex IV
The providers of research
Bar Ilan University
Within the university two distinct activities focus on road safety. The School of Social Work
with the Department of Psychology conduct research in the areas of psycho-social aspects of
drivers, traffic accident prevention, and post-trauma intervention. Research themes in these
areas include risk taking in driving, behavioural change in driving behaviour, licensing and
driver training processes and effectiveness and emotional response to crashes. An additional
theme on culture and building safe communities is envisioned. The faculty offers road safety
specializations at the graduate level.
In the Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science studies, the Phoenix Road Safety Studies
and Research Program has education and research components. The Road Safety Studies
Program offers a two year undergraduate level course of study to prepare practitioners in
various traffic safety careers. They have applied to the university for a masters degree level
road safety academic programme. The research unit is conducting studies of pedestrian
behaviour, organizational aspects of safety and evaluation studies.
Ben Gurion University of the Negev - Be’er Sheva
Ben Gurion University has a core group of researchers in road safety within the Department of
Industrial Engineering and Management. The primary research foci are human performance
and human factors engineering. The group has a laboratory, including a driving simulator.
Research strengths include:
Driver performance using in-vehicle ITS devices.
. Driver performance under distraction, under fatigue, and under the influence of alcohol
and other drugs.
The determination of risk factors related to age, gender and levels of driving experience.
. Hazard perception and decision-making in driving.
In addition, there is related work at Ben Gurion University on the road safety impacts of
town planning, transportation planning and on traffic forecasting. Database issues and data
modelling are also relative strengths.
The human factors group has an excellent publication record and a post-graduate research
programme. It can be further strengthened by improved leveraging of academic skills from
other faculties and departments.
Recently (starting October 2006), sponsored by the Ran Naor Foundation, two M.Sc.
programmes in road safety were established. At present the programmes have about two
students who are committed to conduct their thesis on road safety.

38
5. Annexes
39
5. Annexes
Haifa University
The Committee met with eight scientists of the Department of Geography, the Department of
Psychology and the Faculty of Social Welfare & Health Studies/School of Public Health, who
conduct road safety research in the areas of road accident database enrichment through the
application of GIS, a psychological approach to driver speed selection, safety measures and
prevention.
The nature and type of these projects range from a fundamental theoretical approach through
applied research to evaluation projects and cover both long term as well as short term
studies. Only a few projects were interdisciplinary or conducted in collaboration with another
University. Interest in interdisciplinary cooperation was expressed, but not suggested as an
important condition for individual research perspectives.
Most projects were funded, and the results are/can be used as a base for the implementation
or the improvement of interventions on the local as well as on the national level or were
already in use.
The human behaviour and epidemiological research agenda at the School of Public Health
is focused on actual and emerging road safety problems of Israel (e.g. pedestrians, children,
cultural background) and delivers explicit results for policy makers.
The implementation of a Road Safety Research Centre was not considered of high priority.
But, if it were established, the researchers considered it should be at the Haifa University. As
the most important condition to conduct more and better road safety research a larger and
continuous research budget should be provided from outside the university, was expressed
as a view to the Committee. It was seen as useful to build an “Injury Prevention Centre” at the
Haifa University to attract more grants, more students and a better context to prepare them
for potential jobs as road safety experts.
Technion- Israel Institute of Technology
The history of road safety research at the Technion goes back to 1966 when, with support of
the Ministry of Transport, a Road Safety Centre was established in the Department of Civil
Engineering. In 1977 this centre was incorporated into the Transportation Research Institute.
Road safety research is one of the five research areas of this institute.
Road safety research has been carried out in the following four areas:
Traffic engineering (e.g. on urban areas, safety barriers, traffic calming, intersection design
ITS (e.g. data recorders, speed limiters)
Town and transportation planning (e.g. by-passes)
. Modelling road safety developments (safety management systems, data collection and
analysis) and evaluation studies (e.g. on police enforcement).
Publications are done in (commissioned) reports and in peer reviewed articles. The expertise
in road safety of the Technion is used throughout the country through consultations,
participation in expert groups, etc.
Technion has an undergraduate programme in civil and environmental engineering, as part of
this programme there are studies in various aspects of traffic engineering and safety. On the
MSc-level a programme exists in transportation engineering and, recently, with the support of
the Ran Naor Foundation (established in October 2006) a dedicated road safety programme
was established. MSc and PhD students conduct a variety of theses on road safety. In the
present safety MSc-programme 4 students have registered, also 4 PhD-students write their
dissertation on road safety subjects.
Most of the funding of the research is coming from (governmental) grants. These grants show
wide fluctuations over the years. Funding is also coming from participation in EC sponsored
projects .Still additional funding exists through the normal University system which funds
scholarships for graduate students and finances the research activities of academic staff.
A small annual grant is received from the Ministry of Transport for a national library for road
safety and a few databases. Only a few researchers are working full-time on road safety
projects. A few more are also interested and carry out safety research incidentally. The
Advisory Committee was told that other fields of expertise from the Technion could become
available easily for safety research (from TRI and from other faculties as well) provided
additional funding were available.
Technion expressed its interests to establish a National Centre for Road Safety Research. The
purposes served by this centre are to augment and support efforts to prevent road crashes, to
strengthen the road safety research community, to increase knowledge on new technologies
to improve road safety and to support the training of students and professionals in this field.
Foreseen areas of research are: engineering, human factors, analysis of information on road
accidents, trauma management, in-depth investigation of crashes, economic aspects of
road accidents and ITS. Funding of this Centre should have a permanent and variable part. A
permanent staff (ca. 12) is anticipated.
Tel Aviv University
The road safety research conducted in the psychology field is of a very applied nature,
sponsored mostly by the National Road Safety Authority in the Ministry of Transport and
deals with the evaluation of road safety media campaigns. They see this work as having
limited theoretical benefits in their field which they would prefer to explore. There are more
capabilities at Tel Aviv University, not presented at the meeting with the Advisory Committee
with interests in the media campaign subject, in the Department of Communications. There is
no coordination of research in the road safety field at Tel Aviv University.
The group from the Environment Simulation Laboratory is developing 3D simulation
environments which enable the study of human activities, such as driving and walking to
evaluate their dynamic interactions with the physical infrastructure. The work includes the
application of video motion detection software. The group has applied this approach to
the study of parking problems in Tel Aviv and has submitted a proposal to the Ran Naor
Foundation for the study of hazardous intersections. Their interest is to apply dynamic models
to the design process. The activity in robotics deals with the development of multi-objective
evolutionary algorithms. They feel this approach can be applied to the road safety field.
There is a general feeling that client sponsored research wants short term answers, whereas
they are more interested in long term research. They would be interested in participating in
a road safety research centre, even one outside the University, as long as it enabled them to
pursue their research interests.
A number of other related research fields were not presented at the meeting with the
Committee. These include the fields of urban planning, cognitive psychology, public health

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,road safety campaigns and economic aspects of road safety.
The Israel Centre for Trauma and Emergency Medicine Research
This centre is part of the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy research.
The centre accommodates and manages the national trauma registry containing data on
hospitalised patients at 10 trauma centres in Israel. This covers about 80% of all hospitalized
trauma patients in Israel.
With the aid of the available data base, the Centre conducts a range of road safety studies
dealing with a variety of aspects of trauma and also conducts other road safety research.
Some examples include the scope of hospitalization due to road traffic trauma; children’s
injuries in cars, bicycle injuries, children’s injuries during bus transport to schools, etc.
Annex V
The clients of research
Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS)
Official statistics in Israel are the mandated responsibility of this agency. Legislation gives
them the authority to request data from any government agency to fulfil their mandate. Road
safety data, e.g. crash data and related data, are not included as official compulsory statistics
in Israel but CBS, using funding from the Ministry of Transport, maintains a national road
crash database. Crash data reports are collected from police agencies, and are entered into
the database, generally within one month. Additional studies and requests require additional
funds. Also, because of hiring constraints, staff for performing such studies is in short supply.
A significant function of CBS is their ability to link data bases. Crash reports can be linked
with driver, vehicle and traffic violation citation files. Other files, useful to researchers,
which can be linked, include census, social survey, and trauma registry, insurance and
emergency service.
Traditionally, CBS provides crash data in hard copy summary tables. Recently they developed a
web based capability giving users considerable flexibility to query the crash report database.
Further, a new GIS capability allows spatial analysis of crash data.
CBS undertakes special studies to improve the quality of the crash reporting system and
database. They recently conducted a survey to determine international practices in crash data
bases, e.g. definitions, linking to other data bases, legal reporting requirements. Another
study compared hospital/trauma records to police crash files.
A public function of CBS is to provide crash data to transportation and safety agencies,
national and local, which they do with periodic tabular reports, e.g. to local authorities.
CBS also responds to special requests for crash data analysis. To support this function they
maintain a research room where researchers and the public may access sanitized versions of
the crash record data base. CBS does not train data users or provide technical assistance to
end users. They would welcome another agency to provide such services.
Israeli Police
The Israeli Police traffic enforcement programme includes:
a database of policing efforts and a process for basing future operations upon this intelligence.
. A small internal research capacity both to underpin future operations and to assess the
impacts of particular programmes
A unique force of volunteers to extend the reach of the permanent force
. A knowledge of developments internationally in road policing
Access to appropriate equipment for drink-driving and speed enforcement as well as for crash
investigations, (although the level of equipment is relatively small).

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In those nations that have achieved the greatest road safety benefits from enforcement
strategies the key characteristic has been an active partnership between researchers
knowledgeable in deterrence and behaviour change theories and operational police,
particularly through willingness to trial innovatively. The Israeli Police traffic department
might seek to create such a research partnership to build upon the solid foundation they
have established.
Local authorities
A separate road safety function at the municipal level exists only in the major cities like
Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. Most other cities and municipalities do not have such a person
or office. There is also a general lack of good road accident data. The major source of accident
data comes from the Central Bureau of Statistics and has serious deficiencies when it comes
to locational detail which is crucial for work at the municipal level. Most of the Municipalities
also lack the capabilities to install and use GIS systems that enable the detailed combination
of accident data with spatial information.
Although all Municipalities should have a local road safety officer, 150 out of the about 250
municipalities do not have one. The ones that do exist are from varying backgrounds and do
not generally have specific road safety training. In recent years some were trained in road
safety courses for practitioners. A possible solution would be to provide these municipalities
with the support needed through outside consultants specializing in road safety and GIS.
Municipalities generally do not use research results, unless these apply to conditions in their
own town. On that level, generally the number of accidents is not sufficient to conduct major
research projects. These should be carried out with data coming from more than one city.
The local road safety professionals are generally not well informed about research results
available both from Israel and from abroad.
There are some exceptions to this general picture. The Municipality of Tel Aviv has a road
safety Department and a trained road safety engineer, who is in charge of local road safety
activity, not just engineering. Tel Aviv developed its own database, including improvements
to the basic police accident data, an accident database, GIS and data analyses programmes,
including SAS. They also have an extensive road safety programme. Even such a department
makes little use of research results, although they are generally aware of such results. A few
other cities also have some local capabilities.
The (New) National Roads Company - MAATZ -
This company was established in 2005 and is an entity separate from the Government. The
government is the only stakeholder of the company. The new MAATZ is responsible for the
national (interurban) road network with a total length of about 6500 kilometre. Road safety
is an important element in the mission of the company (besides level of service/efficiency of
the road transport system). It was presented to the Advisory Committee that road safety will
be addressed along four lines:
Black spot treatment
Upgrading roadside safety on the existing network
. Upgrading about 1000 kilometre of road length to a motorway standard (with lower crash
rates than on the existing roads)
. building new roads with design standards of high safety quality
To fulfil this important task research and development is needed and the new MAATZ has
resources (0, 3% of its annual budget; 65 million NIS) to commission research. The Research
and Development department is commissioning research (to universities and the private
sector) and no research is carried out in-house. Research concentrates on: safety, geometric
design, pavement and ITS. Some safety related examples: safety management systems,
median barriers, work zones, building an infrastructure database.
The new MAATZ is preparing a five-year research plan. MAATZ is coordinating its planning
of research with the National Road Safety Authority already, and expressed its wish to act
in partnership with other sponsors of research. MAATZ is looking for rational criteria how to
decide on their research plan.
The opinion was expressed that the research community lacks enough highly-qualified
manpower to carry out the growing amount of safety research foreseen in the future. MAATZ
is interested to carry out research not only in the field of hard engineering, but also wants to
pay attention to human factors and ITS. Visualizations of design and simulations/simulators
is a field to be entered. ITS and e-Safety is another field of interest.
Ministry of Transport
The Land Department of the Ministry of Transport (MOT) is in charge of all infrastructure
regulation in Israel, both on urban roads and on interurban roads. It also deals with approving
and financing all transport projects in local authorities. The planning division of the Land
Department deals with standards and guidelines connected with physical infrastructure.
So far a list of over 70 guidelines and other documents have been completed and distributed for
use to all concerned, including local authorities, MOT branches, consultants and the national
Roads Company (NRC).Some of these documents deal explicitly with roads safety issues,
such as guidelines for the installation of road safety barriers, crash cushions, urban barriers,
breakaway poles, barriers at road works, etc. Other guidelines have safety implications e.g.
guidelines for traffic calming in residential areas, guidelines for parking, guidelines for urban
streets (in preparation), etc.
Generally the preparation of these guidelines is issued through a tendering process where the
team includes experts from different field e.g. traffic engineering, road safety, town planning,
etc. Consulting bureaux are generally the project leaders who work in cooperation with
these other experts. In some cases, this procedure was also used to sponsor more research
oriented projects, e.g. the development of guidelines and tools for the evaluation of the
effectiveness of road infrastructure improvements, safety profiles of local authorities. Some
of their projects require the quantification of the safety effects associated with considering
traffic alternatives, e.g. the restrictions for trucks on busy roads, the closure of an interchange
on Saturdays, etc
National Road Safety Authority
The Advisory Committee was informed during its visit to the MOT/Division of Infrastructure
and Traffic Safety on the mission, objects, resources and procedures of the new NRSA starting
its work in January 2007. The structure of this new organization is “an independent unit in

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the MOT which can advise all stakeholders” with an significantly increased staff of 120 to
150 employees and a budget of 550 Mio-NIS- yearly for the next 5 years. This demonstrates
the political will to increase research based road safety in Israel. With respect to road safety
research the hope was expressed to conduct long term research projects on the basis of an
own research agenda (5 years) which can commission interdisciplinary research focused on
specific road safety problems of Israel above all in the areas of human behaviour, e-safety
and accident data management. It was proposed to implement an Accident Data Centre in
co-operation with the CBS inside the NRSA. It is also planned to enrich the role of existing
interdisciplinary road safety research groups at the Technion and the Ben Gurion University,
and possibly to other research centres by grants and long term research projects and to
attract other universities to build more capacities for road safety research. A strong wish
was expressed to promote more sound research to work on legal issues and to support the
implementation of the National Road Safety Programme through evaluation studies and
monitoring.
On the one hand the idea of private funding of road safety research was welcomed, on the
other hand it was stated that the research agenda should be set inside NRSA. The already
existing information network between NRSA and other research sponsors was found useful.
Above all from the existing co-operation with the National Road Company and its Research
Unit as well as with Or Yarok and the Ran Naor foundation synergy effects were expected.
In general support of the local research capabilities for the next five years would be expected
concerning e-safety, and technological development, but more would be expected concerning
human behaviour research and evaluation of interventions.
A stronger and more systematic involvement in the EU R&D programmes of universities was
found important to increase the level of scientific competence and building new research
capacities in Israel.
There is the vision that the NRSA with increased resources and new personnel can be the
start of an evolution for road safety activities and also for road safety research in Israel.
Or Yarok
Or Yarok, the largest NGO dealing with road safety in Israel, is both a client and a commissioner
of research. Its main projects up to 2006 have been:
1. Collaboration with the Israeli Police; a donation of 140 police cars which resulted in an
increase of the volunteer workforce of the police from 2000 to approximately 11,000.
2. Young Drivers - a project targeting the accompanied driving phase, currently reaching
about 50,000 young drivers
3. Public motivation and political support for adopting a National Road Safety plan.
The guidelines for Or Yarok’s activities for 2007-2008 include research in the core of all its
activities, and developing a role in being the “watch dog” of road safety in Israel. For this
activity it will have to create a knowledge base for road safety, prepare position papers and
research based evidence for its response team.
Or Yarok has been active in trying to disseminate and implement research results in various
areas; some examples include:
Extending the accompanied phase for new drivers from 2 to 3 months.
Proposing a comprehensive GDL system for young drivers
Advocating random breath testing in large quantities
. Testing of new technologies such as the Green Box.
Other clients of research
It was unfortunately not possible to meet all clients of research during the visit of the
Advisory Committee. Below we briefly describe some of the other potential clients of road
safety research in the country.
The press - the committee did not meet with representatives of the press but this is an
obvious user of road safety research. The press does not sponsor research, but should have
convenient access to road safety data and to research results.
Parliament and politicians - parliament has a research division which conducts and supports
studies for the members of parliament. They occasionally contact the road safety research
community and/or the National Road Safety Authority for research results on specific issues.
This relationship should be expanded and formalized, to provide members of Parliament with
a better evidence base.
Ministry of Transport
Economic Division - This division is in charge of the economic evaluation of all transport
projects in Israel. It also deals with the economic evaluation of the cost of accidents. In
conjunction with the Ministry of Finance, they are in charge of preparing guidelines for these
evaluations (Nohal Prat). Currently new guidelines were issued (2006), which explicitly
include the safety effects and accident costs of transport projects.
Vehicle licensing Division - This Division is in charge of all aspects and regulations dealing
with vehicles, including vehicle type approval, vehicle licensing, vehicle annual testing, etc.
Occasionally this Department sponsors research dealing with mechanical/technical aspects
of heavy goods vehicles and buses involved in severe crashes.
Driver licensing Division - This Division deals with all aspects associated with licensing
and regulating drivers, including new driver testing and licensing, other licenses, courses for
driving instructors, etc. As far as the Advisory Committee was told, no systematic research
activities are going on in this division.
The Ministry of Education
This Ministry is in charge of all education from kindergarten to 12th grade. They have a range of
road safety programmes for the pupils, which are developed in their Road Safety Division. The
division works in close contact with the National Road Safety Authority and is partly financed
by them. Some evaluation and research is conducted in association with these activities.
The Ministry of Health
This Ministry is in charge of health regulations and hospitals in Israel. The Injury Prevention

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Council and other councils deal with road safety health aspects. The Gertner Institute is also
part of this Ministry and maintains the Trauma Registry (see also Annex IV).
The Ministry of Internal Security
This ministry is in charge of the Police. They have a research department led by the Chief
Scientist and conducted a number of studies dealing with issues related to road safety,
amongst others: the evaluation of the operation of the traffic police, the establishment of
in-depth accident research investigations and others.
The Ministry of Justice
This Ministry is in charge of the judicial system, including the courts, traffic laws and
regulations. The Advisory Committee was not informed about previous dedicated road safety
research, but it is well-researched that these activities could have significant road safety
implications.
Annex VI
The presentation to Or Yarok and Yad Hanadiv as used on 2nd of
December 2006
The Army
The army has a special branch dealing with road safety. In some respects this branch was a
pioneer in developing dedicated road safety programmes, including the execution of a traffic
safety and traffic engineering audit in army units- conducted by qualified reservist traffic
engineers, in-depth investigation of all fatal accidents, research in aspects of young driver
crashes, etc.
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