ESRA: cross-national monitoring of road users’ attitudes and performance

Background. Trends in road safety performance and the success of policy measures can be monitored using road safety performance indicators based on accident statistics, road side surveys, or questionnaire surveys. However, results are seldom comparable across countries because of differences in aims, scope, or methodology.
Objectives. ESRA (E-Survey of Road users’ Attitudes) is a global cross-national initiative in 46 countries, coordinated by Vias institute. Aim of this initiative is to provide scientific support to road safety policy by generating comparable national data on the current road safety situation. The use of a uniform sampling method and identical questionnaire allows comparisons across countries.
Methods. ESRA is an online panel survey, using a representative sample (N=1,000) of the national adult populations in each participating country. A common questionnaire was developed and translated into national language versions. The themes covered are e.g. self-declared behaviour, attitudes and opinions on unsafe traffic behaviour, enforcement experiences and support for policy measures. The survey addresses different road safety topics (e.g. driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs and medicines, speeding, distraction) and targets all types of road users.
Results. The first edition of the survey (ESRA1) was conducted in three waves (2015,2016,2017) in 38 countries (N=38,738) and in December 2018 the second edition (ESRA2_wave1) will be launched in 32 countries (expected N=32,000). This presentation is intended as an introduction for the special session on ESRA. Main outlines of the project, methodology and some key results will be described.
Conclusions. The fast growth of the ESRA initiative shows the feasibility and added value of a joint data collection by a network of road safety organisations. The intention is to repeat the measurements on a triennial basis and to develop time series.