Ethical issues in road safety policy-making

Road safety policy-making often requires a balanced consideration of different societal viewpoints and the possibly differing interests of a range of stakeholders. This paper discusses the main ethical perspectives that are at play in policy making in road safety. First, it is shown that ethical considerations are a vital part of road safety policy. Subsequently, five important ethical principles are identified that are key to road safety and that are applicable both to the individual level as to the policy level. These key ethical principles are: avoiding harm (which is the core value); individual freedom; assuming responsibility; fairness and equity; and respect for privacy. It is shown how each of these ethical principles are related to (possible) measures and regulation in road safety. Examples are given which illustrate that policy choices are often related to conflicts between these principles, or even to conflicts within a single principle. It is also shown how the ethical principles and examples can be related to classical ethical theories and schools of thought such as utilitarianism, deontologism, libertarianism and egalitarianism.