From reactive to proactive: Czech examples of development and application of alternative road safety assessment approaches

Traditionally, road safety assessment has been based on accident history. However, this approach may be biased,
since accident occurrence is statistically rare and partly random. In this regards, various alternatives have been
sought worldwide. The paper presents two examples of development and practical application of alternative road
safety assessment approaches in the Czech Republic. The first example describes accident prediction models,
which were developed firstly for secondary roads in several regions and secondly for core road network
(motorways and national roads), and used for identification of hazardous road locations. The second example
describes a different proactive technique, using speed consistency in order to identify hazardous curves. The
wider use of these approaches will enable shifting from traditional reactive accident-based approach to proactive
alternatives, which will improve quality and efficiency of Czech road network safety management.