Brake has announced the launch of its new road safety library, an online resource with free access for anyone with an interest in road safety.
Aimed at professionals working in road safety around the world, the purpose of the website is to share knowledge and best practice, to help organisations develop and deliver effective interventions to prevent deaths and injuries on roads.
The main section of the site will comprise a library of research, data and reports on a range of road safety topics, road safety initiatives by governments, international case studies and educational schemes from various agencies worldwide.
Good question Phil. If you are member of Road Safety Time Bank – or a future member of the Knowledge Centre – you’ll be able to pick up a literature review of motorcycle safety that Devon did a year back to add to its evidence base for motorcycle interventions. Necessarily the literature had to be prioritised so that it was manageable and meaningful to our needs in the south west. The review has 82 references in it. Brake’s section on bikes for a UK readership has two. I was also disappointed to see nothing focusing on older drivers, though I recall Brake has a strong position on that theme. For info our lit review on them (published this year and again available from the Time Bank etc) was a ‘short study’ to provide specific guidance on some of our existing education, training and assessment work. It has 25 references. Brake’s section on young drivers has 52 references – our review on young driver literature is due out in late August and with just 100 references we are concerned that we have come up short in some key areas.
All that said this isn’t a numbers game really and it is more about the quality of the papers represented so I am glad that another organisation has thrown their hat into the evidence led practice arena. It’s now up to us to be critical and cautious about what we choose to use and how we choose to use it. Always good to have another place to go for base material though.
Jeremy Phillips, Devon Road Safety
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I just wonder what happens if you submit some research for inclusion that does not line up with Brake’s view on things. Also isn’t this very similar to the road safety timebank. Wouldn’t it make sense to have just one of these?
Phil, East Midlands
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