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The Road against Fatalities: Infrastructure Spending vs. Regulation?

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  • DANIEL ALBALATE

Abstract

The road safety literature is typified by a high degree of compartmentalization between studies that focus on infrastructure and traffic conditions and those devoted to the evaluation of public policies and regulations. As a result, few studies adopt a unified empirical framework in their attempts at evaluating the road safety performance of public interventions, thus limiting our understanding of successful strategies in this regard. This paper considers both types of determinants in an analysis of a European country that has enjoyed considerable success in reducing road fatalities. After constructing a panel data set with road safety outcomes for all Spanish provinces between 1990 and 2009, we evaluate the role of the technical characteristics of infrastructure and recent infrastructure spending together with the main regulatory changes introduced. Our results show the importance of considering both types of determinants in a unified framework. Moreover, we highlight the importance of spending in maintenance given its effectiveness in reducing fatalities and casualties in the current economic context of austerity that is having such a marked impact on investment efforts in Spain.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Albalate, 2013. "The Road against Fatalities: Infrastructure Spending vs. Regulation?," ERSA conference papers ersa13p221, European Regional Science Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa13p221
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    2. Daniel Albalate & Xavier Fageda, 2019. "Congestion, Road Safety, and the Effectiveness of Public Policies in Urban Areas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-21, September.
    3. Castillo-Manzano, José I. & Castro-Nuño, Mercedes & López-Valpuesta, Lourdes & Pedregal, Diego J., 2019. "From legislation to compliance: The power of traffic law enforcement for the case study of Spain," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 1-9.
    4. Navarro-Moreno, José & de Oña, Juan & Calvo-Poyo, Francisco, 2023. "How do road infrastructure investments affect Powered Two-Wheelers crash risk?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 60-73.
    5. Tomašković Mladen & Završki Ivica, 2024. "Analysis of the road safety in the EU countries and the impact of PBM on its improvement," Organization, Technology and Management in Construction, Sciendo, vol. 16(1), pages 123-135.
    6. Castro-Nuño, Mercedes & Arévalo-Quijada, M. Teresa, 2018. "Assessing urban road safety through multidimensional indexes: Application of multicriteria decision making analysis to rank the Spanish provinces," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 118-129.
    7. Francisco Calvo-Poyo & José Navarro-Moreno & Juan de Oña, 2020. "Road Investment and Traffic Safety: An International Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-15, August.
    8. Delia Hendrie & Greg Lyle & Max Cameron, 2021. "Lives Saved in Low- and Middle-Income Countries by Road Safety Initiatives Funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies and Implemented by Their Partners between 2007–2018," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-21, October.
    9. à ngel Tejada & María Pilar Sánchez & Francisco Escribano, 2024. "Road Safety Efficiency on Interurban Roads in Spain," Evaluation Review, , vol. 48(5), pages 771-796, October.

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