National road safety policies are formed by the

9.3 Policies, Standards and Guidelines Development of Policies, Standards and Guidelines see Little guidance exists on the mechanisms for transforming road infrastructure safety policy into relevant standards and guidelines although Beagle, et al (2015) provide an example approach. Rather, there are a number of examples that highlight what can be achieved. Many countries have developed their own standards and guidelines, and in some cases these may be adopted for use in other countries (although as noted elsewhere, caution should be used where the context is different). Croft et al. (2010) provide some advice based on the development of national guidelines in Australia. Some of the key elements from this process were that these were produced: • under the direction of a review panel or task force; • based on review of existing guidelines and related technical documents; • so as to incorporate new strategic directions (e.g. the Safe System design principles); • to include relevant research results, technological developments and practitioner experience. There is a need to constantly review standards, policies and guidelines, and to improve these based on recent innovations. Updating these elements does not suggest that previous designs are unsafe, as updating is done to reduce crash potential based on new scientific evidence and knowledge. An evidence-based data driven approach is required to ensure that expected safety benefits from any changes are attained. Benchmarking of...