Transferring "best practice" road safety measures to a different context: Comments on improving road safety in the Philippines

Increasing efforts are being made to apply “best practice” or "good practice" measures to road safety problems in less motorised countries, due to the magnitude and rapid growth of road crashes in these countries associated with rapidly increasing motorisation. This involves the transfer of knowledge and expertise, which has been developed mainly in highly motorised countries, to countries which differ from highly motorised countries in many more respects than their income or their level of motorisation. This paper first outlines the nature of these differences and their impacts in broad terms, based on research conducted as part of ongoing doctoral studies. Second, following on from Professor Sigua’s preceding paper1, the findings of the research are applied to the road safety situation in the Philippines. It should be noted at the outset that the research conducted so far has not focused specifically on the Philippines, so that the aim is to raise pertinent questions about the broader context of road safety in the Philippines, not to make strong recommendations for implementation of particular measures.