Road safety rhetoric versus road safety politics

In-depth interviews with top level decision makers in the road sector in Norway were conducted over a four-year period: Three principal impediments to safety interventions were identified: (i) Mobility is considered of primary importance; the "freedom of the car" is difficult to restrict, (ii) as a consequence there is much more lobbying for mobility than for safety, and (iii) road safety commitment and policies are weak, even among some of those responsible. For these reasons, efficient road safety work is often side-tracked at the top level, and substituted by nonbinding demands for road users' "change of attitude". In addition, road safety is often used as a proxy argument for measures that mainly promote mobility.