Road Safety Analysis, specialists in examining British road casualty trends, has used SaaS-based GIS software eSpatial OnDemand GIS™ to reveal great differences in the performance of local road safety in Britain in the last five years.
In a ground-breaking independent study, Road Safety Analysis (RSA) have combined Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI Casualties) data with residential, social and demographic data, and factored in local traffic and population counts.
The result is a series of firsts: the first independent study of its kind in Great Britain, the first time that road safety results can be accurately compared on an area-by-area basis, and the first time that members of the public have access to the information via a web portal.
The UK government has clearly prioritised making information available to enable local citizens to get more involved in decisions, hold local service providers to account, and assess the performance in their area against others. RSA’s portal is an excellent example of how this can be achieved quickly, effectively, and at a low cost.
The report is seen as a first and significant step taken by the country’s Department for Transport, who have developed Key Outcome Indicators to assist government, local organisations and citizens to monitor and make efforts towards improving road safety.
While the easy availability of these results is a good news story, RSA Director Richard Owen is concerned about the story that the data tells.
“The results of this study show a worrying discrepancy between different parts of the country,” says Owen.
“Local authorities need to use all information available to them in order to understand the complex reasons around road risk, and to allow them to investigate how they might ensure the safety of people on their roads.”
Since commencing work with eSpatial OnDemand GIS in May 2011, RSA has been able to efficiently and effectively map five years’ worth of data related to fatalities and serious injuries on Great Britain’s roads.
Using eSpatial OnDemand GIS has enabled the company to make the results available to both local authorities and the general public via an interactive mapping tool, MAST Mapping.
As one of only a handful of full-function Geographic Information System (GIS) tools that is available to customers via Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery, eSpatial OnDemand GIS provided RSA with the functionality they required – but without the financial and technological burdens traditionally associated with such complex software.
“We are delighted that we have been able to provide Road Safety Analysis with effective mapping software,” says eSpatial CEO Philip O’Doherty.
“We applaud the important work they do to analyse and disseminate information on road safety in Great Britain, and sincerely hope that the results of their analysis will assist members of the public and local authorities to continue to improve road safety.”
View the full report from Road Safety Analysis at: http://www.roadsafetyanalysis.org/mapping
About Road Safety Analysis
Road Safety Analysis (RSA) is a not-for-profit company that exists to provide data solutions to the public and road safety profession. Established in 2010, it supports MAST Online a
powerful yet user-friendly tool for analysing road casualty trends and examining the impact of residence, social and demographic factors on casualty rates. RSA also helped the
Department for Transport to release an open access website that allows members of the public to look at road casualty data and carry out some analysis of their own.
For more information visit: www.roadsafetyanalysis.org.uk
To access publicly available road casualty reports, visit: www.roadcasualtiesonline.org.uk
About eSpatial OnDemand GIS
eSpatial OnDemand GIS transforms data with a geographic component into easily-understood maps, charts and graphs that can be interpreted to provide actionable business insights.
Combining the latest innovations in software delivery and usability with the full functionality of a Geographic Information System (GIS), eSpatial OnDemand GIS makes location intelligence available to any organisation.
eSpatial OnDemand GIS is an affordable, predictable, and scalable location intelligence tool, suitable for both GIS experts and newcomers to location intelligence alike. It also provides an ideal enterprise grade hosted services delivery platform for geospatial applications.
Try eSpatial OnDemand GIS for free, for 14 days: www.espatial.com/trial
