Experts’ perspectives on shared responsibility for speed management: A thematic analysis informed by systems thinking

Abstract

Sharing responsibility for road safety is a key principle of the Safe System Approach, but little practical guidance has been provided on its implementation. This article utilises a systems thinking lens to explore how the concept of shared responsibility for speed management is understood and operationalised. The study was informed by thirty-three semi-structured interviews with road safety experts and practitioners from varied backgrounds, mostly from Sweden and Australia. A reflexive thematic analysis exploring perceptions around the concept of shared responsibility for speed management and associated emerging challenges was conducted, from which four themes were generated. The first of these themes suggested that responsibility in this context can be understood as being anchored in legal frameworks, in moral imperatives or as related to crash causality factors. The second theme gathered shared patterns of meaning around competing mindsets with very different explanations into how road safety results are delivered, with implications for effectively sharing responsibility for speed management. Theme three suggested that sharing responsibility for speed management can be enhanced by stakeholders’ goal alignment. Finally, the fourth theme suggested the need to modify the speed management’s governance framework, including reassessing the roles, responsibilities and accountability of stakeholders as well as the transparency of policy processes. This study suggests challenges may arise in some contexts in operationalising the concept of shared responsibility for speed management. Practical implications include developing practitioner guidelines providing conceptual clarity and tools to improve speed management governance and responsibility design, tying performance metrics to individual and collective responsibilities and enhancing transparency.