Addressing the road safety results impasse through an Outcome-Based Approach in the state of Penang, Malaysia

Despite the many road safety initiatives introduced in the state of Penang in Malaysia, the results have not been encouraging. This is especially critical when the expectation of the Decade of Action for Road Safety is to halve all road safety performance by the year 2020. The conventional intervention-based approach has been proven to have limited success and potential for the expected more drastic results. A critical analysis on the matter suggested that the passion for road safety results had dwindled as many players approach them as only processes that may not necessarily provide us with aspired road safety outcomes. This paper discusses the development of Road Safety Strategic Plan for Penang State through the outcome based approach. This pioneering effort begins by defining the appropriate goals for 2020 and followed by describing four principal strategic pillars. The pillars are changing attitude, forgiving roads, safer for motorcycles and enabling data and information. Each pillar has its own targeted outcomes, making a total of 28 outcomes identified. The appropriate activities and interventions in order to achieve the outcome were also recommended. The remainder of the paper also discusses the implementation plan suggested to the authorities and decision makers and other players in order to achieve the road safety targeted outcomes. Early results will also be highlighted in the paper.