Empowering local authorities with road safety insights

Understanding road traffic accidents is a crucial step toward improving road safety. But for municipalities and police zones, simply having access to data is not enough. To turn information into action, they need the ability to explore, analyze and interpret accident data in the context of their own local realities.

With this objective in mind, the Walloon Road Safety Agency (AWSR) and the Walloon Public Service for Mobility and Infrastructure (SPW-MI) developed an interactive mapping platform that gives local authorities direct access to road accident data and the tools to perform their own analyses. The goal is simple: empower local decision-makers to identify road safety challenges within their territory and support evidence-based action.

AWSR is Wallonia's leading authority on road safety. Within its Knowledge Centre, a dedicated team collects, analyzes and shares the data needed to better understand the causes and circumstances of road traffic accidents.

For many years, these analyses have supported road safety policy at the regional level. AWSR wanted to take the next step by making this information directly accessible to municipalities and local police zones.

"We believe every level of government should have access to the data it needs to implement the measures that best reflect the realities of its own territory," explains Yvan Casteels, Director of the AWSR Knowledge Centre.

Every municipality faces different challenges. The priorities of a large city differ significantly from those of a rural community, and the questions local authorities need answered vary just as widely.

Before the project, some accident data was already available through maps, but users were limited to a small number of predefined visualizations with little flexibility for further exploration.

AWSR's team had a clear vision of what they wanted to provide. With more than twenty years of experience analyzing road traffic accidents, they had an in-depth understanding of both the data and its limitations, as well as the questions local authorities ask most frequently.

Working together with Esri BeLux, that vision was transformed into a flexible analytical platform. Users can now filter accident data using a wide range of criteria, including road type, time period and many other relevant characteristics.

"Our goal was to provide a tool that can be adapted to the specific needs of every municipality and every police zone, allowing them to carry out analyses that truly reflect their local priorities." 

Instead of relying on static maps, municipalities and police zones can now investigate their own questions and tailor their analyses to the specific context of their communities.

Just a few months after launch, the platform is already being used by more than 360 users across municipalities and police zones.

An evaluation conducted by AWSR shows that users consider the platform both valuable and relevant to their daily work.

The feedback has also helped identify opportunities for further improvement. Several enhancements have already been implemented, while additional developments are currently under evaluation.

For AWSR, this strong engagement sends a clear message. Beyond the platform's current use, it demonstrates that local authorities are eager for greater access to data and analytical tools that help them better understand the road safety challenges within their communities. 

The initiative extends well beyond providing access to injury accident data. AWSR and SPW-MI are already exploring several opportunities to enrich the platform with additional datasets and analytical capabilities.

Future developments include integrating property-damage-only accidents, expanding the available filters and data layers, and creating municipal profiles based on contextual information such as road network characteristics and population density. AWSR and SPW-MI are also evaluating functionality that would allow municipalities to benchmark their road safety profile against comparable territories.

The objective remains unchanged: provide local authorities with the reliable information they need to better understand their territory and make informed, evidence-based decisions.

For AWSR and SPW-MI, the platform marks another important step toward making road safety knowledge more accessible. By placing data directly in the hands of the professionals who deal with these challenges every day, it strengthens local insight and supports more targeted actions to improve road safety across Wallonia.