INSTITUTIONS AS CULTURAL ACTORS IN TRAFFIC SAFETY CULTURE: A CONCEPTUAL AND METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK

Traffic Safety Culture (TSC) is often discussed in relation to road users’ attitudes, norms and behaviours. However, these behaviours are shaped within institutional environments that define rules, allocate responsibilities, design infrastructure, enforce regulations, collect data, communicate risk and involve stakeholders. The paper integrates four international and EU-relevant road safety frameworks with a comparative review of six national institutional in EU, complemented by expert and stakeholder interviews. The analysis identifies three main pathways through which institutions influence TSC: the formal environment, through laws, strategies, standards, enforcement and funding; the operational environment, through implementation capacity, coordination, infrastructure design, data systems and evaluation; and the cultural environment, through public perceptions of risk, responsibility, rule legitimacy and acceptable behaviour. The paper argues that road safety interventions should not be understood through a linear “measure → safety outcome” logic. Rather, institutional measures influence safety outcomes through their effects on shared cognitions, behavioural expectations, perceived legitimacy and internal compliance. This perspective is aligned with institutional theory, particularly the Richard Scott’s distinction between regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive pillars of institutions. The paper concludes presenting the Roads4All institutional framework, resulting from the interplay of international frameworks and the analysis at EU country level.