Road Safety Management in the Decades of Action: reflecting on the case of Costa Rica

Abstract

The Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT) of Costa Rica is one of the entities with the highest degree of administrative deconcentration. The MOPT and its deconcentrated agencies in Councils define the policies and actions of the sector. This paper analyzes the situation of the country as a signatory of the Decades of Action for Road Safety, proposed by the UN. In order to show as an example and discuss its importance as a road safety policy, the case of the specialized agency called Road Safety Council - Cosevi, created in 1979, is described, analyzed and contextualized. The changes in the institutional definition of the administration and management of the agency are studied. It is analyzed how these changes and the administrative legal practice impact the concept of leading institution in road safety and its systemic approach, considering both the integral concept of the joint action of engineering, enforcement and road education, as well as the postulates of the First Decade in terms of management, which have been blurred in the Second Decade. Finally, the relevance of the law propose 23114 is discussed, as it is a proposal that goes against the concept of management through the existence of a leading agency, and that would concentrate the functions under analysis in the MOPT. It also shows the current statistical panorama and makes recommendations for road administration in general and for the actual consolidation of Cosevi in its operational and management components.