Who is responsible for global road safety? A cross-cultural comparison of Actor Maps

•Seven ‘E’s; an initial, alliterative expansion of the three ‘E’s of road safety.•Applying the Risk Management Framework in low and middle income countries.•Comparing Actor Maps of five different countries’ road transport systems.•An information audit of road transport systems, in sociotechnical systems terms.•Identifying areas for improvement, and considering emergent effects. The traditional three ‘E’s approach to road safety (engineering, education, enforcement) has had, and will continue to have, a significant impact on road traffic casualty rates worldwide. Nevertheless, with rising motorisation in many countries, global fatality numbers have changed little over the past decade. Following calls for the application of sociotechnical systems thinking to the problem, we widen the road safety discussion with an additional four ‘E’s; economics, emergency response, enablement, and, the umbrella term for the approach taken, ergonomics. The research presents an application of Rasmussen’s Risk Management Framework to the road safety systems of five distinct nations; Bangladesh, China, Kenya, the UK, and Vietnam. Following site visits, reviews of literature, and interviews with subject matter experts in each of the countries, a series of Actor Map models of the countries’ road safety systems were developed. These are compared and discussed in terms of the wide variety of interconnecting organisations involved, their influences on road safety outcomes, the differences between nations, and the need to look beyond road users when designing road safety interventions.