2: The DRAG-2 Model for Quebec

Development of a highway infrastructure plays a major role in any economy, including Quebec’s, by improving transportation of people and goods. Development does, however, come at a cost, namely air and noise pollution and road accidents.

Road accidents directly affect the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) at two levels. The SAAQ is the agency set up by the Government of Quebec in March 1978 to oversee its new no-fault public insurance scheme for bodily injuries sustained by Quebecers in road accidents. A few years later, given its financial responsibility to Quebecers, in 1980 the government transferred to the SAAQ the mandate of controlling access to the road network through regulation of drivers and vehicles and promotion of road safety.