Road safety is traditionally researched in a sectoral way. This means trying to find out how people can be motivated to behave according to the rules of speeding, seatbelt wearing, and drink-driving; how cars can be made more crashworthy, and how guard rails, speed humps, etc on roads help to prevent road crashes. However, in relatively safe countries as the Netherlands, this approach has come to an end. It is more and more difficult to get funds just for safety measures, and in many cases like speed humps, the suggested measures lack sufficient political and public support. Policy makers have to take account of reliability, the environment, and costs etc. Many of these problems have to be tackled simultaneously, and most solutions cannot be applied within the scope of one’s own road network. Therefore, road safety measures that are likely to be implemented must have a positive effect on other sustainability criteria: reliability, accessibility, environment etc. and be imbedded in regional plans. This Transumo project is being researched in just this way.

The project consists of three parts. In the first, a computer programme is being developed and tested in the region of The Hague and surrounding municipalities. This tool enables policy makers to compute and optimize the probable outcome of their road safety plans in terms of safety, environmental impact, and accessibility. Until now the instrument that was available only did this for the safety impact, and it needs major efforts for data acquisition. The new tool will be based on a GIS application that is already in use by road authorities. Because it is being developed in cooperation with users and their consultants, it must, and therefore will, be user-friendly.

The second part is aimed at transition issues. On the one hand, by researching a new approach to give improved insight into safety effects of major infrastructural works, i.e. a scenario approach. On the other hand, the role and impact of cooperation is researched in the development of what are known as 60 km zones. In the development of these areas, several road authorities, municipalities and other stakeholders are involved.

In the end, human behaviour decides on the impact of whatever measure on safety, accessibility, or the environment. Thus, the last part is focussed on human behaviour, especially on the expectations of road users, the credibility of the road layout and speed limits, and ways to influence route or even the choice of transport modes.

The project started in mid 2005 with the set-up of several experiments: driving simulators, models, case-studies, lab-studies etc., and the development of a computer model - VVR-GIS, part one. For the latter, a user group has been formed consisting of representatives of all road authorities, their consultants, and chaired by a regional officer. With regards to the transition issues, two PhD studies have started, and so has another one in the human behaviour part. A first concrete result is that it is clear from lab-studies via internet questionnaires that speed limits can be made more credible to all road users, though not to exactly the same extent. There will always be differences between user groups, and therefore some sort of police or automated enforcement is likely to be needed.

Participants
SWOV, TNO, Technical University Delft, Radboud University Nijmegen, VIA-traffic advise, Mobycon, Ecorys, DHV, Stadsgewest Haaglanden, Gemeente Zoetermeer, ROA, Regionaal ondersteuningsbureau Verkeersveiligheid Zuid-Holland.

Projectmanager
SWOV (Dutch National Road Safety Research Insitute): Ir. R. Eenink

For more information, please contact Transumo at info@transumo.nl, +31 79 3470950