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The social costs of road crashes in the Netherlands in 2022 are estimated at € 33 billion (between € 19 and € 44 billion), equivalent to 3.4% (1.9-4.6%) of the gross domestic product (GDP). This is significantly higher than other traffic-related social costs such as traffic congestion (€ 2.7 to € 3.5 billion) and environmental damage (€ 8.2 billion).
A bicycle helmet is intended to protect cyclists against head and brain injuries when they are involved in crashes. Research shows that in case of a crash helmeted cyclists are 60% less likely to sustain serious head/brain injuries and 70% less likely to sustain fatal head/brain injuries than cyclists not wearing a helmet.
In 2023, 684 people were killed in road crashes in the Netherlands. That is 61 road deaths less than a year earlier, but more than between 2010 and 2021.
In 2022, the number of serious road injuries in the Netherlands was estimated at 8,300. That number is about 1,500 (over 20%) higher than the 2021 number and also slightly higher than was to be expected considering the upward trend through 2019.
The construction of the road network and road design greatly affect road safety: firstly, because they make certain conflicts impossible or unlikely (e.g., by physical separation of driving directions, separate bicycle tracks, clear roadsides); secondly, because they direct the desired traffic behaviour (recognisability, predictability).
In the Netherlands, over a third of road deaths and well over two thirds of serious road injuries are cyclists. Cyclist fatality risk (the number of road deaths per distance travelled) is more than eight times higher than fatality risk for drivers, but over three times as low as that for motorised two-wheelers.
In 2020, over a quarter of the total number of bicycle kilometres were cycled on pedelecs; particularly the over-65s opt for pedelecs. This is also borne out by the crash figures: in 2019 and 2020, almost one in three of the cyclist fatalities was a pedelec rider.
It will probably take at least several decades for completely self-driving vehicles to become commercially available, if they ever will. Yet, vehicles in which part of the driving task is automated, for example automated braking, accelerating and steering, are already available.
Since the seventies, the safety of car occupants has greatly improved, expressed in both the number of road crash fatalities and in mortality risk. Since 2011, however, the number of road deaths among car occupants has not decreased.
A light electric vehicle (LEV) is a light, electrically powered vehicle to travel relatively short distances. Most electric vehicles cannot be used on public roads in the Netherlands, whereas in many other European countries this is permitted. Not much is known about the safety of LEVs since large-scale, systematic research is hardly available.