Anticipatory research for the design of a sustainable and safe road traffic system.

The new policy in the Netherlands is attempting to build a traffic system, based on clear design concepts and rules about how to use it. Such a system should be sustainable and safe. The design characteristics of the roads should be relevant to their functions. It should be clear which vehicles are allowed and which traffic rules should be applied. Incompatible road users should either be separated or else be integrated on the basis of survival of the weakest. Road users should be prevented in a natural way from exhibiting a lack of safe behaviour or suffering from such behaviour of other road users. The basic problem is how to design such a system, in relation to: (i) the functions of the roads; (ii) the permission of vehicle types; and (iii) the regulations for the behaviour of road users. In order to support this future traffic system design by research, the Ministry of Transport took the initiative to ask the major research institutes to cooperate in the development of a programme for anticipatory research, starting in the year 1993. Research proposals are integrated into a programme and presented to the Ministry of Transport. This paper describes the framework of this research programme, together with the procedure for integration of the results.