The Netherlands is one of the safety countries on earth when it comes to traffic on the road. Nevertheless, the Dutch government has set road safety targets: 50% fewer fatalities and 40% fewer hospital admissions resulting from road accidents by the year 2010. The SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research and a number of Dutch research institutes expect that the intensification of current policies will not be able to realise the road safety targets. In the National Road Safety Investigation 1990-2010 a new concept has been developed: a sustainable safe road traffic system. This system has an infrastructure that is adapted to the limitations of human capacity through proper road design, vehicles fitted with ways to simplify the tasks of man and constructed to protect the vulnerable human being and a road user who is adequately educated, informed and, where necessary, controlled. A sustainable safe road traffic system could be implemented over a period of 30 years. Implementation costs are estimated to be two billion guilders per year, to be found in existing infrastructure budgets.
Abstract