This report summarizes the work of HOPES (Horizontal Project for the Evaluation of Safety), the DRIVE II kernel project responsible for the evaluation, monitoring and assessment of pilot projects in the area of man-machine interaction and traffic safety. HOPES work has been organized in three major strands: (i) assistance to the pilot projects; (ii) work on the potential Advanced Transport Telematics ATT to affect road design; and (iii) actual safety evaluation in the context of the pilot projects. In the assistance work, a set of framework documents have been prepared covering MMI evaluation, prospective traffic safety analysis and retrospective traffic safety analysis. More detailed safety evaluation guidelines were subsequently prepared providing advice on safety evaluation in the major areas of operational interest in DRIVE II. Reviews of pilot project evaluation plans were also conducted with the aim of improving the quality of the safety evaluation to be performed and of encouraging safety relevant issues to be covered. HOPES work on the potential ATT to influence road design addressed both new and existing roads from the point of view of the road user and road network demands for ATT support. It has examined the potential of ATT to influence new road design by allowing roads to be built to lower physical standards without any sacrifice in overall operation. It has also looked that the potential for older, substandard roads to have their operation enhanced trough ATT. In its actual evaluation work, HOPES has carried out studies in three areas of implementation: 1) travel and traffic information, specifically in-vehicle route guidance systems; 2) traffic management, specifically roadside incident warning systems; and 3) driver assistance and cooperative driving, specifically collision avoidance systems. The report summarizes the results of this evaluation work and makes recommendations about how the system should be improved. It is clear from the experiences with HOPES that there is a continued need in the Transport Telematics programme for work at the core level both to ensure high quality safety evaluation through the provision of support to the projects and to carry out further development of safety evaluation methods.
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