A light variant of ProMeV applied in twelve provinces : a risk based approach to road infrastructure. ProMeV Light quickly and proactively gives an overview of the biggest safety bottlenecks on road sections in the provincial road network. This way it offers a useful alternative to a policy on the basis of crash concentrations, which is more reactive. ProMeV Light does not provide detailed information about the most effective measures on road sections. Provincial governments increasingly experience problems with prioritizing road safety policy. Traditionally provinces base their road safety policy on crash concentrations, also known as ' black spots '. Because in recent years crashes have been registered less accurately and because the number of crash concentrations has been decreasing, provinces have been searching for a new way to prioritize their road safety measures. In other safety areas (external security, shipping, aviation) and in the road safety policy of, for example, Sweden, a risk based approach based on safety indicators is used. This systematic approach is proactive and focuses on factors that threaten safety and on the risk of crashes. Rather than taking retrospect measures on the basis of crashes, this approach takes measures on the basis of factors that are certain to affect the occurrence and outcome of crashes. Commissioned by IPO, the partnership of the twelve provinces in the Netherlands, SWOV has developed a tool to apply a risk based approach on the infrastructure of provincial roads: ProMeV, an acronym of Proactief Meten Verkeersveiligheid (Measuring Road Safety Proactively). Previous pilot projects have shown that many and detailed data is required for the implementation of ProMeV. In this study SWOV has slimmed down the method to be used for one of the four components, namely the road sections. Within this one component we have focused on the three most essential of the original fourteen road sections characteristics. This was done to make it possible to use ProMeV in the short term. The resulting ProMeV ‘Light’ was then used to assess all provincial 80 km/h roads. SWOV used the 2012 data of these roads that was collected by the Royal Dutch Touring Club ANWB in the framework of EuroRAP. ProMeV Light assesses the following three features of provincial 80 km/h roads: the number of homes/fields/companies/agricultural land that the road provides access to; the kind of median, road markings or other separation of driving directions; the distance between obstacles (trees, ditches) and the edge of the road (obstacle-free zone). To determine where the safety problems are greatest, the amount of traffic on the provincial 80 km/h roads (the traffic volume) has also been taken into account. After all, not only the risk but also the exposure to that risk is an important factor. If a road is both busy and unsafe, the greatest number of crashes is to be expected. If a road is quiet, we expect fewer crashes. The expected number of crashes (and casualties) could be used to prioritize measures. Using data provided by the Royal Dutch Touring Club ANWB, the above three characteristics of all provincial 80 km/h roads were assessed. Application of ProMeV Light shows that based on characteristics of the infrastructure it is possible and relatively easy to get a reliable indication of the safety of the provincial 80 km/h roads, and of the direction for further improvement. The three selected characteristics were found to have a significant relationship with road safety: the number of casualties is lower on roads that comply to a greater extent with the standards than on roads that do not comply so well. ProMeV Light indicates that two-thirds of the provincial 80 km/h roads has no correct direction separation or correct obstacle-free zone. Only a small number of road sections were given an optimal rating on the three characteristics. The ProMeV Light-score combined with the data on traffic volumes gives an indication of the numbers of casualties that are to be expected on a road. On 9% of the provincial 80 km/h roads we expect relatively few casualties, on 15% of the roads we expect relatively many casualties. The instrument ProMeV Light gives a risk-based approach to the infrastructure component. In addition, instruments are being developed that score roads or regions on bicycle safety, speed behaviour and alcohol use. Such tools will jointly give a proactive image of the risks in an area, so that provinces and other governments can set priorities in their road safety policy. ProMeV Light is a useful tool, but it also has its limitations. Further development of the instrument and regular updates of the data are necessary to benefit in full of the advantages that the proactive approach can offer.
Abstract