The determination of the amount of hazard at intersections is one of the problems one meets while studying the right of way. Within the scheme of the investigation it is not always possible to gauge this danger by means of accident recording. This ed to the searching for alternative methods, such as observation of the behaviour of road-users at intersections. Observations of the behaviour of road users at intersections were done by some investigators, p.e. British and West-German research workers. A new method was developed by the Institute for Road Safety Research SWOV, mainly since the existing and common methods were considered to be too concise or too comprehensive. The method of the Institute for Road Safety Research is based on the grading of the right-of-way behaviour into four categories: 1. good": the right-of-way is given correctly; 2. interchanged: the road-user, entitled to the right-of-way, gives way; 3. "precarious": the road-user, obliged to give way, only does so at the latest moment; a slightly critical situation arises; 4. 'wrong": the road-user, obliged to give way, omits such. This reviewed method was applied to some investigations of limited size. The results were such, that a further development of the method concerned seems to be desirable. The perfection ought to be directed in the first place to an improvement of the directions to the observers: well-reproducable results should be possible in all hypothetical circumstances. Secondly, one should search for the relationship between the grading of the give-way behaviour and the road traffic hazard. For the time being, especially the categories wrong and precarious" are assumed to be determining for the road accident risk. The category interchanged" can give, among others, indications for the discrepancy between de jure and de facto give-way behaviour. From the results of the first researches, some remarkable facts come to the fore: In Antwerp (Belgium). the give-way behaviour of drivers with regard to vehicles, coming from the right, is compared with the behaviour of the drivers with regard to the cyclists and moped riders coming from the right. In that investigation, explicit differences are noted in the percentage 'interchanged", that in the second case appeared to be considerable higher. From the observations could also be deduced that the influence of a tramway still occurs, although the statutory law which equated a tramway with a major road, has already been abolished some years ago. In Den Helder (the Netherlands) the right-of-way behaviour was observed as a before- and after study, at several intersections without give-way regulations (identical road traffic of the right has the right-of-way) which were altered into major intersections. The more or less favourable trend in which the behaviour altered, turned out to be slightly dependent on the fact whether the new give-way regulation met the dominating character of one of both roads or functioned contradictory. (Author/publisher)
Abstract