Annually, Dutch road traffic counts approximately 800 fatalities. Each year, that amounts to one-and-a-half jumbo jet full of people that will not return home any more. In the drawing up of a new Road Safety Plan 2008-2020 by the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, the question once more arises if this number cannot be reduced, and how this can be done. Minister Eurling's statement in 2007 that a target of 500 road deaths in 2020 seemed pretty good to him, prompted SWOV's offer to investigate its feasibility. SWOV has calculated that the number of road deaths in 2020 will average approximately 500 with 'unchanged road safety policy'. This so-called baseline prognosis uses: - the least favourable mobility growth scenario; - unchanged road safety policy and efforts (in quality and quantity), including the usual shifts in topics over time, without them involving really new policy; - the introduction of road pricing.
Abstract