This report records measurements executed before the implementation of a set of infrastructural measures to limit driving speed on various roads in the Dutch province Drenthe. These measurements consist of driving speed and subjective appraisal of the road environment by using the Road Environment Construct List (RECL). The measurements will serve as reference to assess the presence and extent of effects after implementation of the measures. It appeared that driving speed on the roads was clearly above the legal limit. The proportion of "genuine offenders" was rarely below 50%, especially at night. With respect to subjective appraisal it was investigated what appraisal a group of drivers on the particular roads were expressing for the RECL. The sixteen RECL-constructs are, as usual, summarized in three composite factors, called "Hedonic value", "Activational value", and "Perceptual variation". These factors express an emotional appraisal of the road environment, and appraisal in terms of variation of an environment that can be perceived, respectively. A relation was found between the spaciousness of the road environments and the composite factor scores of "Attentional value" and "Perceptual variation"; this relation was less clear for the factor "Hedonic value".
Abstract