Speed is a key element in road safety. The reason why there are accidents is of course because vehicles travel from one place to another. Speed is the primary cause of a great many accidents and, even though it may not be the cause of an accident, it can be an aggravating factor increasing the violence of the impact. Moreover, as a general rule, driving at reduced speeds always increases road safety. In order to ensure that a road safety policy is effective it is therefore important to monitor speed on the roads so as to gain a picture of the progress accomplished and the effectiveness of the policies in place. In this framework, at the request of the Federal Road Safety Commission the Belgian Institute for Road Safety has been taking measurements of speeds travelled on roads since 2003. This report contains the result of these measurements up to 2012. (Author/publisher)
Abstract