In recent years there has been an increasing interest, both by social institutions and by scientists, in the promotion of traffic safety and in the improvement of the living environment in residential areas. For this purpose use can be made of an extended range of measures, influencing the behaviour of road users by a suitable layout of the traffic space, by legislation and the enforcement of laws, and by information, education and training. The influence on behaviour is coupled with the concept of provoked traffic behaviour. This concept includes two aspects: (1) the aspect of external factors influencing behaviour. Such factors are localised in traffic surroundings. (2) the aspect related to internal factors influencing behaviour, which reveals the behaviour that has been evoked by the traffic surrounding and traffic circumstances. In general and with rather simplistic reasoning it can be stated that behaviour influencing techniques can either be aimed at the external stimuli of the traffic system or at the internal decision taking and behavioural processes, such as education and training. This report deals mainly with measures concerning the external stimuli, i.e. the layout of streets in a residential area with the emphasis on traffic safety. On the basis of the layout of residential streets it should be possible to determine the expected traffic behaviour of road users.
Abstract