On 12th November 2002 in Soesterberg in the Netherlands, the 'Behaviour and Traffic — Contact Group for Research and Policy' organized a seminar, with as theme 'Safety Culture in Traffic'. This was aimed at establishing the state of affairs about the phenomenon of a safety culture in traffic, and the chances and threats involved. Within the road safety world, this often-used English concept is frequently associated with the road haulage industry. However, and this was the goal of the seminar, the non-professional road users should also be able to profit from a safety culture. During the seminar, a number of aspects of such a culture were discussed. The whole idea of a safety culture originated in the chemical industry. Many of the principles that apply there are also applicable in the traffic system. This was the starting point of the presentation by Patrick Hudson of Leiden University. Next, Rob Aarse of the Dutch Transport Operators Association discussed the way in which the safety culture ideas had found their way to the employers and management in the transport industry. Peter Levelt of SWOV then viewed it from the point of view of the individual road user (bottom-up) and examined the role of emotions and moods. Finally, Annick Starren and Cécile Pluijmaekers of the Goods Transport sector of the Ministry of Transport approached the points of view and activities from the central government side. The common factor in each of these contributions was, building on the experiences in industry and the transport sector, to attempt to determine in which way the policy makers and the politicians could create a safety culture in their workplaces; i.e. the road users in the Netherlands. There were also four parallel sessions. In these, the ideas were then further discussed in depth under the supervision of the discussion leader. This publication contains a written report of the four presentations and a short summary of the four discussion groups.
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