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Safe passenger cars

Since the seventies, the safety of car occupants has greatly improved, expressed in both the number of road crash fatalities and in mortality risk. Since 2011, however, the number of road deaths among car occupants has not decreased.

Light electric vehicles (LEVs)

A light electric vehicle (LEV) is a light, electrically powered vehicle to travel relatively short distances. Most electric vehicles cannot be used on public roads in the Netherlands, whereas in many other European countries this is permitted. Not much is known about the safety of LEVs since large-scale, systematic research is hardly available.

Traffic congestion and roadworks

Traffic congestion occurs when traffic demand exceeds road capacity, or when an incident such as a traffic crash, a vehicle breakdown occurs or temporary roadworks take place, all of which temporarily reduce capacity and restrict traffic flow. Congestion crashes mainly occur at the tail end of a traffic jam. There, the speed of the traffic flow decreases sharply, which coincides with frequent and…

Self-driving vehicles

It will probably take at least several decades for completely self-driving vehicles to become commercially available, if they ever will. Yet, vehicles in which part of the driving task is automated, for example automated braking, accelerating and steering, are already available.

Sustainable Road Safety

Sustainable Road Safety implies that the traffic environment is designed to rule out serious crashes and to mitigate the severity of the crashes that do happen. The human dimension is the primary focus: man who is vulnerable, makes mistakes and does not abide by the rules.

Risky traffic behaviour among young adolescents

Adolescence is the period between childhood and adulthood. Compared with older adolescents (18-24 years old), young adolescents (10-17 years old) exhibit more risky behaviour.  Because of their physical and mental development, young adolescents are attracted  to risky challenges, they are more susceptible to peer pressure, and they have less self-control and overview than older adolescents.

Public service advertising

Public service advertising (PSA) on road safety does not seem very effective on its own. PSA campaigns mainly influence behaviour when they are combined with police enforcement and rewarding or other actions. This does not mean that PSA campaigns should not be undertaken.

Speed and speed management

If the average speed on a road increases, crash risk also increases, as does the risk of a serious outcome. This is true in general terms, but more so when motorised vehicles crash with unprotected road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists and (light) moped riders. Furthermore, speed differences between vehicles at any one time or place are related to a higher crash risk.

Cyclists

In 2016, there were 189 road deaths among cyclists in the Netherlands. This is approximately 30% of the total number of road deaths. The number of seriously injured cyclists is not exactly known. Their number in 2015 was estimated to be more than 60% of the total number of serious road injuries, which would be over 13 thousand.

Pedelecs and speed pedelecs

In 2020, over a quarter of the total number of bicycle kilometres were cycled on pedelecs; particularly the over-65s opt for pedelecs. This is also borne out by the crash figures: in 2019 and 2020, almost one in three of the cyclist fatalities was a pedelec rider.