Mopeds on the carriageway. Dutch law prescribes that moped riders should drive on the cycle track if there is one present, rather than on the carriageway. The SWOV was asked by the Netherlands Transport Research Centre AVV of the Ministry of Public Works to investigate whether it is safer to allow moped riders to use the carriageway designated for motor vehicles inside the built up area. To this end, an accident study was performed in the form of a before and after study including trial and control sections, where registered injury accidents were subjected to an analysis. Three municipalities participated in the trial: Apeldoorn, Tiel and The Hague. On November 1, 1991, moped riders were requested to move from the cycle track to the main carriageway on a number of roads inside the built up area of these municipalities. The ‘before period' included the last three years prior to introduction of the measure (November 1988 to October 1991 inclusive); the ‘after period' included the years from 1992 to 1994 inclusive. Compared to the before and after period of the study, the trial sections showed a marked reduction in moped accidents involving injury with reference to the increase in this type of accident on the control sections. The number of moped accidents involving injury was reduced by 70% with respect to the preliminary period on the trial sections, while on the control sections - analogous to the nationwide trend - a reduction of about 20% in this type of accident was shown. The same effect is shown for the number of accident victims, which was also reduced by almost 70%. Inparticular, collisions between mopeds and motor vehicles and between mopeds and cycles were reduced considerably in number. The positive effect of the measures was shown on various types of road: both on single and double lane carriageways, both on carriageways provided with uni-directional or two-directional cycle tracks and both on quiet and busy roads (with respect to moped, cycle and motor vehicle traffic). However, the fact that the trial and control sections differed from each other in various respects made it awkward to calculate the exact magnitude of the effect; for this reason, it is also difficult to predict the exact effect of the measure ‘moped on the carriageway' if it were to be applied on a larger scale. Furthermore, a positive effect was not registered in Tiel (nor a negative effect). Based on the results of the study, it is recommended to introduce the measure ‘moped on the carriageway' on a larger scale. This is best realised by making ‘moped on the carriageway' generally applicable in the Netherlands for locations inside the built up area. The trial application of the measure ‘moped on the carriageway' related only to road sections inside the built up area; no recommendations can be made on the basis of this study with respect to situations outside the built up area. This year, the C.R.O.W will set up a working group which is to draw up guidelines in mid-1996 indicating where and how the measure ‘moped on the carriageway' should be applied
Samenvatting