In various countries it is standard practice to quantify the relationship between geometric, engineering elements in the design and the chance of accidents occurring. Given this relationship, it is attempted to optimize the road design. This approach to road designing would seem to be relevant in developing a `sustainably safe' traffic system. To see if this is so, an exploratory literature study of foreign research has been carried out. This study concentrates on research results from countries in which experiences have been gained with the presented approach to road designing. The most important countries are: Germany, Sweden, Portugal, United Kingdom, and United States. The study is structured according to the usual arrangement for guidelines in road design. These are: alignment: tangents, curves,and relation design; cross section; and intersections including roundabouts. Special attention has been paid to the size of the sample, (external) factors that could disturb the results, and the robustness of any statistical relationships found. A lot of use has consciously been made of those studies that have been peer-reviewed, to ensure their quality.
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