In order to meet the long term road safety policy goals laid down by the so called "Speerpuntenbeleid" (Spearhead Policy - Ministry of Transport, 1990), the Dutch Government launched the comprehensive "Sustainable Safety" (Duurzaam Veilig, SWOV 1992) programme in the early 1990's. To meet the road accident reduction goals, the programme was designed to be implemented in two phases. The first phase was formally launched in 1997 (Ministry of Transport, 1997) and has as aim a reduction of 25 per cent in injury accidents by the year 2000, using 1985 as the base year. The 2nd phase has targets of a 50 per cent reduction in fatalities and a 40 per cent reduction in injury accidents by 2010 and using 1986 as the base year. The basket of implementation measures for phase one of Sustainable Safety were formulated in a document now known as the "Convenant" (Ministry of Transport 1997). This document sets out 24 implementation goals and strategies. To ensure that these would be realised the government used the "convenant" as the basis for a formal agreement between Central Government and the major stakeholders in road safety in the Netherlands, namely the Association of Dutch Local Authorities (VNG), the Union of Water Management Authorities (UvW) and the Interprovincial Consultation Body (IPO). The agreement to implement the described strategies was entered into in December 1997 and is now well advanced. The primary effort of the first Phase of Sustainable Safety is on reclassifying the existing road network and adapting the road infrastructure to accommodate the concept of self-explaining roads. However, hand in hand with this, special attention is being paid to enforcement, legislation, information and education campaigns. Also supporting measures are being developed and implemented to enhance the overall effect of the programme on road safety. One of the supporting measures currently being developed in the Netherlands is the road safety audit. (A)
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