Motorways are regarded as safest solution for car traffic but they also have very severe accidents. Motorways are similar the world over, but there is great variation in speed limits. It is only w germany which has no speed limits. While during the 70s the speed situation on motorways depended on the speed potential of car fleet, speed potential now is far above speed limits. Owing to this and a 50-100 percent increase in motorway traffic volume, the safety problem has increased. The number and severity of accidents on motorways is increasing while total number of accidents has dropped. In Sweden during 1986-88, the number of injury accidents was highest on motorways but distribution of fatilities, severe and slight injuries was not very different from that on other roads. For comments on this paper, see C 6532.
Samenvatting