SAFESTAR was a research study focusing on traffic safety for what is known as the ‘Trans-European Roadway Network’ (TERN) that links the major European centres. The knowledge needed for being able to carry out an effective safety policy at the European level is insufficient in regard to various safety aspects of road infrastructure. SAFESTAR was established to fill in these gaps of knowledge, with special notice being given to the following seven topics: emergency lanes and shoulders along motorways, tunnels located on motorways, express roads, cross-sections of rural roads, curves in rural roads, major junctions on roads in urban areas, and assessing the safety of road infrastructure during the planning and design stages (the performing of safety audits). Within the scope of SAFESTAR, the investigation into these areas pays much attention to the differences between design standards as they now exist or are being developed in the individual countries within Europe. Of particular interest are the differences between the countries participating in SAFESTAR: the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, France, Portugal, Greece and the Czech Republic. - SAFESTAR is providing an overview of the nature and the degree of danger in the emergency lanes and shoulders of European motorways. Next, an inventory and analysis are being made of the various measures currently taken to correct these problems. Finally, the study goes deeper into the criteria for applying various kinds of safety provisions such as safety barriers. - SAFESTAR will select a tunnel design deemed responsible by expert opinion. Next, this tunnel design will be tested in a driving simulator. - SAFESTAR is charting the dangers of express roads and in doing so, analyses the reasons for choosing this type of road. Attention is also given to the future development of express roads: will the problem disappear due to the construction of additional (semi-)motorways, or on the contrary, will the situation worsen due to the increasing amount of traffic? Finally, recommendations are being provided for road design and for the circumstances under which these roads should be constructed. - The cross-section of a road determines to a great extent which traffic situations can occur on such a road and also which accidents can occur. SAFESTAR evaluates the difference in cross-sections based on the characteristics of the accidents. A few promising corrective measures are being selected, and the effects of these are being studied with test subjects driving vehicles equipped with test devices. - Another task of SAFESTAR is to increase knowledge in the effect that the design of curves has on the safety of rural roads. The evaluation is based on two methods: by using calculation models for the speed profile and accident frequency, and by investigating driving behaviour immediately before and in curves when using different kinds of marking and signing. - For designing urban junctions, it would be desirable to have a calculation model which would predict accident levels that will occur once the junction is built or put back into use after modifications. These calculation models already exist, but they still require a great deal of improvement. SAFESTAR focuses on obtaining an improved calculation model. - The aim of safety audits is to assess the pre-construction safety level of road infrastructure design. A design can be assessed in various phases of the design process. Teams of experts not directly involved in the project carry out the audits. SAFESTAR will evaluate existing audits procedures and will test a number of different procedures in different countries. The findings produced by SAFESTAR will be compiled to create a coherent list accompanied by recommendations concerning the safety aspects of road design. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting