On the occasion of the visit of the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to Turkey, The Netherlands embassy in Ankara and the consulate-general in Istanbul are organising a half-day seminar on the successful road safety strategy of the Netherlands on 6 and 7 November 2012. During these events road safety experts will openly exchange their experience and knowledge on what has been successful in the Netherlands, but also on what turned out to be less effective than expected. Objective is the promotion of road safety by means of permanent academic, policy and commercial exchange and cooperation between Turkey and the Netherlands. The Netherlands consistently ranks in the top 3 of the world’s safest countries in road traffic casualty statistics. This is a remarkable achievement since traffic in Holland is also Europe’s densest. In addition it has a high share of vulnerable two-wheelers, mainly bicycles. Since the 1990s the Dutch road safety strategy is based on the ‘Sustainable Safety’ concept, which is characterized by a pro-active approach. This means that the weak spots in the traffic system are dealt with generically. The seminar aims to elaborate on this 'Sustainable Safety’ concept. Improving road safety is not only morally important, but also an economically essential issue for all countries. Academic studies estimate the annual losses as a result of road crashes at 1.3 — 3.2% of GDP. The seminar seeks to address various key aspects of the successful Dutch road safety strategy and its execution and features speakers from the public, academic and private sector. Keynote speaker on the Dutch side is Dr. Marjan Hagenzieker. She is associate professor at the Delft University of Technology and also holds a senior research position with SWOV (Dutch Institute for Road Safety Research). Dr. Hagenzieker's research and education activities focus on the road safety effects of the transport system, with particular interest in road user behaviour aspects. Her PhD-research was on the effects of rewards on road user behaviour. The second academic speaker is dr. Maura Houtenbos, a traffic psychologist from SWOV. GATSO, Goudappel Coffeng and Philips Lighting represent Dutch industry with non-commercial presentations on enforcement, road safety and integrated planning and the safety benefits of innovative road lighting. A matchmaking event will be organised both in Ankara en Istanbul after the seminar to facilitate the objective to promote exchange and cooperation in road safety between Turkish and Dutch academics, researchers and companies.
Samenvatting