The increasingly dominant role of motorised traffic in urban areas poses a growing threat to vulnerable road users like pedestrians, particularly the elderly, children and handicapped among them. Moreover, it affects the quality of life also by restricting social and residential activities, as well as due to environmental pollution. On the other hand, transport and traffic are requirements, inherent to the urban society. Hence, in urban areas a conflict of interests arises between the desired accessibility for motorised traffic and upholding the quality of life. In this conflict between the `traffic' functions and the `living' functions of the urban area, a well-balanced solution has to be found. Since the 1970s, the Netherlands have tried to tackle this problem by adopting the principle that the urban area should functionally be divided into traffic areas and residential areas. In the first, the flow and circulation of traffic remain the elementary function and safety is mainly sought for by segregation the incompatible traffic modes: the motorised traffic and the other highly vulnerable road users. In the second, the intention is to focus on residential activities such as walking, shopping and playing, while access is only allowed to destination traffic. Here, the leading principle for ensuring safety is integrating the different traffic modes. Starting from this principle, various types of solutions have been developed, and applied in practice. The effects of most of them on traffic safety have been evaluated by now. The experience contributes in evolving the new concept of a `sustainable, safe traffic system' in urban areas. After first having described the development of the traffic and transport, the undesired side effects of transport and the traffic safety problems inside residential areas in the Netherlands (Projectgroup Bicycle Master Plan, 1993), this paper presents the principles underlying a functional, safety oriented road categorization of the urban infrastructure. Then, various applications in practice will be discussed, as well as some results of evaluation studies on their safety impact. Finally, the concept of `sustainable urban traffic safety' will be addressed (SWOV, Wouters & Janssen, 1994).
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