The Dutch Roads and Railways Act took effect on 1 January 1994. This Act has shortened the length of public enquiries and administrative procedures surrounding decisions on new route proposals to a maximum of three years. The new Act has also prompted a review of the Department of Public Work's Guidelines on Decision-making for Strategic Infrastructure projects. This report evaluates the draft copy of these revised Guidelines in respect to road safety. The report focuses mainly on the procedures applied to proposed highways including motorways and dual carriageways. The report describes in detail the road safety role in the procedures employed in the five decision-making phases used in the Guidelines. The report assess the quality of the road safety input in each of these phases. The report suggests how this quality in each context can be improved. The report concludes that the new Act provides more opportunities for utilising the road safety aspect as a decision-making criterion than are exploited in the draft copy of the revised Guidelines. The report lists possible solutions/road safety surveys which could improve the input of the road safety aspect in the project reports. The report also discusses the planning procedures applied to dangerous highways.
Samenvatting