Verkeersveiligheidstoets Rhoonse Baan : toets van een nieuw aan te leggen gebiedsontsluitingsweg in de gemeente Albrandswaard. In opdracht van de Gemeente Albrandswaard.

In the Netherlands Borough of Albrandswaard, a route has been determined for a new, to be constructed, distributor road leading from the new estate of Portland. This new road, called the Rhoonse Baan, provides the collector function of Portland in the direction of (the town of) Rhoon and the N492 (the road called Groene Kruisweg) to the A15 motorway. The Rhoonse Baan is mainly rural and, in Rhoon, joins the road called Rivierweg. SWOV was asked whether there would be road safety problems on the Rhoonse Baan as it has been designed, and whether there are safety consequences for the Rivierweg and Groene Kruisweg. To do this, a safety test was carried out. The purpose of this test is to uncover any safety problems and indicate possible solutions to them. The whole route and the connecting Rivierweg and Groene Kruisweg (between the Rivierweg and the connection with the A15) has been studied, using checklists that employ Sustainably Safe as starting point. The most important conclusions and recommendations are: 1) Short cuts are possible. This can be prevented by, for example, removing the `cold' connection (intersection at grade on which it is forbidden to turn off) at the Achterdijk road and removing the merging lane on the Groene Kruisweg. 2) Slow traffic can (unfortunately) get onto the Rhoonse Baan and there is intersecting traffic (slow as well as fast traffic) with the Rhoonse Baan. This can be reduced or prevented by, for example, removing the `cold' connection and laying on parallel roads for access to dwellings. 3) Motorists can (unfortunately) overtake. This can be prevented by, for example, installing median barriers. 4) The urban/rural borders are illogical, viz. in the middle of a road section. The borders can preferably be moved to a crossroads or roundabout. 5) The bends and slopes could contain horizontal and/or vertical irregularities as seen by a driver. This can be prevented by paying a lot of attention to the aesthetics of the road (a peaceful road course and a good vision everywhere). 6) People can drive too fast. It is possible to prevent this by, for example, using a cross section that is not too wide and to emphasize the urban character by constructing pedestrian provisions. 7) The Groene Kruisweg can cope sufficiently with the increase in traffic. Finally, it can be maintained that, with the proposed alterations, the design of the Rhoonse Baan meets the Sustainably Safe requirements.