Outlook road safety measures at and around the A15 Maasvlakte-Vaanplein interchange : a brief study. The A15 motorway between the Vaanplein interchange on the eastern side and the Maasvlakte on the western side, is one of the most important freeways providing access to the Rotterdam harbour area. From mid-2011 to 2015, the capacity of the A15 is being structurally expanded to meet future traffic demand. This expansion is locally known as the MaVa project which relates to the section of freeway between the 26.0 and 62.1 km posts and aims to end the present congestion problems on the A15. ‘De Verkeersonderneming’, a collaborative venture between the municipality of Rotterdam, Port of Rotterdam and Rijkswaterstaat of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, has been given the task of optimising the traffic flow on the A15 and maximising the accessibility of the surrounding area during the reconstruction phase of the project. ‘De Verkeersonderneming’ asked SWOV to make an analysis based on a quick scan of incidents and crashes and to identify measures that are likely to be successful in achieving this goal. The quick scan indicates that 90% of the incidents are breakdowns, crashes. and objects on the carriageway. The A15 MaVa section has three locations with a greater number of incidents in general, and crashes in particular, when compared to other locations on the section. These locations are Hartelkruis, the Botlektunnel and the Vaanplein interchange. If the incidents and crashes are related to the traffic flow the rates appear to be higher than those on the other road sections on the A15 MaVa. Compared with other roads (A16 and A20 in the area that are managed by Rijkswaterstaat (the national road authority), the A15 MaVa has a relatively good incident rate. This section of the A15 has very high traffic demands and is very vulnerable to congestion caused by incidents and is very prone to disturbances. Consequently traffic management measures aimed at preventing incidents (more specifically crashes) or limiting their duration and consequences once they have occurred are needed. The analyses indicated a number of measures that show potential to reduce these effects. Measures that can lead to improvement are: extra alcohol enforcement; better inspection of loading and load control; preventive measures focused on tyres and tyre pressure of Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV); faster processing of HGV breakdowns; the introduction overtaking prohibitions; and adaption of the manner in which certain incident characteristics are registered. Many of these measures require more detail regarding the origin of the problems; in these cases follow-up research is recommended. At a number of locations road safety audits or inspections are advisable to obtain a better understanding of the road safety problems.
Samenvatting