Evolutionary Approach of Accident Concentration Zones

AbstractOne challenge in road safety is to find the right balance between the wish to reduce the number and severity of accidents, to reduce them as quickly as possible, and the need to invest cost effectively. One has to be sure of the choice of the right locations, with a worthwhile impact on improving traffic safety. This requires a good screening analysis of (potentially) dangerous situations.As part of its current policy document, Brussels Capital Region has chosen to improve 30 dangerous zones. In 2014 the regional administration gave the project ZACA (French abbreviation for accident concentration zones) to Belgian Road Research Centre (BRRC) and its partners (Espaces-Mobilités and Belgian Road Safety Institute).With ZACA, we give content to the strategic objective of making roads and streets intrinsically safe. We developed an innovative, flexible and evolutive methodology. The project has three components: determination of 30 priority areas, diagnosis of 30 areas to understand the possible and real accident factors, and development of solutions. In our contribution we plan to discuss the methodological parts of the project. We will end with perspectives for Brussels and other urban areas