Speed policy in The Netherlands and speed management research at the SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research. Contribution to IATSS Research on "Traffic accident analysis and traffic safety policies".

Slightly different versions of this study were published: in IATSS Research, 1996, Volume 20, Number 2, pp30-6, and for the abstract see IRRD 890872; and see C 10973. Now follows the summary included in this report: Government objective on speed is to reduce the level of speeders on main urban and secondary rural roads to maximally 10% in the year 2000. To enable monitoring the speed level a design for a traffic measuring network on secondary rural roads was made and installed in several provinces. The data from this network serves two purposes: use for national policy on speed and for provincial speed management. Speed management through automatic warning and enforcement combined with information campaign and feed back signs has been applied and evaluated: a) An urban and rural intersectii: speeders are warned automatically by a sign switchable sign. Mean speed dropped by minimally 5 km/h. The number of accidents was too small for a statistical evaluation. A theoretical calculation showed a considerable potential for accident reduction; b) Two lane rural road stretches: on four stretches of road, length between I 0 and 20 kin, speeders are warned automatically and when ignored a radar+camera registers the number plate of the car and a fine is sent later. The percentage of speeders dropped from 38 to 11%, the number of accidents was reduced with 35%. Vandalism of the radar and camera occurred several times; and c) Provincial road network: the total road length enforced in three provinces was 700 km, the duration was 6 months. A radar and camera from an unmarked car parked on the road side registers speeders. A sign was posted downstream reading 'Your speed has been checked. Police'. Speed was reduced by 5 km/h. Surveys conducted among drivers showed the enforcement measures were accepted by the majority of the drivers