Categorisation and appraisal of rural two-lane undivided 80-Km/H roads

摘要

In The Netherlands 80 km/hour is the default speed at roads outside the built-up area. However, there is no default 80 km/h-road lay-out. The speed limit of 80 km/h is assigned to all roads, except when a specific lay-out allows for a speed limitof 100 km/h, or in the case of a motorway, 120 km/h. So what is the problem, one might ask? Except when indicated explicitly one should drive 80 km/h at most. However, the largest proportion of accidents occur on those 80 km/h roads. Therefore, justsetting some rules and examining people for a rudimentary form of mastering the task is certainly insufficient to obtain a high standard of safe performance. A wiser approach would be to make a road inherently safe and self-explaining, as far as possible(Theeuwes & Godthelp, 1993). This means that drivers are guided by the road in their driving behaviour. The road infrastructure and environment should encourage the driving behaviour that is wanted, and discourage unwanted behaviour.