title: Making minor rural road networks safer: The effects of 60 km/h-zones.
abstract: For safety reasons a maximum speed limit of 60km/h has been applied to minor rural roads in the Netherlands since 1998. To support this structurally, a part of these roads have also received additional physical measures in a so-called "low cost design" that is expected to reduce the number of traffic casualties by 10-20%. This measure has been implemented as much as possible in an area oriented way. To measure the design's effectivity, road safety in 20 specific rural areas was studied for 5 years before changes were implemented and, on average, 3.5 years thereafter. The study examined 851km of roads, and a control study was done on 2105km of comparable roads with a speed limit of 80km/h. Both the study and the control roads are managed by water boards. Results show that the measures implemented on the roads in the 60km/h-zones had statistically significant effects (p<0.05) on casualty accidents (-24% overall), especially at intersections (-44%). This high reduction is probably caused by the concentration of technical interventions at intersections. Both outcomes are somewhat higher than previously expected and are comparable with the outcome of a meta-analysis of safety effects on area-wide urban traffic calming schemes. However, the cost-effectiveness ratio of the 60km/h zones measures (€33,000 per prevented KSI-casualty) is much more favourable than the ratio in urban 30km/h-zones (€86,000 per prevented KSI-casualty).
authors.affiliation: Land Use Planning Chair, Environmental Sciences Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands. rinus.jaarsma@kpnmail.nl
authors.forename: Rinus
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jaarsma
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Louwerse
authors.forename: Atze
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dijkstra
authors.forename: Jasper
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: de Vries
authors.forename: Jac-Paul
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Spaas
mesh_terms: D000054:Acceleration; D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004779:Environment Design / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D009426:Netherlands; D012424:Rural Population; D017751:Safety Management / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards*