With this monthly newsletter we wish to draw your attention to new topics on our website. This month in the SWOV newsletter:
SWOV in the media
Publications
New fact sheets
Fact sheets updates
Library
Knowledge Base
Conferences and meetings

NVVC2010
On 22 April the Dutch National Road Safety Congress (NVVC) was held in Rotterdam. At this occasion Minister of Transport Camiel Eurlings announced the numbers of traffic casualties for 2009. SWOV's managing director Fred Wegman also gave a speech and commented on the 2009 figures for Radio Netherlands Worldwide. Via Netherlands national news agency ANP articles were placed in several Dutch national daily papers. The paper De Telegraaf published an article in which Fred Wegman expressed his concerns about cyclists in traffic. The 2009 data indicate that the number of traffic fatalities has continued to decrease to 720, but that the number of cyclist fatalities did not decline in 2009.

Making phone calls and listening to music while cycling
On 21 April, SWOV published a press release about the report The use of portable media players and mobile phones while cycling. The free paper Metro published a long article. Several media published the article offered by ANP. SWOV researcher Maura Houtenbos, one of the authors, was interviewed about the report on the Children's News on television and on the radio stations BNR and Radio West. The television programme RTL Breakfast News used listening to music and making phone calls while cycling for their opinion poll of the day. The national paper NRC Next paid attention to this study and also published the 2009 data.

Speed campaign
On 12 April, Minister of Transport Eurlings started off the campaign ‘Keep to the speed limit”. SWOV contributes to the campaign and has made an effect estimate of the hazards of small speeding offences.

Alone or accompanied to school: perceived safety in traffic by parents of primary school pupils
A questionnaire study. A.T.G. Hoekstra, MSc, dr. J. Mesken & drs. W.P. Vlakveld. R-2010-7 Subjective safety in traffic refers to personal feelings and perception of safety in traffic, or to the concerns about being unsafe in traffic. These concerns may apply to people themselves and/or to others. The feelings do not necessarily relate to the actual number of casualties in traffic. The research described in this report investigates the extent to which feelings of not being safe in traffic play a role in the choices made by parents to have their children go to school accompanied or on their own.

Evaluation of the new style BROEM course
A questionnaire study among older drivers. R.J. Davidse & A.T.G. Hoekstra. R-2010-6 The BROEM course for older drivers has been organized in the Netherlands since 1990. In 2008, the BROEM course and the accompanying reference manual have been updated. For this reason and because of the desire to know the effectiveness of this specific educational programme from a road safety point of view the new style BROEM course was evaluated. This report discusses the evaluation.

The use of portable media players and mobile phones while cycling
Results of a large-scale internet survey. Ch. Goldenbeld, M. Houtenbos & E. Ehlers. R-2010-5 Increasingly, Dutch cyclists own portable media players and/or mobile phones which they also often use while cycling. This raises the question of how frequently this is done and whether the use of these appliances while cycling contributes to reduced safety. In the summer of 2009, SWOV had a questionnaire study carried out. The present report discusses this study of the intensity and the manner of using portable media players and mobile phones and of the possible road safety consequences.

The safety effects of small speeding offences
An estimate for the number of traffic casualties in urban areas. H.L. Stipdonk & L.T. Aarts. R-2010-4 From 12 April 2010, the Ministry of Transport has been conducting a large scale speed campaign which is aimed at unintentional and small speeding offences in urban areas. For this purpose small offences are defined as 10 to 15 km/h above the limit. This report estimates the numbers of registered traffic fatalities and inpatients due to small speeding offences on urban 30 and 50 km/h roads.

Which points of departure for road safety improvement are connected with integrated network design and road categorization?
Requirements for a sustainably safe road network. A. Dijkstra. R-2010-3 At present a new road categorization is in the making. SWOV proposes to use a new approach: preceding the actual road categorization by a phase of network design, and using 'safe speeds' in the road categorization. This report presents a method for network design which best meets road safety demands. The road categorization method which best follows this phase has also been detailed, making use of safe speed limits.

Social forgivingness

Crossing facilities for cyclists and pedestrians
Roundabouts

New acquisitions
Every day, publications are added to the library collection, both those ordered by us and those sent to us. Every month, an overview of these is placed on our website, to be consulted. You will find the overview here.

Driver behaviour and accident research methodology: unresolved problems. A. af Wåhlberg. Aldershot [etc.], Ashgate, 2009, XX + 280 p., ref.; Human Factors in Road and Rail Transport - ISBN 978-0-7546-7076-6
This book discusses several methodological problems in traffic psychology which are not currently recognized as such. Summarizing and analyzing the available research, it is found that there are a number of commonly made assumptions about the validity of methods that have little backing, and that many basic problems have not been researched at all. Suggestions are made as to further studies that should be made to address some of these problems. The book is primarily intended for traffic/transport researchers, but should also be useful for specialized education at a higher level (doctoral students and transportation specialists) as well as officials who require a good grasp of methodology to be able to evaluate research. (Author/publisher)

Driver workload at higher speeds. K. Fitzpatrick et al. College Station, TX, Texas A & M University, Texas Transportation Institute TTI, 2010, XIX + 193 p., 40 ref.; Report 0-5911-1 / FHWA/TX-10/0-5911-1
The goal of this Texas Department of Transportation project was to gain a better understanding of driver performance at high speeds.

Road Safety 2020 Smart Solutions, Sustainability, Vision: conference proceedings of the Annual General Meeting of the Australasian College of Road Safety (ACRS), Perth, 5-6 November 2009. Mawson, Australasian College of Road Safety, 2009, CD-ROM - ISBN 978-0-9585691-3-2
The CD-ROM contains the proceedings of the 2009 Annual General Meeting of the Australasian College of Road Safety (ACRS). Papers were presented in sessions called: Vulnerable road users, Road environment, Community interventions, Driver behaviour & consequences, Technology & road safety, Policy and practice, Testing and education, and Road Injury and protection.

New data
The following tables in the Knowledge base have been supplemented with new data:
• Registered traffic casualties (BRON), supplemented with data of 2009
Victims
Drivers
Accidents
The long term series have also been supplemented
Fatalaties from 1950 by age and mode of transport
Victims from 1947
As the exposure measure Population is also known for 2009, the corresponding risk tables have been supplemented with 2009 data
Risk per number of inhabitants 1976-2009
• Real numbers of traffic fatalities (CBS), supplemented with 2009 data
Registration level, real numbers and registered numbers
• National roads database (NWB), at the same time as BRON a new version of the NWB has been received. This has made supplements (reference date 31-12-2009) available of
Road length
Roundabouts
• The table Traffic offences(CJIB-WAHV) has been supplemented with 2009 data.