http://www.swov.nl/index_uk.htm SWOV is the Dutch national road safety research institute. It is SWOV's task to contribute to improving road safety through scientific research. http://www.swov.nl/rapport/Ss_RA/RA47.pdf The final edition of Research Activities, about road safety for cyclists, is now available online. This edition will be the last issue of Research Activities. The articles you were accustomed to find in Research Activities are now added to the SWOV Newsletter, to disseminate information even faster. 23/12/2011 http://swov.m17.mailplus.nl/archief/mailing-23593.html SWOV has investigated if and how road safety profits from Sustainable Mobility measures and what extra road safety benefits may be achieved. You can read more about this research in an article in the SWOV Newsletter of December. Furthermore, the newsletter contains an article about the hazard perception of young novice drivers, updated fact sheets, media appearences of SWOV, the latest library acquisitions, updated data tables and the final issue of Research Activities. 23/12/2011 http://swov.m17.mailplus.nl/archief/mailing-20493.html There is a relation between the number of traffic offences that is committed in the Netherlands and the crash involvement. This is one of the findings in a SWOV study into the relation between traffic offences and crashes that has recently been completed. The SWOV Newsletter of November provides more information about this study. Furthermore, the newsletter contains more information on policy instruments for managing EU road safety targets, SWOV appearences in the Dutch media, the latest acquisitions of the SWOV library and the new SWOV Twitteraccount. 22/11/2011 http://www.swov.nl/UK/Actueel/Persberichten/2011/20111121-PhD-WV.html A short training course in a traffic simulator lasting approximately an hour enhances the way that young drivers recognize and respond to hazardous traffic situations. This is the main finding from research conducted by Willem Vlakveld of SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research. He will be awarded a PhD on 30 November by the University Medical Center Groningen. The research shows that young novice drivers do not perform well in hazard anticipation: they do not recognize hazards, do not see the risks and accept too many risks. Much of this poor hazard anticipation can be put down to a lack of driving experience, which according to Vlakveld can be rectified with a simple training course. He is therefore arguing a case for hazard anticipation to be added to the standard course of driving lessons. 21/11/2011 http://swov.m17.mailplus.nl/archief/mailing-17727.html The October issue of the SWOV Newsletter is now available online. 19/10/2011 http://www.swov.nl/UK/Actueel/Persberichten/2011/20110927-DRUID.html The number of Dutch drivers who drive under the influence of alcohol is lower than the European average. Driving after having taken medication also shows a lower average in the Netherlands than in the other EU countries. Driving after the use of cannabis and amphetamines, however, is higher in the Netherlands than the EU average. These are findings of the European study called DRUID, which the Institute for Road Safety Research SWOV participated in and which publishes its results today. The research indicates that driving under the influence of alcohol is still a much larger problem than driving under the influence of drugs. 27/09/2011 http://www.swov.nl/rapport/Proefschriften/Charlotte_Bax.pdf Municipalities often give priority to other interests like journey time, public support and landscape instead of to road safety. Not only do municipalities find other interests more important, they often lack the knowledge about how to include road safety in their considerations. These are findings from the PhD research that was carried out by SWOV researcher Charlotte Bax. She defended her thesis on 14 September 2011 at Radboud University Nijmegen. Bax investigated the utilisation of scientific knowledge in Dutch road safety policy. 14/09/2011 http://www.swov.nl/rapport/R-2011-13.pdf A new estimation method will provide more reliable information about the annual number of road fatalities in relation with alcohol in traffic. The casualties can be among drivers as well as among other road users. Until now, two different estimates were made, each based on different data sources. SWOV has now developed an estimation method that replaces both earlier estimates. The new method indicates that over the past 10 years the estimated number of alcohol-related road fatalities has declined from 30% to about 20% of the total number of road fatalities. An estimated 17% of the 20% is related to the use of just alcohol, and 3% is related to a combination of alcohol and drugs. SWOV report R-2011-13 (with English summary) Estimation of the share of road fatalities due to driving under the influence of alcohol describes how the new estimation method was developed. 07/09/2011 http://www.swov.nl/UK/Actueel/Persberichten/2011/20110906-registration-fatalities.html The national registration rate of road fatalities should be increased from the present 84% to 100%. The national registration is carried out in BRON (Register of Road Crashes in the Netherlands): the data file which contains the characteristics of road crashes and casualties as supplied by the police. This data is used as the basis for road safety policy in the Netherlands. However, there are road fatalities that are not registered as such and about which no information can therefore be found in BRON. The registration rate gradually declined in recent years, but in 2010 it showed a sudden fall from 90% to 84%. For seriously injured road casualties, the situation is even worse. The worsening of the registration undermines the basis for road safety policy and research. The present registration of serious road crashes is below standard and must and can be improved. This is one of the recommendations made in the SWOV report entitled The registration of road fatalities in the Netherlands (R-2011-10). 06/09/2011 http://swov.m17.mailplus.nl/archief/mailing-13247.html The number of electric vehicles in the Netherlands is growing. That is good news for the environment, but what does this mean for road safety? The SWOV newsletter of July-August tries to answer this question. Furthermore, the newsletter contains more information on the new fact sheet Public lighting and on the updated Cognos tables with registered numbers, registration levels and causes of death. 30/08/2011 http://www.swov.nl/rapport/Factsheets/UK/FS_Public_lighting.pdf This new fact sheet addresses public lighting of roads and streets, intersections and crossings using lampposts. The necessity of and reasons for public lighting are discussed, and the effects of an increase or a decrease of the luminance on the crash rate and on human traffic behaviour are looked at. The effect of lampposts as collision objects and the effect of public lighting on social safety are also gone into. 01/08/2011 http://swov.m17.mailplus.nl/archief/mailing-8682.html The SWOV newsletter of June is available online. This newsletter contains, among others, more information about the evaluation of traffic education programmes, fatigued driving and the safety gains of an integral approach for urban distribution. 29/06/2011 http://www.swov.nl/rapport/jaarverslag/UK/Annual_report_2010.pdf The foreword and director's report of the SWOV Annual Report 2010 are now available in English on the SWOV website. 22/06/2011 http://www.swov.nl/rapport/Ss_RA/RA46.pdf The new edition of Research Activities, of Spring 2011, is now available online. 08/06/2011 http://www.swov.nl/rapport/Factsheets/UK/FS_Bicycle_facilities.pdf The SWOV Fact sheet on bicycle facilities on distributor roads has been revised completely and is now available in a new English translation. 01/06/2011 http://swov.m17.mailplus.nl/archief/mailing-6469.html The SWOV newsletter of May is available online. This newsletter contains, among others, more information about the EuroRAP RPS method as a safety instrument and the effect on road safety of a higher age for compulsory medical testing to establish fitness to drive. 31/05/2011 http://www.swov.nl/UK/Actueel/Persberichten/2011/20110512_Safest_routes.html In existing road networks the safest route is not always the fastes route. Drivers, however, usually choose the fastest route. The fastes routes should therefore be adapted to also become the safest routes. This option could then be built into the software for navigation systems. This is one of the recommendations in SWOV researcher Atze Dijkstra's PhD thesis En route to safer roads. Dijkstra obtained his PhD on12 May at the University of Twente. 12/05/2011