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International cooperation in road safety research between the United States and the Netherlands

 

The Netherlands Transport Research Centre (AVV) of the Ministry of Transport had in the project International Cooperation, the following goal:

"To find solutions to problems that occur in the Netherlands and abroad, by means of an exchange of knowledge and experience, and other forms of cooperation".

In 1991, the ministry came to a so-called Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Transportation (DoT) in the United States. Since 1998, the Transport Research Centre agreed to a 'formal agreement to exchange information and technical assistance' with Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe), a division of DoT. Part of this consists of Human centred transportation systems and safety.

 

The Transport Research Centre wishes to elaborate this part, and together with Volpe, cooperate on those aspects of road safety in which there are problems in both countries, and for which a similar approach would seem both possible and advisable.

SWOV was invited to cooperate with the preparation of such a cooperation. The Transport Research Centre selected four themes. SWOV elaborated, among others, the following themes for discussion: 1) road safety in the Netherlands and the approach to it, 2) traffic education for the elderly, 3) alcohol and drugs use, and 4) the graduated driving licence. The elaborations of the themes and advices were discussed with people from Volpe, the Federal Highway Administration, and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. This happened during a visit by representatives of the Transport Research Centre and SWOV to these bodies.

At the same time a number of advices were given about specific subjects which were relevant in America at that moment. These were:

The American partners also introduced their ideas through short lectures about their own research plans and efforts. SWOV report R-98-45 presents the results of the activities and this preparation phase.

Based on the information thus obtained, and a judgement from the Dutch perspective, further exploration of cooperation with the United States is recommended for the following road safety research subjects:

With Volpe:

SWOV Research Activities 11 - March 1999

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