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How to measure Sustainable-Safety in practice

 

Although there is sufficient information about planning and designing roads according to the principles of Sustainably-Safe (in Dutch: Duurzaam Veilig), in practice the recently redesigned roads sometimes do not meet the Sustainably-Safe requirements.

 

This is, on the one hand, the result of making concessions to other aspects than Sustainably-Safe and, on the other hand, the loss of information in the course of concept implementation.

For several years now, SWOV has been working on a computer program that can indicate to which extent a certain piece of the infrastructure meets the sustainably-safe planning and design principles.

By feeding in features of road segments and intersections, the sustainably-safe level meter, named the DV-meter, can calculate the sustainably-safe level. With the help of the DV-meter, the non sustainably-safe road features can already be detected in the planning and design phase and then be adapted before actually redesigning the road.

This makes the DV-meter an ideal instrument for road authorities, all the more because it can also be used for measuring the sustainably-safe level of the existing infrastructure. A road authority can thus see which parts of the infrastructure need improving.

 

The working of the DV-meter

The DV-meter is a computer application with a GIS (Geographic Information System) background. The planning area is indicated by a topographical map with the road network superimposed as an extra layer. By selecting a road or intersection on the map, a new window appears on the computer screen. For various parts, the existing road features can be selected in this window. The advantage of the DV-meter is that, because of the simplicity and user-friendliness of the program, everybody can feed in these features without having had a specific training. Within the DV-meter, the data fed in is tested against the desired sustainably-safe road and intersection features. The assessment of all the features then leads to a certain percentage of features that meets the sustainably-safe requirements.

The data can be fed in visually (using digital maps) as well as using tables. This can be done at various levels:

On a digital map, all non sustainably-safe roads and intersections can be shown with a special colour. Furthermore, the DV-level can be shown using different colour shades.

 

Even better

During the last year, a practical test of the DV-meter has been carried out. Based on this test, SWOV has signalled a number of possible improvements for optimal application of the DV-meter in future projects:

In the meantime, a start has been made with tuning the DV-meter to other programmes. After this, SWOV will examine the possibilities for introducing the other applications.

 

Presently the DV-meter is undergoing maintenance, and the updated version is expected shortly. For information about the DV-meter and its availability, you can contact Sjoerd Houwing via e-mail: sjoerd.houwing@swov.nl.

SWOV Research Activities 23 - September 2003

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