Prioriteitenstelling rijkswegenprojecten voor de middellange termijn (2): Het verkeersveiligheidsaspect.

Safety is one of the quality aspects of the traffic process. Accidents disturb the traffic process and cause damage and injury to vehicles and persons. In the aim for an optimum traffic process there is a need for the quantification and classification of this damage and injury. The quality aspect is mostly described by indicators, giving the relationship between two or more magnitudes by which a certain phenomenon is mentioned. With a series of indicators during a certain time the development of such phenomena becomes perceptible. Indicators which show the highway administrator the quality of safety on the road network can be intended for (1) the determination of attention areas for policy or research (2) as a monitor function (3) the determination of the efficiency of countermeasures and (4) the evaluation of the lack of safety against other effects in traffic. For each case the highway administrator must compose the indicators. In priority planning the highway administrator must determine the nature and magnitude of this effect and show whether in the new situation the traffic safety will be increased or decreased. Therefore the indicators can be used and the order of the effects can be made.