Improving safety of older road users Challenges and opportunities from a road infrastructure perspective Fred Wegman SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research

Ageing and driving, cycling and walking Differences (with other age groups) reflect both weaknesses and strengths Accidents: With another vehicle Legally at fault At intersections (left turn, when merging)

Safety problems of older road users Reduce the need to make complex decisions Reduce the need to perform time-related tasks (determined by external factors) Use design elements which match with experience

Safety principles for road design Make tasks in traffic simpler by eliminating high-risk conditions and circumstances If decisions have to be taken, reduce chance on human errors

Safety principles for design of our road system (I) Make the road function clear to the road users: introduce functional road network hierarchy Increase predictability (by using standard elements): road course and behaviour of other road users Increase homogeneous road use: prevention of large differences in vehicle speed, mass and direction

Safety principles for design our road system (II) These principles form the basis of the Netherlands Sustainable Safety philosophy

Land-use planning Reduce the amount of travel needed to access services/facilities/social networks by adopting the concept of compact urban form and compact communities Facilitate safe use of public transport Make walking and cycling safe (frailty!)

Traffic planning Functional classification of road network Preventing necessity of high risks manoeuvres Make driving speeds more homogeneous and reduce speeds

Traffic engineering Apply well known design elements See for example Highway Design Handbook for Older Drivers and Pedestrians (US DoT, 2001) See for example Ageing and Transport (OECD, 2001) See for example proceedings of two conferences in 2001/2002: UK and Australia And most probably more …

Example of road design: positive offset Illustration: Highway Design Handbook for older Drivers and Pedestrians, Federal Highway Administration, USA

Main Conclusion Applying three general safety principles for design of our road system across different jurisdictions should be encouraged to improve road safety, also of older road users

Recommendations for Europe Review literature on safety of older road users and infrastructure and produce EU-handbook Review existing road design guidelines in EU Member States and improve them, if necessary Demonstrate and promote good practices Include safety of older road users in 6 th Framework research programme