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  • Nationwide ban on overtaking as road safety measure

    From swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to All on Fri May 5 05:45:42 2023
    The Netherlands has ruled out overtaking on 95% of their single carriageway primary road network. Statistics from before 1990 showed that many fatal accidents in the Netherlands were due to unsafe overtaking actions, where the speed of oncoming traffic
    was underestimated. During the 1990s a new road design was introduced, called 'Duurzaam Veilig (Verkeer)', or "Sustainable (Road) Safety".[6]

    The philosophy behind the new road design was that the road had to protect its users against death or injury, by creating a design that has to eliminate common mistakes that often lead to accidents.[7] This vision moves the responsibility for road safety
    away from the road users towards road designers.[8]

    The 'Duurzaam Veilig'-road design created 3 categories of roads: roads meant for local access, regional distributor roads (called 'gebiedsontsluitingswegen', or GOW) [9] and national through roads, each with their own type of lines on the edge of the
    road, so road users would be able to recognize what type of road they were on and behave accordingly.[10] By strictly separating slow moving local traffic from faster moving through traffic, the 'Duurzaam Veilig'-project aimed at making roads safer
    through their design.[11]

    One of the new features on regional distributor roads (GOW) was a wide double centre line,[12] often without interruption, designed to create more lateral space between two opposite directions of traffic and to stop people from overtaking.[13] Designers
    of the wide double centre line wanted to create some room for human error, so that vehicles swerving towards the centre of the road would no longer immediately lead to fatal accidents.

    The idea behind the solid centre line was the thought that overtaking cars have to move into lanes with oncoming traffic, which was considered unsafe even on perfectly flat and straight stretches of road with proper visibility. People in favour of the '
    Duurzaam Veilig'-project point out that it has succeeded in creating more safety, as the number of fatal accidents has gone down quite dramatically as 'Duurzaam Veilig' road design was rolled out across the Netherlands.[14]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtaking#Nationwide_ban_on_overtaking_as_road_safety_measure

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From JNugent@21:1/5 to swldx...@gmail.com on Sat May 6 15:47:02 2023
    On 05/05/2023 01:45 pm, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:

    The Netherlands has ruled out overtaking on 95% of their single carriageway primary road network. Statistics from before 1990 showed that many fatal accidents in the Netherlands were due to unsafe overtaking actions, where the speed of oncoming traffic
    was underestimated. During the 1990s a new road design was introduced, called 'Duurzaam Veilig (Verkeer)', or "Sustainable (Road) Safety".[6]

    The philosophy behind the new road design was that the road had to protect its users against death or injury, by creating a design that has to eliminate common mistakes that often lead to accidents.[7] This vision moves the responsibility for road
    safety away from the road users towards road designers.[8]

    The 'Duurzaam Veilig'-road design created 3 categories of roads: roads meant for local access, regional distributor roads (called 'gebiedsontsluitingswegen', or GOW) [9] and national through roads, each with their own type of lines on the edge of the
    road, so road users would be able to recognize what type of road they were on and behave accordingly.[10] By strictly separating slow moving local traffic from faster moving through traffic, the 'Duurzaam Veilig'-project aimed at making roads safer
    through their design.[11]

    One of the new features on regional distributor roads (GOW) was a wide double centre line,[12] often without interruption, designed to create more lateral space between two opposite directions of traffic and to stop people from overtaking.[13]
    Designers of the wide double centre line wanted to create some room for human error, so that vehicles swerving towards the centre of the road would no longer immediately lead to fatal accidents.

    The idea behind the solid centre line was the thought that overtaking cars have to move into lanes with oncoming traffic, which was considered unsafe even on perfectly flat and straight stretches of road with proper visibility. People in favour of the '
    Duurzaam Veilig'-project point out that it has succeeded in creating more safety, as the number of fatal accidents has gone down quite dramatically as 'Duurzaam Veilig' road design was rolled out across the Netherlands.[14]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtaking#Nationwide_ban_on_overtaking_as_road_safety_measure

    Sadly, about a year ago, a Dutch friend of mine was killed in a head-on
    crash during an overtaking manoeuvre on a single-carriageway road there.

    I don't know who was doing the overtaking, but the measure outlined
    above may well be a reasonable one, especially since the NL rijksweg
    system is so pervasive - only 180km shorter than the UK's motorway
    system, despite the tiny size of the country as compared with the UK -
    and journeys of any length can be completed wiythout as much resort to single-carriageways.

    Now... who was riding the chav-cycle?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to All on Sat May 6 09:30:08 2023
    QUOTE: People in favour of the 'Duurzaam Veilig'-project point out that it has succeeded in creating more safety, as the number of fatal accidents has gone down quite dramatically as 'Duurzaam Veilig' road design was rolled out across the Netherlands.
    ENDS

    The "accidents" have reduced "quite dramatically" as the risk of head on crashes has all but ended.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From JNugent@21:1/5 to swldx...@gmail.com on Sat May 6 17:34:33 2023
    On 06/05/2023 05:30 pm, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:

    QUOTE: People in favour of the 'Duurzaam Veilig'-project point out that it has succeeded in creating more safety, as the number of fatal accidents has gone down quite dramatically as 'Duurzaam Veilig' road design was rolled out across the Netherlands.
    ENDS

    The "accidents" have reduced "quite dramatically" as the risk of head on crashes has all but ended.

    Many have long held the view that stealing kerbside space for
    chav-cyclists (and even for buses other than for bus stops) is
    dangerously short-sighted, since it very obviously forces two-way
    traffic together in the centre of a single-carriageway.

    Special lanes for chav-cyclists, etc, should *be* in the middle of the
    road (ie, on the right for a given direction, not on the left).

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to All on Sat May 6 10:12:47 2023
    QUOTE: Designers of the wide double centre line wanted to create some room for human error, so that vehicles swerving towards the centre of the road would no longer immediately lead to fatal accidents. ENDS

    Usually the knobheads staring at phones in their laps.
    "Nodding donkeys" I call them.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to All on Sat May 6 11:42:00 2023
    QUOTE: The idea behind the solid centre line was the thought that overtaking cars have to move into lanes with oncoming traffic, which was considered unsafe even on perfectly flat and straight stretches of road with proper visibility. ENDS

    At least it would rule out SMIDSYs as you'd have a perfect view of the truck heading straight for your airbags!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)