Making Traffic Safer -

Phone using drivers: a major source of distraction and a massive assault on road safety

The massive impact of the smart phone in penetration, functionality and intrusiveness has created a wide range of opportunities and problems for both society and individuals. Distracted driving is nothing new. Drivers have been eating, grooming, changing CDs and chatting away while driving for decades. However, the current omnipresent use of phones while driving has

Philip Wijers

Published: 2018-06-04

Red-light cameras: good or bad for road safety?

Many intersections are secured with red-light cameras to promote road safety. However, some argue that they create a road safety problem and are actually a cause for more crashes. This article deals with scientific research on this topic and a verdict on this issue.

Philip Wijers

Published: 2017-11-30

Filed under: intersection, Red-light cameras

Publicity, Road Safety and Enforcement

Introduction Publicity and road safety should go hand in hand. In the familiar 3E (Engineering, Enforcement and Education) strategy concept for road safety, publicity falls under the E of Education. Moreover, publicity is not a stand-alone road safety intervention. The objective of publicity is to raise and maintain road safety awareness amount the public participating

Philip Wijers

Published: 2017-07-31

Lower speeds and infrastructure changes protect Vulnerable Road Users

Vulnerable road users (VRU) are grossly overrepresented in road safety statistics. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that close to 50% of all traffic deaths are VRUs. This means roughly 600,000 worldwide casualties per year. SWOV, the Netherlands’ Institute for Road Safety Research, defines VRUs as a group of road users that can be defined

Philip Wijers

Published: 2017-06-12

The benefits of automated in-vehicle traffic enforcement

The past few years have seen great interest by various governments in automated in-vehicle traffic enforcement to further increase road safety and to intensify speed enforcement extending it to all road types and all corners of the country. France, which already uses a wide portfolio of traffic enforcement technologies*, was the first country to implement

Philip Wijers

Published: 2017-03-27

Speed management: Why is speed such crucial road safety issue?

1 km/h increase in mean vehicle speeds will result in a 4-5% increase in fatal crashes Reducing the average speed on a country’s road network has a huge impact on improving road safety. A 2017 report titled Managing Speed by the World Health Organisation states that “a 5% cut in average speed can result in

Philip Wijers

Published: 2017-03-23

Average speed enforcement: improves road safety and gets better public support

Average speed enforcement: improves road safety and gets better public support Average speed enforcement technology to secure speed-limit compliance over longer distances and larger areas, is available since the early noughties. It addressed several issues prevalent with traditional speed enforcement methods and has more support from drivers. Compliance is high and road safety benefits are

Philip Wijers

Published: 2017-03-23

The Automated Enforcement Chain

The Automated Traffic Enforcement Chain Automated Traffic Enforcement works best when the driving public is given the perception that they can be checked for traffic violations anytime, anywhere. Moreover, the violator should be promptly notified of a violation. The punishment, which mostly includes the payment of a fine, needs to be paid quickly and is

Philip Wijers

Published: 2017-03-15

Speed reduction methods to promote road safety and save lives

The traditional road safety benefits of lower vehicle speeds include saving lives and reducing the impact and likelihood of crashes. However, speed reduction has important additional benefits that increase the quality of life for society at large. These benefits include a reduction in traffic noise, pollution, green house gases, average fuel consumption and barrier effects.

Philip Wijers

Published: 2017-03-09

An accurate vehicle owner administration as an essential precondition for effective automated enforcement

Introduction Countries seeking to improve road safety by implementing automated enforcement are faced with several challenges. Some of them even have the status of precondition, since automated enforcement will be suboptimal or worse, may even fail, if certain conditions are not met. One of the most important preconditions for successful automated enforcement is an accurate

Philip Wijers

Published: 2017-03-08