Overtaking Prohibition Safety Effects on Two Lane Rural Roads

This paper presents the results of a cost-effectiveness study concerning the effects of an overtaking prohibition on two lane rural roads. Overtaking prohibitions are being implemented in the Netherlands aiming to improve safety. Overtaking frequency on road sections with and without overtaking prohibition are measured by means of camera observations Overtaking frequencies were determined by comparing the order of vehicles at the start and end of a road segment without junctions. Overtaking actions were assessed by means of changes in the order of the vehicles. This was done for road segments without overtaking prohibition and similar road segments with overtaking prohibition. It turns out that up to ten percent of drivers performs overtaking manoeuvres on normal road sections. On sections with prohibition, about one percent of drivers disobey this traffic rule. Additionally, a questionnaire was sent to drivers of one of the observed roads, with questions about the overtaking prohibition. 28 percent of the respondents indicated that they will not always comply with an overidable overtaking prohibition. The discussion of the results will be focused on cost effectiveness of an overtaking prohibition for improving road safety on rural roads. The results of the observation, together with the results of the questionnaire are used to discuss the possibilities of the four E’s, education, enforcement, engineering and electronics to solve the safety problems of overtaking on rural roads.