To further improve road safety in the city, the Municipal Executive has drawn up a road safety implementation program for 2023-2026.
To further improve road safety in the city, the Municipal Executive has established a road safety implementation program (UVP) (link is external) 2023-2026. The program focuses, among other things, on making the surroundings of 20 schools safer, tackling unsafe zebra crossings and providing traffic education for young and old residents of The Hague. Together with partners, the so-called 'bastard approach' is also being continued to combat undesirable behavior in traffic. A total of more than 25 million euros has been earmarked for the programme.
''The municipality of The Hague makes a point of 0 road casualties and is committed to improving road safety. Everyone in our city must be able to move around safely in the city. What I am happy about is that complaints and reports from residents about road safety have been included in the program. Within the implementation of all projects, we look at how residents of The Hague can best be involved. Only together can we make the city traffic safer”.
Themes
The UVP has been drawn up on the basis of several themes. Examples of these themes are safe infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians, safe speeds, learning safe road behavior and unlearning undesirable and anti-social traffic behaviour. For each theme, several concrete measures are taken to improve road safety.
For example, the theme of safe infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians focuses on tackling so-called black spots. These are places where many accidents happen. Improving road safety at shopping centers is also being looked into. Road safety measures are being taken on a number of The Hague's 50-kilometre roads that also benefit traffic flow. The most unsafe areas are tackled first.
Lifelong learning
Behavior plays a major role in road safety. The municipality of The Hague therefore considers it important to pay attention to road safety behavior and to support residents of The Hague to participate in traffic safely. For primary school students, for example, the 'Safe Learning to Cycle' program will be continued. Every year, lessons from this program are offered to more than thirty schools, in which approximately 10.000 children participate.
The municipality of The Hague offers a package of traffic courses for the elderly for the safe use of bicycles, e-bikes and mobility scooters and for maintaining car driving skills. Refreshing knowledge of traffic rules is also part of the courses. This is done in a neighborhood-oriented approach, which appears to be effective and the offer meets the needs of seniors in The Hague.
Bastard approach
In 2021, together with the police, the Regional Support Office for Traffic Safety South Holland and the municipality of Rotterdam, we started developing a bastard approach. The racing and bragging behavior of young men in particular is central to a campaign that calls for self-reflection. This campaign is reinforced by the use of strict enforcement. The municipality will go in the near future The Hague continue with this approach, according to the municipality.
