Many national and state policies include the iRAP methodology and tools for safer roads, and The Netherlands 2030 Road Safety Strategy, titled “Door to Door Safety: A Joint Vision on the Approach to Road Safety Policy”, has joined our list.

The Dutch strategy places a strong emphasis on structural improvements in road safety and introduces a comprehensive, risk-based approach to tackling the underlying causes of traffic fatalities and serious injuries.

Safe road infrastructure is a noted priority with the recommendation to address key risk factors using a quality score of roads such as the proportion of road length complying with 4 or 5 stars of the iRAP Road Protection Score or CycleRAP.

CycleRAP, now in use in 31 countries, was developed with the support of the Royal Dutch Touring Club (ANWB) to evaluate the safety of road and bicycling infrastructure without the need for crash data.

The Netherlands’ 2030 Strategy is not just a collection of measures but a new approach to road safety based on risk-based approaches. A starting point for all public authorities and partners in civil society to pay structural attention to road safety in national, regional and local implementation programmes.

Looking towards the future, the overarching ambition is to move towards zero road casualties by 2050 in the country.

Building on a long RAP history

The Netherlands was one of the four countries that founded the global RAP programme and was the first to establish a 3-star or better national policy. Partner-led iRAP activity has already assessed 18,280km of roads and designs, influencing the safety of US$35 million of road infrastructure investment. The Netherlands is one of five European countries involved in the 2025-2027 Connected and Adaptive Maintenance for Safer Urban and Secondary Roads (CAMBER) Project. 157 people have benefited from iRAP global/on-line training, along with 423 people trained in events delivered locally. Dutch partners led the iRAP innovation partnership to develop CycleRAP and SWOV is one of 11 iRAP Centres of Excellence helping to shape the evidence-based global road infrastructure safety standard and tools.

According to iRAP’s Safety Insights Explorer, achieving UN Target 4 for greater than 75% of travel on 3-star or better roads for all road users in The Netherlands by 2030 stands to save an estimated 128 lives each year and 317,732 lives and injuries over the 20-year life of road treatments with an economic benefit of USD$3 billion – $5.30 for every $1 spent.