Home/Glossary/Road safety

Road safety

What does 'road safety' mean?

Why is road safety important?

Improving road safety helps to reduce traffic accidents and their consequences. This protects expensive transport infrastructure and reduces the investments required for necessary maintenance work.

Traffic monitoring systems help increase road safety through selective or continuous monitoring.
Improving road safety: with traffic monitoring systems, such as the ones offered by Kistler. These systems make it possible to monitor and evaluate the key factors - roads, vehicles and human beings - either selectively or continually.

What influences road safety?

Three factors play a role in road safety:

  • The road: geometry, material, on- and off-ramps, infrastructure to increase safety, etc.
  • The vehicle: the model of the vehicle, intended use, performance range, etc.
  • Human beings: driving technique, health, experience, etc.

How can road safety be guaranteed or improved?

Basic initial situation: 

  • When building a road and designing a vehicle, prescribed standards and technologies that maximize road safety are applied and utilized.
  • Every road user receives instructions on how to behave on the road and they are all obligated to comply with applicable laws.

The initial situation can change. Infrastructure and vehicles age and experience wear and tear. And with the human factor, we add in a highly unpredictable variable. Traffic monitoring systems can be used to monitor and evaluate all three factors selectively or continuously. These systems therefore make a decisive contribution to increasing road safety.