NORDICROAD AND TRANSPORT RESEARCH | NO.2/3 | 2005

Meet our Institutes– a presentation of the transport research institutes in the Nordic countries

P8

New Research on PavementsP16

Traffic Safety– important in all countries

P21

2 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 | 3www.vti.se/nordic

News from Contents

Danish Road Directorate (DRD)

Danish Road Institute (DRI)The Road Directorate, which is a part of TheMinistry of Transport & Energy, Denmark, isresponsible for development and management ofthe national highways and for servicing and facilita-ting traffic on the network. As part of this responsi-bility, the Directorate conducts R&D, the aim ofwhich is to contribute to efficient road manage-ment and to the safe use of the network. The mate-rials research component is carried out by theDanish Road Institute.

Technical Research

Centre of Finland (VTT), VTT Building and Transport,

employing a staff of 450, is one of the eight researchunits of the Technical Research Centre of Finland(VTT), with a total staff of 3,000. VTT Building andTransport covers all fields of transport and roadengineering. The unit is active in international rese-arch and has a prominent role on the nationallevel.

Icelandic Road Administration

(ICERA)The ICERA's mission is to provide theIcelandic society with a road system in

accordance with its needs and to provide a servicewith the aim of smooth and safe traffic. The num-ber of employees is about 340. Applied researchand development and to some extent also basicresearch concerning road construction, maintenan-ce, traffic and safety is performed or directed bythe ICERA. Development division is responsible forroad research in Iceland.

Norwegian Public Roads

Administration (NPRA)The Norwegian Public Roads Administration is oneof the administrative agencies under the Ministry ofTransport and Communications in Norway. TheNPRA is responsible for the development andmanagement of public roads and road traffic, aswell as the Vehicle Department. This responsibilityincludes research and development of all areas rela-ted to road transport and the implementation ofR&D products.

Institute of Transport

Economics (TØI), NorwayThe Institute of Transport Economics is the natio-nal institution for transport research and develop-ment in Norway. The main objectives of theInstitute are to carry out applied research and pro-mote the application and use of results throughconsultative assistance to public authorities, thetransport industry and others. The Institute is anindependent research foundation employing aboutone hundred persons.

(VTI)VTI is an independent, internationally esta-blished research institute which is engaged

in the transport sector. Our core competence is inthe fields of safety, economy, environment, trafficand transport analysis, behaviour and the man-vehic-le-transport system interaction, and in road design,operation and maintenance. VTI is a world leader inseveral areas, for instance in simulator technology.

Editorial notesNordic Road & Transport Research is a joint publi-cation of six public road and transport researchorganisations in the Nordic countries, Denmark,Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The mainobjective of the publication is to disseminate rese-arch results and news from the institutions, especi-ally to researchers and decision makers. Each insti-tution is responsible for the selection and presenta-tion of the material from its own scope of activities.

Nordic Road & Transport Research is publishedthree times a year. It is regularly sent out, free ofcharge, to recipients selected by the six jointpublishers. Free sample copies are also sent out onspecial request.

Reproduction and quotation of the texts are allow-ed if reference is made to the author and source.However, legislation regulates and restricts the rightto reproduce the illustrations. Please contact therespective publishing institution for information.

Advertising is not accepted.Correspondence about the contents of the publi-

cation:

Please write to the author or to the respectivepublishing organisation.

Requests for back issues, and notification of add-ress changes:

Readers outside the Nordic countries: please writeto the Editor-in-chief at the VTI in Sweden.

Readers in the Nordic countries: please contactthe publishing institution of your country.

Addresses: see back cover.

The Editorial Board consists of the following representatives of the publishing institutionsEditor-in-Chief, SwedenMagdalena Green, VTImagdalena.green@vti.se

DenmarkHelen Hasz-Singh, DRIhelen.hasz-singh@dri.dk

FinlandKari Mäkelä, VTTkari.s.makela@vtt.fi

IcelandHreinn Haraldsson, ICERAhrh@vegagerdin.is

NorwayNils Fearnley, TØI naf@toi.noThorbjörn Risan, NPRAthorbjorn.risan@vegvesen.no

Graphic DesignJohnny Dahlgren Grafisk produktion AB,

Linköping, Sweden

Issue 3.500

ISSN 1101-5179

Cover Photos.com

In Brief | p4The Danish Road Institutte | p8VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland | p10The Iceland Road Administration | p11The Norwegian Public Roads Administration | p12Institute of Transport Economics, Oslo Norway | p13VTI– An Indipendent Transportation Research Institute | p14Scanning Porous Pavements in a CT-Scanner | p16Danish Road Directorate (DRD)Roller-compacted Concrete Pavements | p18Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NRPA)Environmentally friendly pavements | p20Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NRPA)Simulation for EU | p21Swedisth National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)Seasonal Speed Limits and Heavy Vehicles | p22Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT)Young Car Passengers as Guardian Angels | p24Institute of Transport Economics (TØI)Common Objectices all over the World | p26Swedisth National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)Succcessful International Seminar | p28Danish Road Directorate (DRD)Swedish Expertise Can Help | p29Swedisth National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)Organising Trust in Public Transport | p30Institute of Transport Economics (TØI)Monitoring the Effects of Highway Traffic on Wild Reindeer by Satellites | p32Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NRPA)Norwegian Road Projects are now Profitable- the Government Reduces the Discount Rate | p34Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NRPA)Transport Information System in the Pol-Corridor Intermodal Freight Supply Channel | p36Institute of Transport Economics (TØI)Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT)År | p36Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NRPA)Annotated Reports | p39

2 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 | 3www.vti.se/nordic

News from Contents

Danish Road Directorate (DRD)

Danish Road Institute (DRI)The Road Directorate, which is a part of TheMinistry of Transport & Energy, Denmark, isresponsible for development and management ofthe national highways and for servicing and facilita-ting traffic on the network. As part of this responsi-bility, the Directorate conducts R&D, the aim ofwhich is to contribute to efficient road manage-ment and to the safe use of the network. The mate-rials research component is carried out by theDanish Road Institute.

Technical Research

Centre of Finland (VTT), VTT Building and Transport,

employing a staff of 450, is one of the eight researchunits of the Technical Research Centre of Finland(VTT), with a total staff of 3,000. VTT Building andTransport covers all fields of transport and roadengineering. The unit is active in international rese-arch and has a prominent role on the nationallevel.

Icelandic Road Administration

(ICERA)The ICERA's mission is to provide theIcelandic society with a road system in

accordance with its needs and to provide a servicewith the aim of smooth and safe traffic. The num-ber of employees is about 340. Applied researchand development and to some extent also basicresearch concerning road construction, maintenan-ce, traffic and safety is performed or directed bythe ICERA. Development division is responsible forroad research in Iceland.

Norwegian Public Roads

Administration (NPRA)The Norwegian Public Roads Administration is oneof the administrative agencies under the Ministry ofTransport and Communications in Norway. TheNPRA is responsible for the development andmanagement of public roads and road traffic, aswell as the Vehicle Department. This responsibilityincludes research and development of all areas rela-ted to road transport and the implementation ofR&D products.

Institute of Transport

Economics (TØI), NorwayThe Institute of Transport Economics is the natio-nal institution for transport research and develop-ment in Norway. The main objectives of theInstitute are to carry out applied research and pro-mote the application and use of results throughconsultative assistance to public authorities, thetransport industry and others. The Institute is anindependent research foundation employing aboutone hundred persons.

(VTI)VTI is an independent, internationally esta-blished research institute which is engaged

in the transport sector. Our core competence is inthe fields of safety, economy, environment, trafficand transport analysis, behaviour and the man-vehic-le-transport system interaction, and in road design,operation and maintenance. VTI is a world leader inseveral areas, for instance in simulator technology.

Editorial notesNordic Road & Transport Research is a joint publi-cation of six public road and transport researchorganisations in the Nordic countries, Denmark,Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The mainobjective of the publication is to disseminate rese-arch results and news from the institutions, especi-ally to researchers and decision makers. Each insti-tution is responsible for the selection and presenta-tion of the material from its own scope of activities.

Nordic Road & Transport Research is publishedthree times a year. It is regularly sent out, free ofcharge, to recipients selected by the six jointpublishers. Free sample copies are also sent out onspecial request.

Reproduction and quotation of the texts are allow-ed if reference is made to the author and source.However, legislation regulates and restricts the rightto reproduce the illustrations. Please contact therespective publishing institution for information.

Advertising is not accepted.Correspondence about the contents of the publi-

cation:

Please write to the author or to the respectivepublishing organisation.

Requests for back issues, and notification of add-ress changes:

Readers outside the Nordic countries: please writeto the Editor-in-chief at the VTI in Sweden.

Readers in the Nordic countries: please contactthe publishing institution of your country.

Addresses: see back cover.

The Editorial Board consists of the following representatives of the publishing institutionsEditor-in-Chief, SwedenMagdalena Green, VTImagdalena.green@vti.se

DenmarkHelen Hasz-Singh, DRIhelen.hasz-singh@dri.dk

FinlandKari Mäkelä, VTTkari.s.makela@vtt.fi

IcelandHreinn Haraldsson, ICERAhrh@vegagerdin.is

NorwayNils Fearnley, TØI naf@toi.noThorbjörn Risan, NPRAthorbjorn.risan@vegvesen.no

Graphic DesignJohnny Dahlgren Grafisk produktion AB,

Linköping, Sweden

Issue 3.500

ISSN 1101-5179

Cover Photos.com

In Brief | p4The Danish Road Institutte | p8VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland | p10The Iceland Road Administration | p11The Norwegian Public Roads Administration | p12Institute of Transport Economics, Oslo Norway | p13VTI– An Indipendent Transportation Research Institute | p14Scanning Porous Pavements in a CT-Scanner | p16Danish Road Directorate (DRD)Roller-compacted Concrete Pavements | p18Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NRPA)Environmentally friendly pavements | p20Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NRPA)Simulation for EU | p21Swedisth National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)Seasonal Speed Limits and Heavy Vehicles | p22Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT)Young Car Passengers as Guardian Angels | p24Institute of Transport Economics (TØI)Common Objectices all over the World | p26Swedisth National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)Succcessful International Seminar | p28Danish Road Directorate (DRD)Swedish Expertise Can Help | p29Swedisth National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)Organising Trust in Public Transport | p30Institute of Transport Economics (TØI)Monitoring the Effects of Highway Traffic on Wild Reindeer by Satellites | p32Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NRPA)Norwegian Road Projects are now Profitable- the Government Reduces the Discount Rate | p34Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NRPA)Transport Information System in the Pol-Corridor Intermodal Freight Supply Channel | p36Institute of Transport Economics (TØI)Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT)År | p36Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NRPA)Annotated Reports | p39

shop were to present and discuss the resultsfrom the first part of the DRI-DWW noiseabatement program with experts and usersin the Netherlands, Denmark and otherforeign countries.

An important aim was also to get com-ments and criticism from international spe-cialists for the next part of the researchwork, as well as to give road authorities andthe international specialists an opportunityto give recommendations for the secondpart of the research program.

tet.net/article/archive/148/.You can also download the papers and

the presentations from this link.

time transport research is among the mostsuccessful areas of research in Norway. InFP6 the success rate, calculated as the pro-portion of successful bids, was more than50 percent for research themes that coverthe transport sector: "Sustainable surfacetransport" and "Aeronautics and space".Compared to this, the Norwegian successrate in other research areas was less than athird.

With a success rate of 64 percent theInstitute of Transport Economics outper-formed all other Norwegian research insti-tutes that were bidding for FP6 projects.The figure is even more impressive whenmeasured in terms of budgets won. TheInstitute of Transport Economics won 92percent of funds applied for!

The Framework Programme (FP) is theEuropean Union's main instrument forfunding research and development. Thenext Framework Programme, FP7, will befully operational from 2007.

tion the project involves construction of anew 0, 9 km long bicycle and pedestrianlane on the approach to the bridge.

The project is estimated to 1810 millNkr 2005 (230 mill euro).

The Hardangerbridge will be the long-est suspension bridge in Norway. The sai-ling height under the bridge will be 55 m.

The bridge will replace the ferry thatcurrently connects highways Rv7 and Rv13between Bruravik and Brimnes.

The bridge will serve the followingfunctions:• Better communication in the inner

Hardanger area• Improvement of the regional transpor-

tation between Odda and Voss, Bergenand Hardanger and Hardanger andHallingdal.

• Give a better service for the traffic withferry free connection east-west andnorth-southHomepage: http://www.vegvesen.no/

region_vest/prosjekter/hardangerbrua/english/index.stm

nordic no. 2/3 2005 | 54 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

TØI Researcher JoinsWorld Bank Advisory Panel

Senior TØI researcherHenning Lauridsen isappointed to a com-mittee tasked withoverseeing the evalua-tion of the WorldBank's transportinfrastructure len-ding, the so-calledWorld Bank AdvisoryPanel for OED

Transport Review.The Operations Evaluation Department

(OED) is an independent department wit-hin the World Bank Group established toreview systematically and comprehensively,all Bank lending operations, and to evalua-te their contribution to the developmentprocess in member countries. The basicpurpose of these reviews is to learn fromexperience, demonstrate accountability forfunds disbursed, and contribute to theBank's continuing effort to improve thequality of its lending and technical assistan-ce activities. This transport sector reviewwill fill a significant gap in OED’s evalua-tions of the effectiveness of lending ininfrastructure at a time of renewed Bankemphasis in this field.

Swedish Researcher Director of NordForsk

Liisa Hakamies-Blom-qvist assumed the postof Director of Nord-Forsk in October. Liisaearlier worked as direc-tor of research at VTI.

The Nordic Councilof Ministers has reor-

ganised its research system and foundedNordForsk. It is now an independent bodyunder the Council of Ministers withresponsibility for Nordic cooperation inresearch and researcher training.NordForsk will cooperate closely with thecorresponding national institutes and isexpected to award MNOK 60-70 in 2005 forNordic cooperation within its sphere ofresponsibility. The secretariat is located inOslo.

Noise Reducing Pavements

In the period from 2004 to 2007, the Dutch(DWW) and the Danish (DRI) road rese-arch institutes are conducting a joint re-search program called the “DRI-DWWnoise abatement program”. This is part ofthe Dutch Innovation Program on Noise,also called the IPG research program. Thejoint Dutch-Danish research is mainlydirected towards developing, testing andimproving noise reducing pavements.Porous pavements and thin layers are infocus in the research program

As an important part of the “DRI-DWWnoise abatement program” a two-day invi-ted workshop took place in October 2005in Denmark. The main goals for the work-

Norwegian Transport Research in the Forefront

Transport research will be given high prio-rity in the European Commission's 7thFramework Programme (FP7). At the same

Recycled Materials in Roadand Airfield Pavements

The conference "Bearingcapacity of roads and air-fields" is now succesfullycompleted. More infor-mation on the conferen-

ce web site: http://www.ivt.ntnu.no/bat/vs/bcra/bcra05.htm.

A pre-conference workshop "Recycledmaterials in road and airfield pavements",took place in Oslo, 25 June 2005. Thisworkshop was organized by the NorwegianRoads Recycling R&D Program (Gjen-bruksprosjektet) and the RecycledMaterials Resource Center, University ofNew Hampshire, USA.

Here you can find the program of theworkshop: http://www.gjenbruksprosjek-

TØI researcher HenningLauridsen joins WorldBank Advisory Panel

The Hardangerbridge

A new bridge, which will connect nationalhighways Rv7 and Rv13, is to be built overthe Hardangerfjord. The Hardangerfjordis the 3rd longest fjord in the world exten-ding 183 km (114 mi) into the countryfrom the coast of western Norway.

Bondevik’s government, which wasrecently voted out of office, made a propo-sal for construction of the bridge to theparliament. But the new parliament has yetto decide. One expect a possible approvalof the project early in 2006 and a construc-tion period from 2008-2011.

The Hardangerbridge is planned as a 2lane suspension bridge with a separate lanefor bicycles and pedestrians. The bridgewill have a main span of 1310 m and a totallength of 1380 m. The bridge towers willhave elevation of 186 m above sea level.

The project also includes a 2,4 km longtunnel and 0, 8 km long new road. In addi-

United Competence

VTI has joined the expert group UnitedCompetence. It consists of Swedish researchinstitutes from several sectors of society.

Why has VTI joined United Competence?– I believe that in-depth cooperation withUnited Competence complements VTI’smarket profile. We will have greater bre-adth in what we offer. Together with theother institutes in United Competence, wecan form specially adapted teams of uniqueexpertise to deal with many different typesof work. United Competence has theexpertise and the resources to create a”dream team” for every project, says UrbanKarlström, Director General of VTI.

The parts make up a strong wholeUnited Competence will have a leadingposition in applied r&d for the economyand society. The intention is that coopera-tion in United Competence should drawout the best from each participating institu-te. This will be assembled on the commonplatform in the fom of projects.

PH

OTO

S.C

OM

IN BRIEF

shop were to present and discuss the resultsfrom the first part of the DRI-DWW noiseabatement program with experts and usersin the Netherlands, Denmark and otherforeign countries.

An important aim was also to get com-ments and criticism from international spe-cialists for the next part of the researchwork, as well as to give road authorities andthe international specialists an opportunityto give recommendations for the secondpart of the research program.

tet.net/article/archive/148/.You can also download the papers and

the presentations from this link.

time transport research is among the mostsuccessful areas of research in Norway. InFP6 the success rate, calculated as the pro-portion of successful bids, was more than50 percent for research themes that coverthe transport sector: "Sustainable surfacetransport" and "Aeronautics and space".Compared to this, the Norwegian successrate in other research areas was less than athird.

With a success rate of 64 percent theInstitute of Transport Economics outper-formed all other Norwegian research insti-tutes that were bidding for FP6 projects.The figure is even more impressive whenmeasured in terms of budgets won. TheInstitute of Transport Economics won 92percent of funds applied for!

The Framework Programme (FP) is theEuropean Union's main instrument forfunding research and development. Thenext Framework Programme, FP7, will befully operational from 2007.

tion the project involves construction of anew 0, 9 km long bicycle and pedestrianlane on the approach to the bridge.

The project is estimated to 1810 millNkr 2005 (230 mill euro).

The Hardangerbridge will be the long-est suspension bridge in Norway. The sai-ling height under the bridge will be 55 m.

The bridge will replace the ferry thatcurrently connects highways Rv7 and Rv13between Bruravik and Brimnes.

The bridge will serve the followingfunctions:• Better communication in the inner

Hardanger area• Improvement of the regional transpor-

tation between Odda and Voss, Bergenand Hardanger and Hardanger andHallingdal.

• Give a better service for the traffic withferry free connection east-west andnorth-southHomepage: http://www.vegvesen.no/

region_vest/prosjekter/hardangerbrua/english/index.stm

nordic no. 2/3 2005 | 54 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

TØI Researcher JoinsWorld Bank Advisory Panel

Senior TØI researcherHenning Lauridsen isappointed to a com-mittee tasked withoverseeing the evalua-tion of the WorldBank's transportinfrastructure len-ding, the so-calledWorld Bank AdvisoryPanel for OED

Transport Review.The Operations Evaluation Department

(OED) is an independent department wit-hin the World Bank Group established toreview systematically and comprehensively,all Bank lending operations, and to evalua-te their contribution to the developmentprocess in member countries. The basicpurpose of these reviews is to learn fromexperience, demonstrate accountability forfunds disbursed, and contribute to theBank's continuing effort to improve thequality of its lending and technical assistan-ce activities. This transport sector reviewwill fill a significant gap in OED’s evalua-tions of the effectiveness of lending ininfrastructure at a time of renewed Bankemphasis in this field.

Swedish Researcher Director of NordForsk

Liisa Hakamies-Blom-qvist assumed the postof Director of Nord-Forsk in October. Liisaearlier worked as direc-tor of research at VTI.

The Nordic Councilof Ministers has reor-

ganised its research system and foundedNordForsk. It is now an independent bodyunder the Council of Ministers withresponsibility for Nordic cooperation inresearch and researcher training.NordForsk will cooperate closely with thecorresponding national institutes and isexpected to award MNOK 60-70 in 2005 forNordic cooperation within its sphere ofresponsibility. The secretariat is located inOslo.

Noise Reducing Pavements

In the period from 2004 to 2007, the Dutch(DWW) and the Danish (DRI) road rese-arch institutes are conducting a joint re-search program called the “DRI-DWWnoise abatement program”. This is part ofthe Dutch Innovation Program on Noise,also called the IPG research program. Thejoint Dutch-Danish research is mainlydirected towards developing, testing andimproving noise reducing pavements.Porous pavements and thin layers are infocus in the research program

As an important part of the “DRI-DWWnoise abatement program” a two-day invi-ted workshop took place in October 2005in Denmark. The main goals for the work-

Norwegian Transport Research in the Forefront

Transport research will be given high prio-rity in the European Commission's 7thFramework Programme (FP7). At the same

Recycled Materials in Roadand Airfield Pavements

The conference "Bearingcapacity of roads and air-fields" is now succesfullycompleted. More infor-mation on the conferen-

ce web site: http://www.ivt.ntnu.no/bat/vs/bcra/bcra05.htm.

A pre-conference workshop "Recycledmaterials in road and airfield pavements",took place in Oslo, 25 June 2005. Thisworkshop was organized by the NorwegianRoads Recycling R&D Program (Gjen-bruksprosjektet) and the RecycledMaterials Resource Center, University ofNew Hampshire, USA.

Here you can find the program of theworkshop: http://www.gjenbruksprosjek-

TØI researcher HenningLauridsen joins WorldBank Advisory Panel

The Hardangerbridge

A new bridge, which will connect nationalhighways Rv7 and Rv13, is to be built overthe Hardangerfjord. The Hardangerfjordis the 3rd longest fjord in the world exten-ding 183 km (114 mi) into the countryfrom the coast of western Norway.

Bondevik’s government, which wasrecently voted out of office, made a propo-sal for construction of the bridge to theparliament. But the new parliament has yetto decide. One expect a possible approvalof the project early in 2006 and a construc-tion period from 2008-2011.

The Hardangerbridge is planned as a 2lane suspension bridge with a separate lanefor bicycles and pedestrians. The bridgewill have a main span of 1310 m and a totallength of 1380 m. The bridge towers willhave elevation of 186 m above sea level.

The project also includes a 2,4 km longtunnel and 0, 8 km long new road. In addi-

United Competence

VTI has joined the expert group UnitedCompetence. It consists of Swedish researchinstitutes from several sectors of society.

Why has VTI joined United Competence?– I believe that in-depth cooperation withUnited Competence complements VTI’smarket profile. We will have greater bre-adth in what we offer. Together with theother institutes in United Competence, wecan form specially adapted teams of uniqueexpertise to deal with many different typesof work. United Competence has theexpertise and the resources to create a”dream team” for every project, says UrbanKarlström, Director General of VTI.

The parts make up a strong wholeUnited Competence will have a leadingposition in applied r&d for the economyand society. The intention is that coopera-tion in United Competence should drawout the best from each participating institu-te. This will be assembled on the commonplatform in the fom of projects.

PH

OTO

S.C

OM

IN BRIEF

already too high. There are today no majorproblems with delays and congestion inAbu Dhabi so the focus has been on trafficsafety rather than capacity.

This project has been initiated by hishighness Sheikh Saif and has been carriedout by a consortium consisting of VTI,Sweden and the Emirates DrivingCompany (EDC), UAE.

This study includes the Abu Dhabi cityarea and the highway connections leadinginto Abu Dhabi. In this area 14 road sec-tions are chosen as representative for theroads in Abu Dhabi. They are chosen torepresent the variety of road types andspeed limits of interest in the studied area.It is 3 motorway sections and 11 sectionswithin Abu Dhabi city.

MCDA

The MCDA European Working Group hasheld its northernmost meeting so far, inSeptember in Sweden. The meeting gathe-red 45 participants from the group, consul-tants and sponsors. Thirteen countrieswere represented.

The meeting was hosted by the VTI. Themain theme of this reunion was:Infrastructure, Transport and MulticriteriaDecision Aiding.

The key note speaker, Roger Vickerman, Jean Monnet Professor of EuropeanEconomics at University of Kent, gave thegroup a challenge under the heading: ”Evaluating infrastructure projects. Indefence of (good) Cost-Benefit Analysis.” Adecision support is a way to structureadvantages and disadvantages of proposeddecisions. Distributional and welfare issuesare always at the centre of politics. CBA haswell known properties and limits.

Fourteen presentations gave exampleson what MCDA could contribute to thetheme. Several cases where MCDA works asa support were given. An evidence comingout of the examples is that MCDA methodsare part of a development of decision sup-port, where more traditional planning andevaluation methods are regarded as inade-quate or at least insufficient. A role forMCDA as an established form as a decisionsupport is still a bit away in public infra-structure planning.

Expansion of the RoadDirectorate

Since 2002, the Danish government hasbeen working on a new administrativestructure, reducing the number of munici-palities from 172 to about 100, which willhave a size of at least 30,000-50,000 inhabi-tants. Furthermore, it is planned that thepresent 13 counties will merge into a num-ber of regions which will be responsible forhealthcare and education. The structuralchanges will be in effect as of 2007.

A newly approved amendment to the actof the Danish road sector will lead to a dou-bling of the staff of the Road Directoratefrom approximately 450 to 900 employees.The main road network in Denmark will beadministrated by the Road Directorate andthe more local road network by the munici-palities as of 2007. About 2,000 km or 1,240miles will be added to the national roadnetwork, served by the Road Directorate,in addition to the 1,700 km or 1,000 miles,administrated at present. Another 8,000km or 4,960 mi will be transferred from thecounties to the municipalities.

The Danish Road Directorate is current-ly planning the establishment of six RoadCentres throughout Denmark.

nordic no. 2/3 2005 | 76 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

IN BRIEF

thermal treatment of waste).Contact address:

brynhild.snilsberg@vegvesen.no. Also see: http://www.vegvesen.no/

miljovegdekke/engelsk.stm

Joralf Aurstad is a Civil engineer (M.Sc) from theNorwegian Institute of Technology 1985.Most of the years since then he has workedat SINTEF Division of HighwayEngineering in Trondheim.

As research scientist at SINTEF Joralfhas worked with design, construction andmaintenance of road and airfield pave-ments, especially on material testing andevaluation. He has been leader of severalprojects on asphalt properties, asphalt per-formance and recycling and frequentlybeen giving lectures on courses and semi-nars within these subjects.

Joralf is currently employed as a seniorengineer at the Norwegian Public RoadsAdministration, Centre for Road andTraffic Technology in Trondheim.

Contact address:joralf.aurstad@vegvesen.no

Rabbira Garba Saba obtained Dr. Ing. degree in highway engi-neering from Norwegian University ofScience and Technology (NTNU) in 2002.His area of specialization was asphalt mate-rial properties/asphalt technology. He wasa post doctoral research fellow at NTNUfrom 2002 – 2004. He has been working atthe Centre for Road and TrafficTechnology, Norwegian Public RoadsAdministration, Trondheim, since October2004 and starting September 2005, he got apermanent position as a senior engineer.Currently he is involved in research anddevelopment projects on asphalt pavementperformance modelling and environmen-tally friendly pavements. Contact address:rabbira.saba @vegvesen.no

Also see: http://www.vegvesen.no/miljovegdekke/engelsk.stm

Brynhild Snilsberg is a PhD student employed at theNorwegian Public Roads Administration.This year she started her PhD study aboutcharacterization of suspended particulatematter from pavement abrasion in Nordiccountries at the Centre for Road andTraffic Technology in Trondheim.Snilsberg has a background from theNorwegian University of Science andTechnology (NTNU) with a Master ofScience in Environmental and ResourcesEngineering at the Department of Geologyand Mineral Resources Engineering in1999. She has previous experience as a pro-ject engineer at Norsk Gjenvinning AS(waste handling, pollution in soil andwater, thermal treatment and recycling)and as a scientist at NTNU (modeling of

Three Norweigian

Nordic Rail Trade Fair

VTI gave details of its work and presentedparts of its railway research on a stand atthis year’s Nordic Rail Trade Fair atJönköping, Sweden, on 4-6 October. Thestand attracted many visitors and many newcontacts were made. There was great inte-rest in the simulator SST (Simulator forRailbound Traffic) which VTI exhibited onthe stand.

VTI also gave visitors the opportunity toattend a number of miniseminars. BirgittaThorslund and Jerker Sundström gavedetails of research results related to railsickness. According to these two VTI rese-archers, the problem is related to the actu-al design of tilting fast trains. In order tocompensate for the tilt in curves at highspeed, the coaches are supported on a til-ting mechanism, which increases stability.But some people react since their body sen-ses the compensation made by the tiltingmechanism as unnatural. Mats Wiklunds ofVTI gave a talk on the vulnerability of therail transport system.

WearTox Project Won a Prize

Mats Gustafsson of the Transport andEnvironment unit has been awarded the2005 Research Prize in Committee 33 -Road Surfacings - of the Nordic Associationof Road Engineers.

Mats received his prize of 10,000 Danishkronor in the Faroe Islands where theCommittee had its annual meeting for2005. He naturally thinks that it was verypleasant to receive this award, and also saysthat there was jubilation among theSwedish delegation since Sweden had notwon this prize for many years.

The way this prize is awarded is thateach Nordic country chooses one of seve-ral proposed national research projects.

This move has made better co-operationbetween the different departments withinthe Danish Road Institute and also betweenthe various divisions of the Road Directo-rate possible.

On 26 August, the new premises wereofficially opened with a reception for wor-king partners, colleagues and friends of theDanish Road Institute and the Con-struction and Maintenance Units.

The Danish Road Institute can now befound at the following address:Guldalderen 122640 HedehuseneDenmark

The project leader of the selected projectwrites a brief article on the project andthen attends the annual meeting where hegives a talk. The article and the talk are jud-ged as to their content, presentation andtiming. Mats’ talk was entitled ”WearTox –The effects of wear particles from tyres andthe carriageway on macrophages and epit-heleal cells”.

Speed Limit System

VTI has carried out a project to investigatethe speed limits and the traffic situation inAbu Dhabi and concern has been taken tothe traffic situation, the mean speeds onthe roads, road environment and acci-dents. Of special interest has been to studywhether there is room for increasing thespeed limit on certain roads or whether it is

Under One Roof

Earlier the various departments, laborato-ries and workshops of the Danish RoadInstitute were in three different locations.A suitable building was found east ofRoskilde.

After reconstruction of the existing buil-ding and construction of two new buil-dings, the Danish Road Institute, theEastern branches of the Construction andMaintenance Units and the Road SectorTraining Centre moved to the new premi-ses during spring and early summer of2005.

already too high. There are today no majorproblems with delays and congestion inAbu Dhabi so the focus has been on trafficsafety rather than capacity.

This project has been initiated by hishighness Sheikh Saif and has been carriedout by a consortium consisting of VTI,Sweden and the Emirates DrivingCompany (EDC), UAE.

This study includes the Abu Dhabi cityarea and the highway connections leadinginto Abu Dhabi. In this area 14 road sec-tions are chosen as representative for theroads in Abu Dhabi. They are chosen torepresent the variety of road types andspeed limits of interest in the studied area.It is 3 motorway sections and 11 sectionswithin Abu Dhabi city.

MCDA

The MCDA European Working Group hasheld its northernmost meeting so far, inSeptember in Sweden. The meeting gathe-red 45 participants from the group, consul-tants and sponsors. Thirteen countrieswere represented.

The meeting was hosted by the VTI. Themain theme of this reunion was:Infrastructure, Transport and MulticriteriaDecision Aiding.

The key note speaker, Roger Vickerman, Jean Monnet Professor of EuropeanEconomics at University of Kent, gave thegroup a challenge under the heading: ”Evaluating infrastructure projects. Indefence of (good) Cost-Benefit Analysis.” Adecision support is a way to structureadvantages and disadvantages of proposeddecisions. Distributional and welfare issuesare always at the centre of politics. CBA haswell known properties and limits.

Fourteen presentations gave exampleson what MCDA could contribute to thetheme. Several cases where MCDA works asa support were given. An evidence comingout of the examples is that MCDA methodsare part of a development of decision sup-port, where more traditional planning andevaluation methods are regarded as inade-quate or at least insufficient. A role forMCDA as an established form as a decisionsupport is still a bit away in public infra-structure planning.

Expansion of the RoadDirectorate

Since 2002, the Danish government hasbeen working on a new administrativestructure, reducing the number of munici-palities from 172 to about 100, which willhave a size of at least 30,000-50,000 inhabi-tants. Furthermore, it is planned that thepresent 13 counties will merge into a num-ber of regions which will be responsible forhealthcare and education. The structuralchanges will be in effect as of 2007.

A newly approved amendment to the actof the Danish road sector will lead to a dou-bling of the staff of the Road Directoratefrom approximately 450 to 900 employees.The main road network in Denmark will beadministrated by the Road Directorate andthe more local road network by the munici-palities as of 2007. About 2,000 km or 1,240miles will be added to the national roadnetwork, served by the Road Directorate,in addition to the 1,700 km or 1,000 miles,administrated at present. Another 8,000km or 4,960 mi will be transferred from thecounties to the municipalities.

The Danish Road Directorate is current-ly planning the establishment of six RoadCentres throughout Denmark.

nordic no. 2/3 2005 | 76 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

IN BRIEF

thermal treatment of waste).Contact address:

brynhild.snilsberg@vegvesen.no. Also see: http://www.vegvesen.no/

miljovegdekke/engelsk.stm

Joralf Aurstad is a Civil engineer (M.Sc) from theNorwegian Institute of Technology 1985.Most of the years since then he has workedat SINTEF Division of HighwayEngineering in Trondheim.

As research scientist at SINTEF Joralfhas worked with design, construction andmaintenance of road and airfield pave-ments, especially on material testing andevaluation. He has been leader of severalprojects on asphalt properties, asphalt per-formance and recycling and frequentlybeen giving lectures on courses and semi-nars within these subjects.

Joralf is currently employed as a seniorengineer at the Norwegian Public RoadsAdministration, Centre for Road andTraffic Technology in Trondheim.

Contact address:joralf.aurstad@vegvesen.no

Rabbira Garba Saba obtained Dr. Ing. degree in highway engi-neering from Norwegian University ofScience and Technology (NTNU) in 2002.His area of specialization was asphalt mate-rial properties/asphalt technology. He wasa post doctoral research fellow at NTNUfrom 2002 – 2004. He has been working atthe Centre for Road and TrafficTechnology, Norwegian Public RoadsAdministration, Trondheim, since October2004 and starting September 2005, he got apermanent position as a senior engineer.Currently he is involved in research anddevelopment projects on asphalt pavementperformance modelling and environmen-tally friendly pavements. Contact address:rabbira.saba @vegvesen.no

Also see: http://www.vegvesen.no/miljovegdekke/engelsk.stm

Brynhild Snilsberg is a PhD student employed at theNorwegian Public Roads Administration.This year she started her PhD study aboutcharacterization of suspended particulatematter from pavement abrasion in Nordiccountries at the Centre for Road andTraffic Technology in Trondheim.Snilsberg has a background from theNorwegian University of Science andTechnology (NTNU) with a Master ofScience in Environmental and ResourcesEngineering at the Department of Geologyand Mineral Resources Engineering in1999. She has previous experience as a pro-ject engineer at Norsk Gjenvinning AS(waste handling, pollution in soil andwater, thermal treatment and recycling)and as a scientist at NTNU (modeling of

Three Norweigian

Nordic Rail Trade Fair

VTI gave details of its work and presentedparts of its railway research on a stand atthis year’s Nordic Rail Trade Fair atJönköping, Sweden, on 4-6 October. Thestand attracted many visitors and many newcontacts were made. There was great inte-rest in the simulator SST (Simulator forRailbound Traffic) which VTI exhibited onthe stand.

VTI also gave visitors the opportunity toattend a number of miniseminars. BirgittaThorslund and Jerker Sundström gavedetails of research results related to railsickness. According to these two VTI rese-archers, the problem is related to the actu-al design of tilting fast trains. In order tocompensate for the tilt in curves at highspeed, the coaches are supported on a til-ting mechanism, which increases stability.But some people react since their body sen-ses the compensation made by the tiltingmechanism as unnatural. Mats Wiklunds ofVTI gave a talk on the vulnerability of therail transport system.

WearTox Project Won a Prize

Mats Gustafsson of the Transport andEnvironment unit has been awarded the2005 Research Prize in Committee 33 -Road Surfacings - of the Nordic Associationof Road Engineers.

Mats received his prize of 10,000 Danishkronor in the Faroe Islands where theCommittee had its annual meeting for2005. He naturally thinks that it was verypleasant to receive this award, and also saysthat there was jubilation among theSwedish delegation since Sweden had notwon this prize for many years.

The way this prize is awarded is thateach Nordic country chooses one of seve-ral proposed national research projects.

This move has made better co-operationbetween the different departments withinthe Danish Road Institute and also betweenthe various divisions of the Road Directo-rate possible.

On 26 August, the new premises wereofficially opened with a reception for wor-king partners, colleagues and friends of theDanish Road Institute and the Con-struction and Maintenance Units.

The Danish Road Institute can now befound at the following address:Guldalderen 122640 HedehuseneDenmark

The project leader of the selected projectwrites a brief article on the project andthen attends the annual meeting where hegives a talk. The article and the talk are jud-ged as to their content, presentation andtiming. Mats’ talk was entitled ”WearTox –The effects of wear particles from tyres andthe carriageway on macrophages and epit-heleal cells”.

Speed Limit System

VTI has carried out a project to investigatethe speed limits and the traffic situation inAbu Dhabi and concern has been taken tothe traffic situation, the mean speeds onthe roads, road environment and acci-dents. Of special interest has been to studywhether there is room for increasing thespeed limit on certain roads or whether it is

Under One Roof

Earlier the various departments, laborato-ries and workshops of the Danish RoadInstitute were in three different locations.A suitable building was found east ofRoskilde.

After reconstruction of the existing buil-ding and construction of two new buil-dings, the Danish Road Institute, theEastern branches of the Construction andMaintenance Units and the Road SectorTraining Centre moved to the new premi-ses during spring and early summer of2005.

nordic no. 2/3 2005 | 98 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

THE INSTITUTES

The Danish Road Institute Research on – and Knowledge About – Roads

The Danish Road Institute carries out research, development andconsultancy services. The Danish Road Institute is a part of the Danish RoadDirectorate which employs about 450 people. The Institute hassome 80 employees.

In our facility in Hedehusene, Denmark,we share our offices with the Eastern

branches of the Construction andMaintenance Units and the Road SectorTraining Centre, VEJ-EU.

Our main task is to provide reliable dataon road-related issues, in order to enableroad administrators in the private andpublic road sector to make sensible deci-sions. Whether you are dealing with a smallroad in a municipality or a major highwaynetwork, it is of utmost importance thatyou can trust that road materials and roadbuilding methods are of the highest quali-ty. The Danish Road Institute tries to facili-tate this by thorough research into newand known materials.

We also try to be up-front with the latesttechniques for measuring and investigatingroads and we are constantly looking forways to improve the relations between pro-viders, entrepreneurs and road administra-tions, for instance through counselling onprivate-public partnering.

Focus areas Safe roadsEven and durable roads with a high level offriction are one of the means towards in-creased traffic safety. The better the fric-tion is, the better safety is achieved. Themore durable roads are, the fewer repairsneed to be carried out and thus there arefewer dangerous situations for road wor-kers and traffic users.

The Danish Road Institute researches anddevelops long life pavements and functio-nal properties for various types of roads.We also measure and register uneven roadsor roads, which are in other ways, unsafe.

Knowledge about roadsThe Danish Road Institute distributesknowledge on roads to the Danish andforeign road sectors. We regard ourselvesas the knowledge centre of the road sectorand would like to come into dialogue withall users of roads. Our research results arepresented in reports, on homepages, inarticles and at conferences, at home andabroad, and also through teaching diffe-rent courses.

Also at the Danish Road Institute, theRoad Sector Library can be found. TheLibrary gathers and distributes Danish andforeign technical literature.

Noise reducing pavementsRoad traffic is the greatest source of noisein society and is a problem in many places,where human beings live. Noise is a parti-cular problem in urban areas and about70% of habitations plagued by noise aresituated in towns with more than 20,000inhabitants. We focus on road pavementsas sources of noise and in that connection,we have a co-operation with the Dutch roadauthorities on road pavements with noisereducing properties.

Supervision with roadsAdvanced IT systems play a major role inthe management of our roads. The DanishRoad Institute delivers road maintenancesystems and data to the Danish road sector.

The measurements are used to planroad maintenance, but are also used to eva-luate road safety, road environment, passa-bility and comfort, etc. We measure theevenness and friction of roads, rutting andwhether a road has sufficient bearing capa-city.

Environmentally friendly roadsThe Danish Road Institute evaluates thecondition of roads with a view to recyclingmaterials. We examine and give advice inconnection with projects, where previouslyknown materials are used. We work oncreating the possibility to use more residu-al products in road construction and roadmaintenance.

The Danish Road Institute has participa-ted in projects with volcanic ash and crush-ed concrete as road fill. A current exampleis LCA (Life Cycle Analysis), where theentire road and its materials from cradle tograve are analysed.

Economic roadsDurable roads are a key word for the futu-re infrastructure. Each year, congestiondue to road repairs of worn roads costsociety many million Euros. This applies in

Denmark and this also applies in the rest ofworld, in particular around major cities.The Danish Road Institute is testing tradi-tional and new road surfaces in order toevaluate their durability and properties.

Consultancy on roadsThe Danish Road Institute offers consul-tancy services to the Danish road sector onroad construction and road maintenance.Furthermore, we provide support to roadadministrations on choice of wearing cour-ses, analysis of pavement and calculationson the need for reinforcement. We giveadvice on planning of road managementthrough various road data systems.

Quality control of roadsThe condition of the road network is ofimportance for the mobility of society, itsinfrastructure and for the capital invest-ment which has been made in the road net-

work. In addition, good control systemsalso ensure good co-operation betweencontractors, suppliers and road owners.

The Danish Road Institute carries outquality control of road materials before,during and after a road construction. Thisis done in our laboratories and by our mea-suring vehicles on site.

Current research and development pro-jectsIn our new strategy for Research andDevelopment, we emphasize the need todemonstrate the use of road research bycommunication and demonstration pro-jects. Our aim is to maintain a public andpolitical awareness of our field of work byvisualizing the cause and effect of economi-cal and environmental sustainable roads tosociety.

In the latter years, the Danish RoadInstitute has been involved in several inte-

resting and rewarding collaborations withprivate and public partners on researchand development projects. One of these isa road stretch with noise-reducing porousasphalt in central Copenhagen, where ajoint effort between The Danish RoadDirectorate, Danish EnvironmentalProtection Agency, the Municipality ofCopenhagen and 3 private partners has ledto significant and useful results.

www.roadinstitute.dk

Danish Ministry of Transport and EnergyDanish Ministry of Transport and Energy

nordic no. 2/3 2005 | 98 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

THE INSTITUTES

The Danish Road Institute Research on – and Knowledge About – Roads

The Danish Road Institute carries out research, development andconsultancy services. The Danish Road Institute is a part of the Danish RoadDirectorate which employs about 450 people. The Institute hassome 80 employees.

In our facility in Hedehusene, Denmark,we share our offices with the Eastern

branches of the Construction andMaintenance Units and the Road SectorTraining Centre, VEJ-EU.

Our main task is to provide reliable dataon road-related issues, in order to enableroad administrators in the private andpublic road sector to make sensible deci-sions. Whether you are dealing with a smallroad in a municipality or a major highwaynetwork, it is of utmost importance thatyou can trust that road materials and roadbuilding methods are of the highest quali-ty. The Danish Road Institute tries to facili-tate this by thorough research into newand known materials.

We also try to be up-front with the latesttechniques for measuring and investigatingroads and we are constantly looking forways to improve the relations between pro-viders, entrepreneurs and road administra-tions, for instance through counselling onprivate-public partnering.

Focus areas Safe roadsEven and durable roads with a high level offriction are one of the means towards in-creased traffic safety. The better the fric-tion is, the better safety is achieved. Themore durable roads are, the fewer repairsneed to be carried out and thus there arefewer dangerous situations for road wor-kers and traffic users.

The Danish Road Institute researches anddevelops long life pavements and functio-nal properties for various types of roads.We also measure and register uneven roadsor roads, which are in other ways, unsafe.

Knowledge about roadsThe Danish Road Institute distributesknowledge on roads to the Danish andforeign road sectors. We regard ourselvesas the knowledge centre of the road sectorand would like to come into dialogue withall users of roads. Our research results arepresented in reports, on homepages, inarticles and at conferences, at home andabroad, and also through teaching diffe-rent courses.

Also at the Danish Road Institute, theRoad Sector Library can be found. TheLibrary gathers and distributes Danish andforeign technical literature.

Noise reducing pavementsRoad traffic is the greatest source of noisein society and is a problem in many places,where human beings live. Noise is a parti-cular problem in urban areas and about70% of habitations plagued by noise aresituated in towns with more than 20,000inhabitants. We focus on road pavementsas sources of noise and in that connection,we have a co-operation with the Dutch roadauthorities on road pavements with noisereducing properties.

Supervision with roadsAdvanced IT systems play a major role inthe management of our roads. The DanishRoad Institute delivers road maintenancesystems and data to the Danish road sector.

The measurements are used to planroad maintenance, but are also used to eva-luate road safety, road environment, passa-bility and comfort, etc. We measure theevenness and friction of roads, rutting andwhether a road has sufficient bearing capa-city.

Environmentally friendly roadsThe Danish Road Institute evaluates thecondition of roads with a view to recyclingmaterials. We examine and give advice inconnection with projects, where previouslyknown materials are used. We work oncreating the possibility to use more residu-al products in road construction and roadmaintenance.

The Danish Road Institute has participa-ted in projects with volcanic ash and crush-ed concrete as road fill. A current exampleis LCA (Life Cycle Analysis), where theentire road and its materials from cradle tograve are analysed.

Economic roadsDurable roads are a key word for the futu-re infrastructure. Each year, congestiondue to road repairs of worn roads costsociety many million Euros. This applies in

Denmark and this also applies in the rest ofworld, in particular around major cities.The Danish Road Institute is testing tradi-tional and new road surfaces in order toevaluate their durability and properties.

Consultancy on roadsThe Danish Road Institute offers consul-tancy services to the Danish road sector onroad construction and road maintenance.Furthermore, we provide support to roadadministrations on choice of wearing cour-ses, analysis of pavement and calculationson the need for reinforcement. We giveadvice on planning of road managementthrough various road data systems.

Quality control of roadsThe condition of the road network is ofimportance for the mobility of society, itsinfrastructure and for the capital invest-ment which has been made in the road net-

work. In addition, good control systemsalso ensure good co-operation betweencontractors, suppliers and road owners.

The Danish Road Institute carries outquality control of road materials before,during and after a road construction. Thisis done in our laboratories and by our mea-suring vehicles on site.

Current research and development pro-jectsIn our new strategy for Research andDevelopment, we emphasize the need todemonstrate the use of road research bycommunication and demonstration pro-jects. Our aim is to maintain a public andpolitical awareness of our field of work byvisualizing the cause and effect of economi-cal and environmental sustainable roads tosociety.

In the latter years, the Danish RoadInstitute has been involved in several inte-

resting and rewarding collaborations withprivate and public partners on researchand development projects. One of these isa road stretch with noise-reducing porousasphalt in central Copenhagen, where ajoint effort between The Danish RoadDirectorate, Danish EnvironmentalProtection Agency, the Municipality ofCopenhagen and 3 private partners has ledto significant and useful results.

www.roadinstitute.dk

Danish Ministry of Transport and EnergyDanish Ministry of Transport and Energy

NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 | 1110 | NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

THE INSTITUTES THE INSTITUTES

According to the Road Act no. 45/1994the Minister of Transport and

Communications has authority over allmatters concerning roads and ultimatemanagement is in the hands of theDirector General of the Icelandic RoadAdministration.

The Icelandic Road Administrationconstitutes of headquarters in Reykjavikand four regional offices. The tasks arebroadly divided so that the DirectorGeneral´s office and the three headquar-

The Icelandic RoadAdministration (ICERA)

The Icelandic Road Administration is responsible for the plan-ning, construction and operation of the national road network.It is also authorized to grant subsidies for ferry operations, somedomestic flight routes and some public transport in rural areas.The Icelandic Road Administration issues licenses to firms andbodies operating buses, trucks and taxis. Applied research con-cerning road construction, maintenance and traffic and safety isperformed or directed by ICERA. The authority with its Researchand Development division is reponsible for road research inIceland.

ters divisions are in charge of management(targets, planning, regulation and supervi-sion) in addition to providing serviceswhich is convenient to handle centrally.The headquarters are also responsible forsustaining powerful expertise in fieldswhere ICERA is active. Regional offices arein charge of construction, maintenanceand operation of the road system, alongwith service for road users.

The competent authorities of road rese-arch in Iceland are The Ministry of

Transport and Communication and TheIcelandic Road Administration. No trans-port research institute exists in the countryand instead the authorities have establis-hed R&D departments within their organi-sations. The road research work is mainlycarried out within ICERA, or by other insti-tutions and consultants through contracts.Through the Road Act, ICERA has 1% ofthe yearly budget allocated to Research &Development.

The mission of the Icelandic RoadAdministration: To provide society with road sys-tem in accordance with its needs and to provide aservice with the aim of smooth and safe traffic.

The objectives: A. Smooth traffic on Iceland's roadsB. High traffic safetyC. Good serviceD. Harmonious relationship with the envi-

ronment and community

www.vegagerdin.is

VTT, Technical Research Centre ofFinland's, main objective within the

area of transport, is to help in developingan efficient, safe and environmentally fri-endly transport system and infrastructureto enhance the competitiveness of theFinnish industry and the well-being ofsociety. Our competence in these expertiseareas is available to the entities in forms ofstrategic R&D and market oriented rese-arch and development. In addition tonational activities, we need to have a lea-ding role in certain areas in internationallevel to be able to serve our customers well.Our services are based on internationallycompetitive comprehensive competenceconnected with the facilities necessary toperform experimental research. Longterm strategic research financed by basicfunding or joint funding ensures that thecompetence and services needed by ourcustomers are available also in the future.

The field of activity covers research anddevelopment of transportation, logisticsand road structures. The work is carriedout in five research groups.

The research of the Traffic SafetyGroup covers road and rail transport fromthe perspectives of traffic and infrastructu-re management and the users of transportfacilities. The main objective is to providedecision-makers information of the

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is a contract researchorganisation involved in many international assignments. With its2800 employees, VTT provides a wide range of technology andapplied research services for its clients, private companies, insti-tutions and the public sector. Turnover is about 210 million euros.We serve annually over 5000 domestic and foreign customers.

impacts on safety caused by different kindsof changes in the transport system. Thescope of the research extends from the esti-mation of the impacts single safety measu-res to national and European transportsafety programmes.

Logistics research aims to foster thelogistics competitiveness of companies andimprove decision making in public admi-nistration. Special areas of expertise consistof new operating models and principles fordemand and supply chains as well as themanagement of freight transportation andlogistics telematics.

Transport system research focuses ontravel behaviour, transport models andforecasts, transport policy, public transportas well as on environmental and economicimpacts of transport.

TransportTelematics group developsimplementation and production strategiesfor the needs of public sector and privatecompanies as well as undertakes multidisci-plinary research related to IntelligentTransport Systems (ITS). The areas ofexpertise include analysis of user require-ments, ITS system design and specifica-tions, human-machine interface analysis,and the technical, impact, and socio-eco-nomic evaluation of ITS.

Road structures and infrasurvey teamswork on the following subjects: road struc-

www.vtt.fi

VTT Aims to Improve Traffic Safetyand Environmentally Friendly Transport System

tures, pavement analysing systems, frostengineering vibrations and soil dynamics.The research subjects have been approa-ched from the viewpoint of the life cycletechnology. That involves also the develop-ment of procurement practices. The rese-arch has comprised the research of thedeformation reduction of pavement mate-rials and the performance requirements inmaintenance contracts. The general quali-ty requirements for infrastructures; roads,streets, tracks and pipelines have beendeveloped together with the branch. Inthe future we will direct more towards thedevelopment of products and processes.

Heikki Kanner

NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 | 1110 | NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

THE INSTITUTES THE INSTITUTES

According to the Road Act no. 45/1994the Minister of Transport and

Communications has authority over allmatters concerning roads and ultimatemanagement is in the hands of theDirector General of the Icelandic RoadAdministration.

The Icelandic Road Administrationconstitutes of headquarters in Reykjavikand four regional offices. The tasks arebroadly divided so that the DirectorGeneral´s office and the three headquar-

The Icelandic RoadAdministration (ICERA)

The Icelandic Road Administration is responsible for the plan-ning, construction and operation of the national road network.It is also authorized to grant subsidies for ferry operations, somedomestic flight routes and some public transport in rural areas.The Icelandic Road Administration issues licenses to firms andbodies operating buses, trucks and taxis. Applied research con-cerning road construction, maintenance and traffic and safety isperformed or directed by ICERA. The authority with its Researchand Development division is reponsible for road research inIceland.

ters divisions are in charge of management(targets, planning, regulation and supervi-sion) in addition to providing serviceswhich is convenient to handle centrally.The headquarters are also responsible forsustaining powerful expertise in fieldswhere ICERA is active. Regional offices arein charge of construction, maintenanceand operation of the road system, alongwith service for road users.

The competent authorities of road rese-arch in Iceland are The Ministry of

Transport and Communication and TheIcelandic Road Administration. No trans-port research institute exists in the countryand instead the authorities have establis-hed R&D departments within their organi-sations. The road research work is mainlycarried out within ICERA, or by other insti-tutions and consultants through contracts.Through the Road Act, ICERA has 1% ofthe yearly budget allocated to Research &Development.

The mission of the Icelandic RoadAdministration: To provide society with road sys-tem in accordance with its needs and to provide aservice with the aim of smooth and safe traffic.

The objectives: A. Smooth traffic on Iceland's roadsB. High traffic safetyC. Good serviceD. Harmonious relationship with the envi-

ronment and community

www.vegagerdin.is

VTT, Technical Research Centre ofFinland's, main objective within the

area of transport, is to help in developingan efficient, safe and environmentally fri-endly transport system and infrastructureto enhance the competitiveness of theFinnish industry and the well-being ofsociety. Our competence in these expertiseareas is available to the entities in forms ofstrategic R&D and market oriented rese-arch and development. In addition tonational activities, we need to have a lea-ding role in certain areas in internationallevel to be able to serve our customers well.Our services are based on internationallycompetitive comprehensive competenceconnected with the facilities necessary toperform experimental research. Longterm strategic research financed by basicfunding or joint funding ensures that thecompetence and services needed by ourcustomers are available also in the future.

The field of activity covers research anddevelopment of transportation, logisticsand road structures. The work is carriedout in five research groups.

The research of the Traffic SafetyGroup covers road and rail transport fromthe perspectives of traffic and infrastructu-re management and the users of transportfacilities. The main objective is to providedecision-makers information of the

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is a contract researchorganisation involved in many international assignments. With its2800 employees, VTT provides a wide range of technology andapplied research services for its clients, private companies, insti-tutions and the public sector. Turnover is about 210 million euros.We serve annually over 5000 domestic and foreign customers.

impacts on safety caused by different kindsof changes in the transport system. Thescope of the research extends from the esti-mation of the impacts single safety measu-res to national and European transportsafety programmes.

Logistics research aims to foster thelogistics competitiveness of companies andimprove decision making in public admi-nistration. Special areas of expertise consistof new operating models and principles fordemand and supply chains as well as themanagement of freight transportation andlogistics telematics.

Transport system research focuses ontravel behaviour, transport models andforecasts, transport policy, public transportas well as on environmental and economicimpacts of transport.

TransportTelematics group developsimplementation and production strategiesfor the needs of public sector and privatecompanies as well as undertakes multidisci-plinary research related to IntelligentTransport Systems (ITS). The areas ofexpertise include analysis of user require-ments, ITS system design and specifica-tions, human-machine interface analysis,and the technical, impact, and socio-eco-nomic evaluation of ITS.

Road structures and infrasurvey teamswork on the following subjects: road struc-

www.vtt.fi

VTT Aims to Improve Traffic Safetyand Environmentally Friendly Transport System

tures, pavement analysing systems, frostengineering vibrations and soil dynamics.The research subjects have been approa-ched from the viewpoint of the life cycletechnology. That involves also the develop-ment of procurement practices. The rese-arch has comprised the research of thedeformation reduction of pavement mate-rials and the performance requirements inmaintenance contracts. The general quali-ty requirements for infrastructures; roads,streets, tracks and pipelines have beendeveloped together with the branch. Inthe future we will direct more towards thedevelopment of products and processes.

Heikki Kanner

NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 | 1312 | NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

On matters pertaining to national roads,the Public Road Administration is under

the direction of the Ministry of Transportand Communications. On those related tocounty roads, the Regional Director is subor-dinated the county legislature.

The Public Roads Administration isunder the leadership of the Directorate ofRoads, is an autonomous agency and issubordinated the Ministry of Transportand Communication. The Public RoadsAdministration encompasses five regionaloffices.

The Norwegian Public RoadsAdministration

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration is responsible for theplanning, construction and operation of the national and countyroad networks, vehicle inspection and requirements, driver trai-ning and licensing. It is also authorized to grant subsidies forferry operations.

The Public Roads Administration wasreorganized January 1st, 2003. One of theresults of the reorganization in theDirectorate of Roads was the establishmentof a new Department of Technology. A partof the new department, called “Centre forRoad and Traffic Technology”, was establis-hed in Trondheim. Most of the activitieslinked to research and development withinthe NPRA area are now carried out fromthe Centre for Road and TrafficTechnology.

The Department of Technology has lea-

ding edge technology in the area of roads,tunnels and bridges and performes activi-ties as:• Consulting• Design & control• Research and development• Specifications and guidelines• Information and tuition• Laboratory work• Management of “New ideas & sugges-

tion-box”

Our Vision isOn the road towards a better society

The objective of the Norwegian PublicRoads Administration:To develop and maintain a safe, eco-friendlyand efficient transport system. This is beingdone on a sound, professional basis by interac-ting with politicians, users and other interestedparties.

ValuesWe want to:• take responsibility and show trust• be open and customer-friendly • be open-minded and create job satisfaction

THE INSTITUTES THE INSTITUTES

The Institute is a research foundationwith idealistic objectives. It holds no

interests in any commercial, manufactu-ring or supplying organisation. The boardis appointed by the Ministry of Transportand Communications and the ResearchCouncil of Norway.

The main objectives of the Institute areto carry out applied multidisciplinary rese-arch on issues related to transport and topromote the application of research resultsby advising government authorities, thetransport industry and the public in gene-ral. Its sphere of activity includes most ofthe current issues in road, rail, sea and airtransport, as well as urban transport, envi-ronmental issues and traffic safety.

Special emphasis is placed on the practi-cal application of research results, andmost of the studies and projects are com-missioned. In recent years, the Institute hasbeen engaged in a number of research pro-jects for the European Union. In addition,several studies have been carried out indeveloping countries funded by theNorwegian Agency for Development Co-operation (NORAD), the World Bank andother development agencies.

The Institute normally has at least 200research projects in progress at any time.They vary in duration from a few months toseveral person-years. Research activities atTØI are undertaken within a programmestructure that covers the main researchareas. Currently, the following research

Institute of Transport Economics Oslo, Norway

The Institute of Transport Economics (Transportøkonomisk insti-tutt, TØI) was established in 1958 and is a national Norwegianinstitution for transport research and development.

programmes are in operation at the institu-te:• Cost benefit analysis • Financing public transport • Freight transport• International logistics • Network based transport models• Planning and decision-making proces-

ses • Regional analysis• Risk analyses, meta-analysis and cost-

benefit analyses • Strategic market analyses• Tourism • Traffic safety and the interaction betwe-

en road users, road system, and vehicles• Traffic, health and urban Environment• Travel behaviour

Lasse Fridstrøm isManaging Director of TØI

www.toi.no

The Institute has a total staff of approx-imately 90 employees, of whom about twothirds are researchers. As is evident fromthe diagram, the research staff is highlymultidisciplinary.

TØI's transport library boasts an impres-sive 30,000 volumes and subscribes toapproximately 230 different journals.Visitors are welcome to use our library faci-lities.

www.vegvesen.no

With its length of 1615 m, the Nordhordaland bridge is the world longest bridge constructed as a combinationof floating bridge and cable bridge.

NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 | 1312 | NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

On matters pertaining to national roads,the Public Road Administration is under

the direction of the Ministry of Transportand Communications. On those related tocounty roads, the Regional Director is subor-dinated the county legislature.

The Public Roads Administration isunder the leadership of the Directorate ofRoads, is an autonomous agency and issubordinated the Ministry of Transportand Communication. The Public RoadsAdministration encompasses five regionaloffices.

The Norwegian Public RoadsAdministration

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration is responsible for theplanning, construction and operation of the national and countyroad networks, vehicle inspection and requirements, driver trai-ning and licensing. It is also authorized to grant subsidies forferry operations.

The Public Roads Administration wasreorganized January 1st, 2003. One of theresults of the reorganization in theDirectorate of Roads was the establishmentof a new Department of Technology. A partof the new department, called “Centre forRoad and Traffic Technology”, was establis-hed in Trondheim. Most of the activitieslinked to research and development withinthe NPRA area are now carried out fromthe Centre for Road and TrafficTechnology.

The Department of Technology has lea-

ding edge technology in the area of roads,tunnels and bridges and performes activi-ties as:• Consulting• Design & control• Research and development• Specifications and guidelines• Information and tuition• Laboratory work• Management of “New ideas & sugges-

tion-box”

Our Vision isOn the road towards a better society

The objective of the Norwegian PublicRoads Administration:To develop and maintain a safe, eco-friendlyand efficient transport system. This is beingdone on a sound, professional basis by interac-ting with politicians, users and other interestedparties.

ValuesWe want to:• take responsibility and show trust• be open and customer-friendly • be open-minded and create job satisfaction

THE INSTITUTES THE INSTITUTES

The Institute is a research foundationwith idealistic objectives. It holds no

interests in any commercial, manufactu-ring or supplying organisation. The boardis appointed by the Ministry of Transportand Communications and the ResearchCouncil of Norway.

The main objectives of the Institute areto carry out applied multidisciplinary rese-arch on issues related to transport and topromote the application of research resultsby advising government authorities, thetransport industry and the public in gene-ral. Its sphere of activity includes most ofthe current issues in road, rail, sea and airtransport, as well as urban transport, envi-ronmental issues and traffic safety.

Special emphasis is placed on the practi-cal application of research results, andmost of the studies and projects are com-missioned. In recent years, the Institute hasbeen engaged in a number of research pro-jects for the European Union. In addition,several studies have been carried out indeveloping countries funded by theNorwegian Agency for Development Co-operation (NORAD), the World Bank andother development agencies.

The Institute normally has at least 200research projects in progress at any time.They vary in duration from a few months toseveral person-years. Research activities atTØI are undertaken within a programmestructure that covers the main researchareas. Currently, the following research

Institute of Transport Economics Oslo, Norway

The Institute of Transport Economics (Transportøkonomisk insti-tutt, TØI) was established in 1958 and is a national Norwegianinstitution for transport research and development.

programmes are in operation at the institu-te:• Cost benefit analysis • Financing public transport • Freight transport• International logistics • Network based transport models• Planning and decision-making proces-

ses • Regional analysis• Risk analyses, meta-analysis and cost-

benefit analyses • Strategic market analyses• Tourism • Traffic safety and the interaction betwe-

en road users, road system, and vehicles• Traffic, health and urban Environment• Travel behaviour

Lasse Fridstrøm isManaging Director of TØI

www.toi.no

The Institute has a total staff of approx-imately 90 employees, of whom about twothirds are researchers. As is evident fromthe diagram, the research staff is highlymultidisciplinary.

TØI's transport library boasts an impres-sive 30,000 volumes and subscribes toapproximately 230 different journals.Visitors are welcome to use our library faci-lities.

www.vegvesen.no

With its length of 1615 m, the Nordhordaland bridge is the world longest bridge constructed as a combinationof floating bridge and cable bridge.

THE INSTITUTES

VTI – An Independent Transportation Research Institute

VTI is an independent, internationally established research insti-tute which is engaged in the transport sector. Our work covers all modes, and our core competence is in thefields of safety, economy, environment, traffic and transport ana-lysis, behaviour and the man-vehicle-transport system interaction,and in road design, operation and maintenance. VTI is a worldleader in several areas, for instance in simulator technology.

VTI provides services ranging from pre-liminary studies, high-level indepen-

dent investigations and expert statementsto project management, research and deve-lopment. Our technical equipment inclu-des driving simulators for road and railtraffic, a road laboratory, a tyre testing faci-lity, crash tracks and a lot more. We canalso offer a broad selection of courses andseminars in the field of transport.

Research and developmentThe strategic role of our research and

development is to constantly improveknowledge of the transport sector, with theaim of contributing to the achievement ofthe transport policy targets – an accessibletransport system, high transport quality,safe traffic, good environment, positiveregional development and an equal oppor-tunity transport sector.

Research and development, when car-ried out properly, also provides opportuni-ties for growth in the economy. Well

functioning cooperation among researchinstitutes, universities and the economy isimportant for favourable development.

VTI is actively engaged on both researchand development. Our research and deve-lopment work extends from basic andapplied research to experimental develop-ment work.

The objective of our basic research is tosearch for new knowledge systematicallyand methodically, without having any speci-fic application in sight. The aim of ourapplied research is to develop knowledgethat we can use in a specific project orwork.

In our development work, the results ofour research are used systematically andmethodically to improve or create new pro-ducts, processes or systems in the transportsector.

BICVTI Library and Information Centre (BIC)

collects, organizes, stores and disseminatesinformation in the field of transport andcommunication research. BIC gives youacess to extensive experience, a broad con-tact network and many sources of informa-tion both nationally and internationally.The BIC databases can be searched free ofcharge via Transguide, www.transguide.org.

Technical equipmentVTI carries out independent measurementand testing with advanced technical equip-ment. Examples of facilities we have at ourdisposal are a road laboratory, equipmentfor road testing, tyre test facility, drivingsimulators and a road simulator.

Several of our technical equipments areunique, such as our frost penetrationmeter and frost tester. Our facility for crashtests on heavy vehicles is unique in theNordic countries, and at present we cantest vehicles up to 16 tons.

In the new driving simulator we can

NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 | 1514 | NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

VTI is one of the leading researchinstitutes in Europe. By virtue of ourown resources and our unique net-work, we are a stable R&D partner forboth national authorities and univer-sities and for the business sector, andin many cases it has direct applica-tions in Swedish and European trans-port policy.

As a commissioning organisation,you can benefit from the fact that ourresearch is at the forefront of interna-tional research in many areas. Ournational and international networksand alliances with other researchinstitutes and universities are guaran-tee of breadth, depth and an multidi-sciplinary approach in the produc-tion of knowledge.

You as customer will find that VTIis a knowledge centre of wide scopefor research and development of aninternationally high standard and forindepth investigations in the trans-port sector, witch gives the greatestconsideration to the needs of its cus-tomer.Urban Karlström, Director General

www.vti.se

measure and test everything rangingfrom the human-machine interface,driver behaviour, the effects of fatigueand drugs to road design, tunneldesign, the reactions of the humanbody, drivers with impairments andnew systems in vehicles.

PH

OTO

S.C

OM

Some of Our Technical Equipment.

THE INSTITUTES

VTI – An Independent Transportation Research Institute

VTI is an independent, internationally established research insti-tute which is engaged in the transport sector. Our work covers all modes, and our core competence is in thefields of safety, economy, environment, traffic and transport ana-lysis, behaviour and the man-vehicle-transport system interaction,and in road design, operation and maintenance. VTI is a worldleader in several areas, for instance in simulator technology.

VTI provides services ranging from pre-liminary studies, high-level indepen-

dent investigations and expert statementsto project management, research and deve-lopment. Our technical equipment inclu-des driving simulators for road and railtraffic, a road laboratory, a tyre testing faci-lity, crash tracks and a lot more. We canalso offer a broad selection of courses andseminars in the field of transport.

Research and developmentThe strategic role of our research and

development is to constantly improveknowledge of the transport sector, with theaim of contributing to the achievement ofthe transport policy targets – an accessibletransport system, high transport quality,safe traffic, good environment, positiveregional development and an equal oppor-tunity transport sector.

Research and development, when car-ried out properly, also provides opportuni-ties for growth in the economy. Well

functioning cooperation among researchinstitutes, universities and the economy isimportant for favourable development.

VTI is actively engaged on both researchand development. Our research and deve-lopment work extends from basic andapplied research to experimental develop-ment work.

The objective of our basic research is tosearch for new knowledge systematicallyand methodically, without having any speci-fic application in sight. The aim of ourapplied research is to develop knowledgethat we can use in a specific project orwork.

In our development work, the results ofour research are used systematically andmethodically to improve or create new pro-ducts, processes or systems in the transportsector.

BICVTI Library and Information Centre (BIC)

collects, organizes, stores and disseminatesinformation in the field of transport andcommunication research. BIC gives youacess to extensive experience, a broad con-tact network and many sources of informa-tion both nationally and internationally.The BIC databases can be searched free ofcharge via Transguide, www.transguide.org.

Technical equipmentVTI carries out independent measurementand testing with advanced technical equip-ment. Examples of facilities we have at ourdisposal are a road laboratory, equipmentfor road testing, tyre test facility, drivingsimulators and a road simulator.

Several of our technical equipments areunique, such as our frost penetrationmeter and frost tester. Our facility for crashtests on heavy vehicles is unique in theNordic countries, and at present we cantest vehicles up to 16 tons.

In the new driving simulator we can

NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 | 1514 | NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

VTI is one of the leading researchinstitutes in Europe. By virtue of ourown resources and our unique net-work, we are a stable R&D partner forboth national authorities and univer-sities and for the business sector, andin many cases it has direct applica-tions in Swedish and European trans-port policy.

As a commissioning organisation,you can benefit from the fact that ourresearch is at the forefront of interna-tional research in many areas. Ournational and international networksand alliances with other researchinstitutes and universities are guaran-tee of breadth, depth and an multidi-sciplinary approach in the produc-tion of knowledge.

You as customer will find that VTIis a knowledge centre of wide scopefor research and development of aninternationally high standard and forindepth investigations in the trans-port sector, witch gives the greatestconsideration to the needs of its cus-tomer.Urban Karlström, Director General

www.vti.se

measure and test everything rangingfrom the human-machine interface,driver behaviour, the effects of fatigueand drugs to road design, tunneldesign, the reactions of the humanbody, drivers with impairments andnew systems in vehicles.

PH

OTO

S.C

OM

Some of Our Technical Equipment.

NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 | 1716 | NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

In early 2004, DRI and the Dutch Roadand Hydraulic Engineering Institute

(DWW) entered into formal research coo-peration within the framework of the ambi-tious Noise Innovation Program (IPG pro-gram) as described in the Danish RoadMagazine 2004/04. In three of the pro-jects, Ravelling of Porous Pavements, ModifiedBitumen used for Porous Pavements andClogging of Porous Pavements an importantpart of the work is to analyse the cores fromDutch porous asphalt pavements. Initially,the idea was to analyse the asphalt structu-re of the cores using the thin and plane sec-tion technique, but early in the project itwas decided that DRI also should analysethe x-rays (CT-scans), that would be execu-ted within the IPG-program. CT-scans ofthe cores are done at the TechnicalUniversity in Delft before shipment to DRIwhere the thin and plane sections are pre-pared and analysed. At the same time asDRI analyses the cores, a ph.d. project isbeing carried out in The Netherlands thatwill examine the aging of binder of the

The Patient’s Name:

Scanning Porous Pavementsin a CT-Scanner

The Danish Road Institute (DRI) now has the possibility to lookinside pavements without having to use the well-known DRI mic-roscopy technique on thin and plane sections. The TechnicalUniversity in Delft, the Netherlands, has a CT-Scanner and as aresult of research cooperation, DRI now has the possibility touse the CT-Scanner. The CT technique is usually used to scanpatients at hospitals, but can also be used to analyse cores –without having to “perform surgery” on the patient.

same types of pavements with knownasphalt testing methods.

How does a CT-scanner work?A CT-scanner is normally used to scanpeople. A traditional x-ray examinationgives a picture of tissue, fat, air and boneson a single plane. It is therefore not pos-sible to differentiate between the structu-res that for example lie behind bones orother x-ray resistant material. CT -Computer Tomography – creates a series ofx-ray images that are taken in a cross sec-tion of the head, the body or limbs.Popularly speaking, the body is “cut” intoslices reminiscent of a slicing machine. Themany pictures can then be studied indi-vidually or with the aid of computer tech-nology be adapted to create a three-dimen-sional picture enabling the patient to bestudied from all angles.

If the patient is a core of porous asphalt,it is therefore possible to see stones, bin-ders and voids in three dimensions. A com-puter can subsequently calculate the relati-

Cores of porous asphalt from the Dutch motorways (above left) are examinedin the CT-Scanner at TU in Delft (above right). Results of the scanning can beseen as a 3D-model of the asphalt core (below left). Cores are prepared forthin and plane section at DRI (below right).

ve density of the materials in the scannedcross section and draw a two-dimensionalpicture of this. For each cross section a two-dimensional picture is taken and these arethen joined to form a three-dimensionalpicture that can be viewed from all sides.

The Dutch CT-scanner was boughtsecond-hand from a hospital and has beenplaced in a special lead insulated room atthe Technical University in Delft. The scan-ner was delivered with the software that wasused at the hospital, so when testing, dataregarding the patient’s name, age and gen-der has to be entered. It is therefore up tothe user to determine whether the asphaltto be tested is male or female!

Clogging of porous asphaltOn the Dutch motorway A12, cores have

been drilled from a new and a 7 year oldtwo-layer porous asphalt pavement. Thecores were scanned in The Netherlands inthe CT-scanner and subsequently sent toDRI for microscopy of thin and plane sec-tions. By comparing the two, it is possible

to see where clogging has occurred. Ascross sections are scanned every mm theresolution along the vertical axis of thecore is 1 mm. The Amira® program makesit possible to view the model from all ang-les as well as to make random images ofcross sections. It is also possible to calcula-te the distribution of aggregate, bitumenmortar and voids on the different levels. Itis however, not possible to distinguish bet-ween sand and bitumen in the mortar.

Many new possibilitiesThe above described techniques will beused to analyse the over 100 cores with aview to finding an explanation of why cer-tain types of porous asphalt pavements aremore susceptible to ravelling than others,influencing their durability. Examinationswill be carried out to see how, when andwhere a porous asphalt pavement becomesclogged and if it helps to clean the pave-ment. By combining the excellent overviewproperties of the CT-scanner images withthe details provided by the analysis of thethin and plane sections, a powerful tool forfurther research is at our disposal that canbe used on many other types of pavements,both in Denmark and abroad.

PAVEMENTS

Carsten Bredahl Nielsen, M.Sc. ph.d.

Danish Road Directorate, Danish Road Institute,

can@vd.dk

NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 | 1716 | NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

In early 2004, DRI and the Dutch Roadand Hydraulic Engineering Institute

(DWW) entered into formal research coo-peration within the framework of the ambi-tious Noise Innovation Program (IPG pro-gram) as described in the Danish RoadMagazine 2004/04. In three of the pro-jects, Ravelling of Porous Pavements, ModifiedBitumen used for Porous Pavements andClogging of Porous Pavements an importantpart of the work is to analyse the cores fromDutch porous asphalt pavements. Initially,the idea was to analyse the asphalt structu-re of the cores using the thin and plane sec-tion technique, but early in the project itwas decided that DRI also should analysethe x-rays (CT-scans), that would be execu-ted within the IPG-program. CT-scans ofthe cores are done at the TechnicalUniversity in Delft before shipment to DRIwhere the thin and plane sections are pre-pared and analysed. At the same time asDRI analyses the cores, a ph.d. project isbeing carried out in The Netherlands thatwill examine the aging of binder of the

The Patient’s Name:

Scanning Porous Pavementsin a CT-Scanner

The Danish Road Institute (DRI) now has the possibility to lookinside pavements without having to use the well-known DRI mic-roscopy technique on thin and plane sections. The TechnicalUniversity in Delft, the Netherlands, has a CT-Scanner and as aresult of research cooperation, DRI now has the possibility touse the CT-Scanner. The CT technique is usually used to scanpatients at hospitals, but can also be used to analyse cores –without having to “perform surgery” on the patient.

same types of pavements with knownasphalt testing methods.

How does a CT-scanner work?A CT-scanner is normally used to scanpeople. A traditional x-ray examinationgives a picture of tissue, fat, air and boneson a single plane. It is therefore not pos-sible to differentiate between the structu-res that for example lie behind bones orother x-ray resistant material. CT -Computer Tomography – creates a series ofx-ray images that are taken in a cross sec-tion of the head, the body or limbs.Popularly speaking, the body is “cut” intoslices reminiscent of a slicing machine. Themany pictures can then be studied indi-vidually or with the aid of computer tech-nology be adapted to create a three-dimen-sional picture enabling the patient to bestudied from all angles.

If the patient is a core of porous asphalt,it is therefore possible to see stones, bin-ders and voids in three dimensions. A com-puter can subsequently calculate the relati-

Cores of porous asphalt from the Dutch motorways (above left) are examinedin the CT-Scanner at TU in Delft (above right). Results of the scanning can beseen as a 3D-model of the asphalt core (below left). Cores are prepared forthin and plane section at DRI (below right).

ve density of the materials in the scannedcross section and draw a two-dimensionalpicture of this. For each cross section a two-dimensional picture is taken and these arethen joined to form a three-dimensionalpicture that can be viewed from all sides.

The Dutch CT-scanner was boughtsecond-hand from a hospital and has beenplaced in a special lead insulated room atthe Technical University in Delft. The scan-ner was delivered with the software that wasused at the hospital, so when testing, dataregarding the patient’s name, age and gen-der has to be entered. It is therefore up tothe user to determine whether the asphaltto be tested is male or female!

Clogging of porous asphaltOn the Dutch motorway A12, cores have

been drilled from a new and a 7 year oldtwo-layer porous asphalt pavement. Thecores were scanned in The Netherlands inthe CT-scanner and subsequently sent toDRI for microscopy of thin and plane sec-tions. By comparing the two, it is possible

to see where clogging has occurred. Ascross sections are scanned every mm theresolution along the vertical axis of thecore is 1 mm. The Amira® program makesit possible to view the model from all ang-les as well as to make random images ofcross sections. It is also possible to calcula-te the distribution of aggregate, bitumenmortar and voids on the different levels. Itis however, not possible to distinguish bet-ween sand and bitumen in the mortar.

Many new possibilitiesThe above described techniques will beused to analyse the over 100 cores with aview to finding an explanation of why cer-tain types of porous asphalt pavements aremore susceptible to ravelling than others,influencing their durability. Examinationswill be carried out to see how, when andwhere a porous asphalt pavement becomesclogged and if it helps to clean the pave-ment. By combining the excellent overviewproperties of the CT-scanner images withthe details provided by the analysis of thethin and plane sections, a powerful tool forfurther research is at our disposal that canbe used on many other types of pavements,both in Denmark and abroad.

PAVEMENTS

Carsten Bredahl Nielsen, M.Sc. ph.d.

Danish Road Directorate, Danish Road Institute,

can@vd.dk

NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 | 1918 | NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

PAVEMENTS

Studded tires, one of the main problems for pavement maintenance.

Roller-compacted ConcretePavementsService Life up to 50-100 Years in Tunnels?

Roller-compacted concrete is a specialconcrete that is used for concrete

pavements. The concrete is produced in amixing plant, laid out with a suitable paverand is compacted in its unhardened statewith a vibrating roller. To obtain a homoge-neous concrete with a smooth surface andsufficient strength after rolling, stringentdemands are placed on aggregate particle-size distribution, quantity of cement andwater content. As the concrete pavementdoes not have dowels or reinforcement, itis important to reduce shrinkage and jointmovements. The use of studded tyres inNorway during winter also places specialdemands on the aggregate’s wearing resi-stance and the properties of the concrete.

During the period 1985 - 1995 a total of68 km of concrete roads was constructed inNorway using this method, of which almost60 km was in tunnels. The annual averagedaily traffic (AADT) on these stretchesranges from 200 to 10 000 vehicles per day,the majority having low traffic volumes. By2005, almost 15 km of these concrete roadswill have been paved over with asphalt. Theremaining 53 km are located almost entire-ly in tunnels or on bridges.

Roller-compacted concrete pavementscost twice as much as a normal asphaltroad, subbase included. To have a netsocio-economic benefit the concrete pave-ment must have clear advantages in theform of longer service life, reduced main-tenance costs, traffic safety and other

advantages for road users. As roller-com-pacted concrete pavements have been inservice more than 10 years, it is possible toidentify trends in their long-term servicecondition.

Wheel tracks or rutting in Norwegianroads are primarily due to the widespreaduse of studded tyres. In particular forAADT over 3–4000, studded tyres havebeing the dominant cause for surface rep-lacement, especially for asphalt wearingsurfaces. This results in re-asphalting every3–6 years with correspondingly relativelyhigh costs.

The following figure give data of obser-ved rutting per year (mm) for stretches ofroad with asphalt and roller-compactedconcrete pavements. The observed rutdepths are about 3 times higher on asphaltcompared with roller-compacted concrete.

Measurements performed on roller-compacted concrete pavements show verysmall annual increases in rut depth andIRI. Based on measurements performedthe last 10 years, the annual average increa-se in rut depth for all roller-compactedconcrete pavements is 0.3 mm/year. Wherethe AADT is close to 10 000 vehicles, theincrease in rut depth is 1–2 mm/year.

In general, there have been no pro-blems with joints during the period theconcrete pavement has been in service.Some damages have occurred, in particu-lar where joint spacing was too big (20 m).Joint damage has also occurred where theconcrete quality was very uneven or thesubbase was not properly constructed.

At some locations, water seepage andpumping has accelerated the damage.Damage of longitudinal centre joints occ-

urred in general due to cold joint construc-tion.

Concrete separation during pavingoccasionally caused cracking and erosionof material in the longitudinal joint. Mostof the damages have been repaired by sur-face repair.

An advantage of roller-compactedconcrete pavements in tunnels, wherethere are small temperature variations, isthat joint dowels are not necessary and pro-blems associated with dowels are therebyavoided.

For the majority of the projects, thepavement surface is generally good anddense even after 10 years of service.Individual projects which had a good quali-ty control system and competent personneldisplay nice and even surface characteris-tics today.

On some projects a thin surface andhoneycombing occurred due to concreteseparation during mixing, transport or cas-

ting. Local repairs have been performedwith a satisfactory result.

Throughout the ten-year period from1985 until 1995, considerable experiencewas gained by the Norwegian Public RoadsAdministration and private contractors inthe construction of roller-compactedconcrete roads. This experience was takeninto account in the updated Norwegiandesign guide 018. The conclusion so far isthat it is probable that several of these pave-ments, which are in tunnels with relativelysmall traffic volumes, will have a service lifeof 50-100 years with only minimal mainte-nance.

If roller-compacted concrete pavementsare to be constructed in Norway in thefuture, a long-term competence and pro-ject strategy must be developed. Tunnelswith an AADT under 10 000 are most sui-table.

Karl Melby, karl.melby@vegvesen.no

Norwegian Public Roads Administration

PHOTOS.COM

NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 | 1918 | NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

PAVEMENTS

Studded tires, one of the main problems for pavement maintenance.

Roller-compacted ConcretePavementsService Life up to 50-100 Years in Tunnels?

Roller-compacted concrete is a specialconcrete that is used for concrete

pavements. The concrete is produced in amixing plant, laid out with a suitable paverand is compacted in its unhardened statewith a vibrating roller. To obtain a homoge-neous concrete with a smooth surface andsufficient strength after rolling, stringentdemands are placed on aggregate particle-size distribution, quantity of cement andwater content. As the concrete pavementdoes not have dowels or reinforcement, itis important to reduce shrinkage and jointmovements. The use of studded tyres inNorway during winter also places specialdemands on the aggregate’s wearing resi-stance and the properties of the concrete.

During the period 1985 - 1995 a total of68 km of concrete roads was constructed inNorway using this method, of which almost60 km was in tunnels. The annual averagedaily traffic (AADT) on these stretchesranges from 200 to 10 000 vehicles per day,the majority having low traffic volumes. By2005, almost 15 km of these concrete roadswill have been paved over with asphalt. Theremaining 53 km are located almost entire-ly in tunnels or on bridges.

Roller-compacted concrete pavementscost twice as much as a normal asphaltroad, subbase included. To have a netsocio-economic benefit the concrete pave-ment must have clear advantages in theform of longer service life, reduced main-tenance costs, traffic safety and other

advantages for road users. As roller-com-pacted concrete pavements have been inservice more than 10 years, it is possible toidentify trends in their long-term servicecondition.

Wheel tracks or rutting in Norwegianroads are primarily due to the widespreaduse of studded tyres. In particular forAADT over 3–4000, studded tyres havebeing the dominant cause for surface rep-lacement, especially for asphalt wearingsurfaces. This results in re-asphalting every3–6 years with correspondingly relativelyhigh costs.

The following figure give data of obser-ved rutting per year (mm) for stretches ofroad with asphalt and roller-compactedconcrete pavements. The observed rutdepths are about 3 times higher on asphaltcompared with roller-compacted concrete.

Measurements performed on roller-compacted concrete pavements show verysmall annual increases in rut depth andIRI. Based on measurements performedthe last 10 years, the annual average increa-se in rut depth for all roller-compactedconcrete pavements is 0.3 mm/year. Wherethe AADT is close to 10 000 vehicles, theincrease in rut depth is 1–2 mm/year.

In general, there have been no pro-blems with joints during the period theconcrete pavement has been in service.Some damages have occurred, in particu-lar where joint spacing was too big (20 m).Joint damage has also occurred where theconcrete quality was very uneven or thesubbase was not properly constructed.

At some locations, water seepage andpumping has accelerated the damage.Damage of longitudinal centre joints occ-

urred in general due to cold joint construc-tion.

Concrete separation during pavingoccasionally caused cracking and erosionof material in the longitudinal joint. Mostof the damages have been repaired by sur-face repair.

An advantage of roller-compactedconcrete pavements in tunnels, wherethere are small temperature variations, isthat joint dowels are not necessary and pro-blems associated with dowels are therebyavoided.

For the majority of the projects, thepavement surface is generally good anddense even after 10 years of service.Individual projects which had a good quali-ty control system and competent personneldisplay nice and even surface characteris-tics today.

On some projects a thin surface andhoneycombing occurred due to concreteseparation during mixing, transport or cas-

ting. Local repairs have been performedwith a satisfactory result.

Throughout the ten-year period from1985 until 1995, considerable experiencewas gained by the Norwegian Public RoadsAdministration and private contractors inthe construction of roller-compactedconcrete roads. This experience was takeninto account in the updated Norwegiandesign guide 018. The conclusion so far isthat it is probable that several of these pave-ments, which are in tunnels with relativelysmall traffic volumes, will have a service lifeof 50-100 years with only minimal mainte-nance.

If roller-compacted concrete pavementsare to be constructed in Norway in thefuture, a long-term competence and pro-ject strategy must be developed. Tunnelswith an AADT under 10 000 are most sui-table.

Karl Melby, karl.melby@vegvesen.no

Norwegian Public Roads Administration

PHOTOS.COM

NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 | 2120 | NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

TRAFFIC SAFETY

Measures taken in the physical roadenvironment can reduce the number

killed and injured on European roads. Thehigh costs of new construction and impro-vements act as a limiting factor for trafficsafety. By making use of solutions and mea-sures in the existing infrastructure and,with that as the basis, developinging new ITbased solutions, greater cost effectivenesscan be achieved. The project will show hownew technologies can be used togetherwith traditional physical measures so thatthe sum of the measures is greater than theindividual measures.

World-class simulator expertiseIn Infrastructure and Safety (IN-SAFETY)the expertise of VTI in areas such as driverbehaviour, HMI, evaluation methodology,especially in driving simulators, trafficsimulation and road design has been ingreat demand.

- The new driving simulator of VTI willbe used in the project to evaluate whetherthe new technologies have the potential tobe successful. The driving simulator is ofworld class and is a tool in great demand inour work, says Anna Anund of VTI.

VTI is in a strong position in the area ofsimulation, and its expertise in the simula-tion of road traffic is unique. The VTImodel, in contrast to many other models,permits the simulation of both oncoming

Expertise on Driving Simulators and Traffic Simulation is in Demand in EU Projects

Simulation for EUVTI contributes with world-class simulation and simulator experti-se to the EU project IN-SAFETY. This project is part of the EUsixth framework programme, and its aim is to improve trafficsafety by developing new smart and cost effective technologieswhich are to strengthen the traditional road infrastructure androad environment.

traffic and overtaking. The road model isbeing developed from event-controlledsimulation to time-controlled simulation,which means that simulation is updated atregular intervals. This makes it possible tosimulate congestion and dense traffic,which is vital for work in IN-SAFETY.

VTI’s input in the area of simulation isof great value for the project since it makesan important contribution to the under-standing of the potential and traffic effectsof driver support which concentrates onboth explanatory and driver friendlyaspects. The project enables VTI to deve-lop the interface between traffic simulationand driving in a driving simulator. Theobjective is to create a simulated environ-ment that combines a high degree of expe-rimental control with traffic conditionsthat are more realistic than those possibletoday.

Behavioural study in the driving simulatorVTI will be one of the four test sites forexperimental evaluation of candidate mea-sures. The evaluation will be made in thenew VTI driving simulator. Information viagrooved rumble strips in the carriagewaywill probably be among the measures eva-luated by VTI. The plan is to include bothyoung and tired drivers and to let themdrive in a road environment. To be able toassess the system/traffic effects of the tes-ted measures, the results from the evalua-tion in the driving simulator will be used asinput data for the traffic simulations. What

The project focuses on optimising theenvironmental properties of road sur-

faces in order to reduce the environmentalimpact of roads on their surroundings, andthereby assist in meeting the national envi-ronmental targets set for reduction ofnoise and dust pollution. The project,which was started in 2004 and is planned tobe completed in 2008, is being conductedin close cooperation with research institu-tions and the pavement industry.

Road traffic is the dominant source fornoise affliction in Norway. Construction ofnoise barriers and facade insulation of buil-dings are the most commonly used measu-res for traffic noise reduction, but werefound to be not sufficient to meet thenational target. Therefore it became neces-

Environmentally Friendly Pavements –

a Norwegian R&D Project

sary to look for ways of reducing the noiseat the source.

High concentration of suspended mat-ter (dust) due to the use of studded tires isa considerable problem in severalNorwegian cities, specially on dry winterdays, and the poor air quality represents athreat to public health. As a result, require-ments are set for the maximum acceptabledust concentration. These requirementsare expected to be strengthened in 2010.Thus it has become necessary to developenvironmentally friendly pavements whichwill help in alleviating the noise and dustpollution problems.

The development of low noise, wearresistant, and durable pavements forNorwegian climatic conditions is a deman-

A research and development project on environmentally friendlypavements is being conducted under the auspices of theNorwegian Public Roads Administration.

http://www.insafety–eu.org/

Staffan Nordmark,

staffan.nordmark@vti.se

is new in this approach is that it creates theopportunity to judge what consequencesthe behaviours observed at individual level,obtained in the simulator experiments,have at system level.

Improvements at EU levelThe project will make proposals for impro-vements in standards/specifications atEuropean and national level. The improve-ments refer to road design and the roadsi-de area (carriageway marking, road signsetc), with the special aim to strengthen theexplanatory and driver friendly characterof different road environments.

Existing knowledge and ongoing r&dThere are several international projectsthat are within, or adjacent to, the researcharea comprised in IN-SAFETY. The pro-jects that may be mentioned are ADVI-SORS, AWAKE, IN-ARTE, GADGET, AC-ASSIST and SAFESTAR. The internationalprojects are described in the TechnicalAnnex. A number of partners in IN-SAFE-TY have, in different constellations, takenpart in the previous projects. IN-SAFETYwill therefore have good access to theresults of these, and will have today’s front-line knowledge as its starting point.Michael Ögren, VTI, Sweden

ding challenge. The first phase of the pro-ject has focused on the environmentaleffect of reduced maximum aggregate sizein asphalt concrete (AC) and stone masticasphalt (SMA) mixes. Test sections wereconstructed and their properties in termsof noise reduction and resistance to wearare being monitored.

Project manager

Jostein Aksnes

Norwegian Public Roads Administration/Norwegian

Directorate of Public Roads

Centre for Road and Traffic Technology

Telephone: +47 73 95 46 51

E-mail: jostak@vegvesen.no

PAVEMENTS

PHOTOS.COM

PH

OTO

: VTI

NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 | 2120 | NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

TRAFFIC SAFETY

Measures taken in the physical roadenvironment can reduce the number

killed and injured on European roads. Thehigh costs of new construction and impro-vements act as a limiting factor for trafficsafety. By making use of solutions and mea-sures in the existing infrastructure and,with that as the basis, developinging new ITbased solutions, greater cost effectivenesscan be achieved. The project will show hownew technologies can be used togetherwith traditional physical measures so thatthe sum of the measures is greater than theindividual measures.

World-class simulator expertiseIn Infrastructure and Safety (IN-SAFETY)the expertise of VTI in areas such as driverbehaviour, HMI, evaluation methodology,especially in driving simulators, trafficsimulation and road design has been ingreat demand.

- The new driving simulator of VTI willbe used in the project to evaluate whetherthe new technologies have the potential tobe successful. The driving simulator is ofworld class and is a tool in great demand inour work, says Anna Anund of VTI.

VTI is in a strong position in the area ofsimulation, and its expertise in the simula-tion of road traffic is unique. The VTImodel, in contrast to many other models,permits the simulation of both oncoming

Expertise on Driving Simulators and Traffic Simulation is in Demand in EU Projects

Simulation for EUVTI contributes with world-class simulation and simulator experti-se to the EU project IN-SAFETY. This project is part of the EUsixth framework programme, and its aim is to improve trafficsafety by developing new smart and cost effective technologieswhich are to strengthen the traditional road infrastructure androad environment.

traffic and overtaking. The road model isbeing developed from event-controlledsimulation to time-controlled simulation,which means that simulation is updated atregular intervals. This makes it possible tosimulate congestion and dense traffic,which is vital for work in IN-SAFETY.

VTI’s input in the area of simulation isof great value for the project since it makesan important contribution to the under-standing of the potential and traffic effectsof driver support which concentrates onboth explanatory and driver friendlyaspects. The project enables VTI to deve-lop the interface between traffic simulationand driving in a driving simulator. Theobjective is to create a simulated environ-ment that combines a high degree of expe-rimental control with traffic conditionsthat are more realistic than those possibletoday.

Behavioural study in the driving simulatorVTI will be one of the four test sites forexperimental evaluation of candidate mea-sures. The evaluation will be made in thenew VTI driving simulator. Information viagrooved rumble strips in the carriagewaywill probably be among the measures eva-luated by VTI. The plan is to include bothyoung and tired drivers and to let themdrive in a road environment. To be able toassess the system/traffic effects of the tes-ted measures, the results from the evalua-tion in the driving simulator will be used asinput data for the traffic simulations. What

The project focuses on optimising theenvironmental properties of road sur-

faces in order to reduce the environmentalimpact of roads on their surroundings, andthereby assist in meeting the national envi-ronmental targets set for reduction ofnoise and dust pollution. The project,which was started in 2004 and is planned tobe completed in 2008, is being conductedin close cooperation with research institu-tions and the pavement industry.

Road traffic is the dominant source fornoise affliction in Norway. Construction ofnoise barriers and facade insulation of buil-dings are the most commonly used measu-res for traffic noise reduction, but werefound to be not sufficient to meet thenational target. Therefore it became neces-

Environmentally Friendly Pavements –

a Norwegian R&D Project

sary to look for ways of reducing the noiseat the source.

High concentration of suspended mat-ter (dust) due to the use of studded tires isa considerable problem in severalNorwegian cities, specially on dry winterdays, and the poor air quality represents athreat to public health. As a result, require-ments are set for the maximum acceptabledust concentration. These requirementsare expected to be strengthened in 2010.Thus it has become necessary to developenvironmentally friendly pavements whichwill help in alleviating the noise and dustpollution problems.

The development of low noise, wearresistant, and durable pavements forNorwegian climatic conditions is a deman-

A research and development project on environmentally friendlypavements is being conducted under the auspices of theNorwegian Public Roads Administration.

http://www.insafety–eu.org/

Staffan Nordmark,

staffan.nordmark@vti.se

is new in this approach is that it creates theopportunity to judge what consequencesthe behaviours observed at individual level,obtained in the simulator experiments,have at system level.

Improvements at EU levelThe project will make proposals for impro-vements in standards/specifications atEuropean and national level. The improve-ments refer to road design and the roadsi-de area (carriageway marking, road signsetc), with the special aim to strengthen theexplanatory and driver friendly characterof different road environments.

Existing knowledge and ongoing r&dThere are several international projectsthat are within, or adjacent to, the researcharea comprised in IN-SAFETY. The pro-jects that may be mentioned are ADVI-SORS, AWAKE, IN-ARTE, GADGET, AC-ASSIST and SAFESTAR. The internationalprojects are described in the TechnicalAnnex. A number of partners in IN-SAFE-TY have, in different constellations, takenpart in the previous projects. IN-SAFETYwill therefore have good access to theresults of these, and will have today’s front-line knowledge as its starting point.Michael Ögren, VTI, Sweden

ding challenge. The first phase of the pro-ject has focused on the environmentaleffect of reduced maximum aggregate sizein asphalt concrete (AC) and stone masticasphalt (SMA) mixes. Test sections wereconstructed and their properties in termsof noise reduction and resistance to wearare being monitored.

Project manager

Jostein Aksnes

Norwegian Public Roads Administration/Norwegian

Directorate of Public Roads

Centre for Road and Traffic Technology

Telephone: +47 73 95 46 51

E-mail: jostak@vegvesen.no

PAVEMENTS

PHOTOS.COM

PH

OTO

: VTI

nordic no. 2/3 2005 | 2322 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

On most Finnish two-lane rural mainroads, speed limits have been reduced

from 100 to 80 km/h during wintertime forseveral years. These seasonal speed limitshave had a positive effect on traffic safety.In March 2004, a very severe head-on colli-sion occurred between a bus and a trailerlorry, resulting in 23 fatalities and 13 serio-us injuries. As a result of the accident, theMinistry of Transport and Communica-tions decided on seven measures to pre-vent such accidents. Two of the measuresinvolved wintertime speed limits: evalua-tion of current practices in applying winter-time speed limits on rural main roads, andestimation of the effects of reducing thespeed limit of long trailer lorries from 80 to70 km/h during wintertime. VTT was cho-sen to carry out these two studies.

Wintertime speedsThe aim of the first study was to createcomprehensive and reliable backgrounddata, which is needed when evaluating thespeed limits for a specific vehicle fleet orroad group. The used data was obtainedfrom the Road Administration's road andaccident database and automatic trafficmeasurement points and from the FinnishMotor Insurers' Centre's in-depth accidentstudy teams.

There are great differences in accidentrisks between road categories, but accidentrisks in the winter and summer do not dif-fer significantly in any road or maintenan-

Seasonal Speed Limits and HeavyVehicles

Seasonal speed limits have had a positive effect on traffic safetyin Finland. The two studies discussed here evaluate the existingwintertime speed limits especially for heavy vehicles and estima-te the effects of reducing the speed limit of long trailer lorriesfrom 80 to 70 km/h during wintertime.

ce categories. Most of the summertimespeed limits of 100 km/h are reduced to 80km/h during the winter months. The acci-dent risk seems to be clearly higher in thewinter than in the summer on those roadsections where the speed limits are notreduced to 80 km/h. This implies thatlowering the speed limit during wintertimealso on these road sections could furtherenhance traffic safety.

On average in Finland there are about270 personal injury or fatality accidentsinvolving articulated trucks annually, resul-ting in about 55 fatalities and 230 injuries.These figures include about 10 to 15 suici-des, where a car is deliberately driven intoan oncoming truck.

Most of the head-on collisions betweencars and heavy vehicles occur when a cardrifts into the lane of an oncoming heavyvehicle. Hence, primary safety measuresshould aim to prevent cars from driftinginto the wrong lane by affecting their dri-ving speeds or by separating the opposinglanes.

Lowered winter speed limit for largetrucksThe aim of the second study was to assessthe safety and other impacts of changingthe 80 km/h speed limit for large truck-trailer combinations to 70 km/h duringthe winter months.

The majority of road freight (bothtonne-kms and vehicle-kms) in Finland is

transported with at least 22 m long articu-lated trucks (full trailers). Practically allFinnish full trailer combinations exceedthe EU’s length and weight limits (18.75 mand 44 t). The largest module trucks(25.25 m and 60 t) are often combinedusing typical semi-trailers in combinationwith large trucks (with the help of a speci-fic dolly trailer, see figure 1) or by adding amiddle-axle trailer to a semi-trailer truck.Both the number of dollies and the num-ber of middle-axle trailers are increasing ata rate of about 10% a year, although theyare still clearly outnumbered by conventio-nal semi- and full trailers. Almost all trucksand trailers are already fitted with ABS orABS+ALB brake systems, which have alrea-dy been compulsory in the largest trailers.

Computer modelling and simulationsconfirm that full trailer trucks are signifi-cantly more unstable than semi-trailertrucks. The mere overall length of an arti-culated truck does not worsen its stability.In fact, the shorter combinations are oftenmore unstable than the longer ones. Thenumber of joints and relative length of dif-ferent sections, as well as technical charac-teristics of axles and bogies, affect the stabi-lity. The differences in stability between dif-ferent truck-trailer combinations are grea-ter than the increase in stability that wouldbe achieved by lowering the speed limitfrom 80 km/h to 70 km/h (figure 2).

The suggested vehicle type specific win-tertime speed limit would reduce the num-

ber of injury accidents by 25 to 50 and thenumber of fatal accidents by 5 to 10 annu-ally. The bulk of this decrease would comefrom accidents with no trucks involved, asall traffic would be slowed by the reductionin truck speeds. This would lower the totalaccident risk, even though the risk of over-taking accidents would rise a little.

The measure would result in annual netsocio-economic savings of around 15 mil-lion, mainly derived from savings of 20 to40 million in accident costs, while therewould also be a loss of 10 to 20 million intime costs. On the other hand, trade andindustry would have at least 10 million ofadditional transport costs annually. Thissum could rise to 30 million per year if thelogistics system is partly reorganised orchanges in the vehicle fleet reduce the ave-rage size and capacity of trucks.

How to continue?In the study, not enough facts were foundto support the idea of introducing a 70km/h wintertime speed limit solely forlong trailer lorries. It would have a positiveimpact on safety, but also other socio-eco-nomic impacts have to be taken intoaccount.

The pros and cons of different measureswere compared. One fact to be taken intoaccount was how to enforce the speedlimits, especially as the speed limiters oftrucks cannot be readjusted for wintertimeor when specific trailers are attached to

them. The Ministry of Transport andCommunications decided that it is not fea-sible to treat large trucks separately fromother vehicles. Instead, the Ministry andRoad Administration chose to increase thenumber of road sections with a wintertimespeed limit of 80 km/h, and to limit themaximum speed to 70 km/h on selected,especially difficult or dangerous roads.Each road district adjusted its network tothese new rules; the first trial season waswinter 2004 - 2005. It will be interesting tosee what kinds of impacts these decisionswill have.

Jukka Räsänen and Harri Peltola, VTT,Finland

Comparison of largefull trailers used inFinland

Example of an animation based on simulations: lossof control of a conventional articulated vehicle atspeed 80 km/h and friction 0.18.

TRAFFIC SAFETY

More animations can be seen at

http://www.vtt.fi/tuo/58/projektit/yhdistelmasta-

biilisuus/perskuta.zip

Reports and articles in Finnish can be seen at

http://www.vtt.fi/tuo/58/projektit/yhdistelmasta-

biilisuus.htm

nordic no. 2/3 2005 | 2322 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

On most Finnish two-lane rural mainroads, speed limits have been reduced

from 100 to 80 km/h during wintertime forseveral years. These seasonal speed limitshave had a positive effect on traffic safety.In March 2004, a very severe head-on colli-sion occurred between a bus and a trailerlorry, resulting in 23 fatalities and 13 serio-us injuries. As a result of the accident, theMinistry of Transport and Communica-tions decided on seven measures to pre-vent such accidents. Two of the measuresinvolved wintertime speed limits: evalua-tion of current practices in applying winter-time speed limits on rural main roads, andestimation of the effects of reducing thespeed limit of long trailer lorries from 80 to70 km/h during wintertime. VTT was cho-sen to carry out these two studies.

Wintertime speedsThe aim of the first study was to createcomprehensive and reliable backgrounddata, which is needed when evaluating thespeed limits for a specific vehicle fleet orroad group. The used data was obtainedfrom the Road Administration's road andaccident database and automatic trafficmeasurement points and from the FinnishMotor Insurers' Centre's in-depth accidentstudy teams.

There are great differences in accidentrisks between road categories, but accidentrisks in the winter and summer do not dif-fer significantly in any road or maintenan-

Seasonal Speed Limits and HeavyVehicles

Seasonal speed limits have had a positive effect on traffic safetyin Finland. The two studies discussed here evaluate the existingwintertime speed limits especially for heavy vehicles and estima-te the effects of reducing the speed limit of long trailer lorriesfrom 80 to 70 km/h during wintertime.

ce categories. Most of the summertimespeed limits of 100 km/h are reduced to 80km/h during the winter months. The acci-dent risk seems to be clearly higher in thewinter than in the summer on those roadsections where the speed limits are notreduced to 80 km/h. This implies thatlowering the speed limit during wintertimealso on these road sections could furtherenhance traffic safety.

On average in Finland there are about270 personal injury or fatality accidentsinvolving articulated trucks annually, resul-ting in about 55 fatalities and 230 injuries.These figures include about 10 to 15 suici-des, where a car is deliberately driven intoan oncoming truck.

Most of the head-on collisions betweencars and heavy vehicles occur when a cardrifts into the lane of an oncoming heavyvehicle. Hence, primary safety measuresshould aim to prevent cars from driftinginto the wrong lane by affecting their dri-ving speeds or by separating the opposinglanes.

Lowered winter speed limit for largetrucksThe aim of the second study was to assessthe safety and other impacts of changingthe 80 km/h speed limit for large truck-trailer combinations to 70 km/h duringthe winter months.

The majority of road freight (bothtonne-kms and vehicle-kms) in Finland is

transported with at least 22 m long articu-lated trucks (full trailers). Practically allFinnish full trailer combinations exceedthe EU’s length and weight limits (18.75 mand 44 t). The largest module trucks(25.25 m and 60 t) are often combinedusing typical semi-trailers in combinationwith large trucks (with the help of a speci-fic dolly trailer, see figure 1) or by adding amiddle-axle trailer to a semi-trailer truck.Both the number of dollies and the num-ber of middle-axle trailers are increasing ata rate of about 10% a year, although theyare still clearly outnumbered by conventio-nal semi- and full trailers. Almost all trucksand trailers are already fitted with ABS orABS+ALB brake systems, which have alrea-dy been compulsory in the largest trailers.

Computer modelling and simulationsconfirm that full trailer trucks are signifi-cantly more unstable than semi-trailertrucks. The mere overall length of an arti-culated truck does not worsen its stability.In fact, the shorter combinations are oftenmore unstable than the longer ones. Thenumber of joints and relative length of dif-ferent sections, as well as technical charac-teristics of axles and bogies, affect the stabi-lity. The differences in stability between dif-ferent truck-trailer combinations are grea-ter than the increase in stability that wouldbe achieved by lowering the speed limitfrom 80 km/h to 70 km/h (figure 2).

The suggested vehicle type specific win-tertime speed limit would reduce the num-

ber of injury accidents by 25 to 50 and thenumber of fatal accidents by 5 to 10 annu-ally. The bulk of this decrease would comefrom accidents with no trucks involved, asall traffic would be slowed by the reductionin truck speeds. This would lower the totalaccident risk, even though the risk of over-taking accidents would rise a little.

The measure would result in annual netsocio-economic savings of around 15 mil-lion, mainly derived from savings of 20 to40 million in accident costs, while therewould also be a loss of 10 to 20 million intime costs. On the other hand, trade andindustry would have at least 10 million ofadditional transport costs annually. Thissum could rise to 30 million per year if thelogistics system is partly reorganised orchanges in the vehicle fleet reduce the ave-rage size and capacity of trucks.

How to continue?In the study, not enough facts were foundto support the idea of introducing a 70km/h wintertime speed limit solely forlong trailer lorries. It would have a positiveimpact on safety, but also other socio-eco-nomic impacts have to be taken intoaccount.

The pros and cons of different measureswere compared. One fact to be taken intoaccount was how to enforce the speedlimits, especially as the speed limiters oftrucks cannot be readjusted for wintertimeor when specific trailers are attached to

them. The Ministry of Transport andCommunications decided that it is not fea-sible to treat large trucks separately fromother vehicles. Instead, the Ministry andRoad Administration chose to increase thenumber of road sections with a wintertimespeed limit of 80 km/h, and to limit themaximum speed to 70 km/h on selected,especially difficult or dangerous roads.Each road district adjusted its network tothese new rules; the first trial season waswinter 2004 - 2005. It will be interesting tosee what kinds of impacts these decisionswill have.

Jukka Räsänen and Harri Peltola, VTT,Finland

Comparison of largefull trailers used inFinland

Example of an animation based on simulations: lossof control of a conventional articulated vehicle atspeed 80 km/h and friction 0.18.

TRAFFIC SAFETY

More animations can be seen at

http://www.vtt.fi/tuo/58/projektit/yhdistelmasta-

biilisuus/perskuta.zip

Reports and articles in Finnish can be seen at

http://www.vtt.fi/tuo/58/projektit/yhdistelmasta-

biilisuus.htm

NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 | 2524 | NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

Several studies have found that youngdrivers’ accident risk increase when

they are accompanied by passengers abouttheir own age, but not when they carrychildren or persons over 25 years of age.One explanation of this increase in acci-dent risk is that young drivers may becomedistracted when they carry young passen-gers, and hence, make more driver errors.However, young drivers’ accident risk cova-ries systematically with passengers’ age andgender. For instance, the accident risk isfound to be especially high when both thedriver and the passenger(s) are youngmales. Several studies demonstrate thatyoung drivers are more prone to speedingand risk-taking when they are accompaniedby young male passengers. As a result, it isreasonable to believe that the negativeeffect of carrying young passengers may, tosome extent, be due to intentional risk-taking.

On the other hand, some studies sug-gest that adolescent passengers can motiva-te the driver to drive more carefully andthereby reduce the risk of accidents. A fewsafety campaigns have aimed at promotingthis kind of positive peer influencethrough encouraging young passengers tospeak out against unsafe driving when theyride with young drivers. The results ofthese campaigns do, however, indicate thatadolescent passengers find it easier toavoid riding with unsafe drivers than to askthe driver to drive more carefully.

Young Car Passengers as GuardianAngels?

Adolescent passengers hesitate to ask the driver to drive morecarefully. Why is this so? In this article senior researcher PålUlleberg explains factors that influence adolescent passengers'willingness to influence young drivers. He shows that young dri-vers tend to drive more carefully if they have female passengers.

The aim of the present study was toexamine factors that may affect the likeli-hood of adolescent passengers asking a dri-ver to drive more carefully when they feelunsafe or worried in the car. The study isbased upon three focus group interviews of90 minutes duration and a survey study car-ried out among 774 Swedish adolescents(17 to 20 years of age).

Gender is of great importanceThe respondents reported that speedingfrequently occurs when they are riding withyoung drivers, while more serious viola-tions (like dangerous overtakings and closefollowing) do not happen so often. Not sur-prisingly, risk-taking and violations occursmainly when the adolescents are ridingwith young males. Likewise, male respon-dents who possess a drivers’ licence admitconducting more violations and risk-takingthan female drivers do. The presence offemale passengers seems to have a positiveinfluence on the drivers’ behaviour; 40 per-cent of the male drivers report that theydrive more slowly and conduct fewer viola-tions when carrying young female passen-gers.

Fear of creating conflict is the main bar-rier against addressing unsafe drivingMost of the participants reported that theyhad experienced unpleasant and/or dang-erous situations when they had been ridingwith a young driver, but such experiences

do not occur very often. Still, about 40 %of the adolescents wish that they wouldaddress unsafe driving more often thanthey do today. To ask the driver to drivemore carefully is, however, easier said thandone. The most common way of actingwhen one feels unsafe or anxious as a pas-senger, is to say nothing and instead avoidriding with the driver on later occasions.Likewise, many adolescents state that theywould prefer to use public transport ortaxis in situations (e.g. at night time inweekends) where they are offered a liftwith an unsafe driver. This suggests thatmaking public transport more accessible inweekends and at night (when adolescentshave a high accident risk) may be an effec-tive safety measure for adolescents.

However, once being a passenger in thecar with an unsafe driver, the fear of crea-ting a conflict is the most important barri-er against addressing unsafe driving. To askthe driver to drive more carefully is belie-ved to be easily perceived as criticism. It isin general believed that it is inappropriateto behave in this way for a passenger - pas-sengers should instead be grateful forbeing offered a lift.

To address unsafe driving is regarded asmore acceptable for a female passengerthan for a male. This is mainly becauseyoung men may be perceived as feminine ifthey behave in such a matter. Young malesare also worried about becoming unpopu-lar or creating conflict if they should speak

out against unsafe driving. At the sametime, they have lower confidence in theirown ability to influence others as compa-red to females. This is reflected in youngmales being more reluctant to speak out insituations when they think that the drivingis too fast or too risky.

One interesting result in this context isthat the adolescents’ fear of creating aconflict seems to be highly exaggerated.This is because very few report that driversactually have become annoyed when askedto drive more carefully, and that most ofthe adolescent drivers themselves claimthat they would not be annoyed if one oftheir passengers asks them to drive morecarefully.

ConclusionEven though feeling unsafe as a car passen-ger seems to be the exception rather thanthe rule, measures aimed at empowering

adolescent passengers to speak out againstunsafe driving can result in a reduction inthe number of car accidents. The are twoarguments behind this assertion. One isthat international studies find that the acci-dent risk increase when young drivers areaccompanied by young passengers, especi-ally males. This is most probably due toincreased risk-taking and/or an increase indistraction. Secondly, speeding seems to bequite common in such situations. In view ofstudies finding a relatively strong relations-hip between speeding and risk of injury, itis expected that a reduction in injury riskwill occur if passenger can promote saferdriving practices.

Since speeding seems to occur frequent-ly without passengers feeling unsafe or anx-ious for that reason, a relevant measuremay be to inform adolescents about theincrease in risk affecting young driverswhen carrying passengers. Such informa-

tion may possibly motivate both the driverand the passengers to be more safety-cons-cious when in the car together.

If decision makers aim at promotingpositive social influence among adolescentcar passengers, it is probably most relevantto implement measures aimed at reducingthe fear of conflict and/or increasing ado-lescents’ confidence in their own ability toinfluence drivers’ behaviour. Role-playingand model-imitation are two relevant met-hods for learning and practicing such stra-tegies, but it is difficult to determine theeffectiveness of these methods since theyhave not yet been formally evaluated.

Since many adolescents seem to find ithard to ask drivers to drive more carefully,an additional measure to reduce accidentsamong adolescents may be to make publictransport more available at times when theaccident risk is at its highest, meaning atnight time during weekends.

Article by senior researcher Pål Ulleberg, Instituteof Transport Economics

Title: Young car passengers as guardian angels?

Factors influencing adolescent passengers' willing-

ness to influence young drivers

Authors: Pål Ulleberg

TØI report no: 766/2005

Language: Swedish with summary in English

Summary on www.toi.no

TRAFFIC SAFETY

PH

OTO

S.C

OM

NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 | 2524 | NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

Several studies have found that youngdrivers’ accident risk increase when

they are accompanied by passengers abouttheir own age, but not when they carrychildren or persons over 25 years of age.One explanation of this increase in acci-dent risk is that young drivers may becomedistracted when they carry young passen-gers, and hence, make more driver errors.However, young drivers’ accident risk cova-ries systematically with passengers’ age andgender. For instance, the accident risk isfound to be especially high when both thedriver and the passenger(s) are youngmales. Several studies demonstrate thatyoung drivers are more prone to speedingand risk-taking when they are accompaniedby young male passengers. As a result, it isreasonable to believe that the negativeeffect of carrying young passengers may, tosome extent, be due to intentional risk-taking.

On the other hand, some studies sug-gest that adolescent passengers can motiva-te the driver to drive more carefully andthereby reduce the risk of accidents. A fewsafety campaigns have aimed at promotingthis kind of positive peer influencethrough encouraging young passengers tospeak out against unsafe driving when theyride with young drivers. The results ofthese campaigns do, however, indicate thatadolescent passengers find it easier toavoid riding with unsafe drivers than to askthe driver to drive more carefully.

Young Car Passengers as GuardianAngels?

Adolescent passengers hesitate to ask the driver to drive morecarefully. Why is this so? In this article senior researcher PålUlleberg explains factors that influence adolescent passengers'willingness to influence young drivers. He shows that young dri-vers tend to drive more carefully if they have female passengers.

The aim of the present study was toexamine factors that may affect the likeli-hood of adolescent passengers asking a dri-ver to drive more carefully when they feelunsafe or worried in the car. The study isbased upon three focus group interviews of90 minutes duration and a survey study car-ried out among 774 Swedish adolescents(17 to 20 years of age).

Gender is of great importanceThe respondents reported that speedingfrequently occurs when they are riding withyoung drivers, while more serious viola-tions (like dangerous overtakings and closefollowing) do not happen so often. Not sur-prisingly, risk-taking and violations occursmainly when the adolescents are ridingwith young males. Likewise, male respon-dents who possess a drivers’ licence admitconducting more violations and risk-takingthan female drivers do. The presence offemale passengers seems to have a positiveinfluence on the drivers’ behaviour; 40 per-cent of the male drivers report that theydrive more slowly and conduct fewer viola-tions when carrying young female passen-gers.

Fear of creating conflict is the main bar-rier against addressing unsafe drivingMost of the participants reported that theyhad experienced unpleasant and/or dang-erous situations when they had been ridingwith a young driver, but such experiences

do not occur very often. Still, about 40 %of the adolescents wish that they wouldaddress unsafe driving more often thanthey do today. To ask the driver to drivemore carefully is, however, easier said thandone. The most common way of actingwhen one feels unsafe or anxious as a pas-senger, is to say nothing and instead avoidriding with the driver on later occasions.Likewise, many adolescents state that theywould prefer to use public transport ortaxis in situations (e.g. at night time inweekends) where they are offered a liftwith an unsafe driver. This suggests thatmaking public transport more accessible inweekends and at night (when adolescentshave a high accident risk) may be an effec-tive safety measure for adolescents.

However, once being a passenger in thecar with an unsafe driver, the fear of crea-ting a conflict is the most important barri-er against addressing unsafe driving. To askthe driver to drive more carefully is belie-ved to be easily perceived as criticism. It isin general believed that it is inappropriateto behave in this way for a passenger - pas-sengers should instead be grateful forbeing offered a lift.

To address unsafe driving is regarded asmore acceptable for a female passengerthan for a male. This is mainly becauseyoung men may be perceived as feminine ifthey behave in such a matter. Young malesare also worried about becoming unpopu-lar or creating conflict if they should speak

out against unsafe driving. At the sametime, they have lower confidence in theirown ability to influence others as compa-red to females. This is reflected in youngmales being more reluctant to speak out insituations when they think that the drivingis too fast or too risky.

One interesting result in this context isthat the adolescents’ fear of creating aconflict seems to be highly exaggerated.This is because very few report that driversactually have become annoyed when askedto drive more carefully, and that most ofthe adolescent drivers themselves claimthat they would not be annoyed if one oftheir passengers asks them to drive morecarefully.

ConclusionEven though feeling unsafe as a car passen-ger seems to be the exception rather thanthe rule, measures aimed at empowering

adolescent passengers to speak out againstunsafe driving can result in a reduction inthe number of car accidents. The are twoarguments behind this assertion. One isthat international studies find that the acci-dent risk increase when young drivers areaccompanied by young passengers, especi-ally males. This is most probably due toincreased risk-taking and/or an increase indistraction. Secondly, speeding seems to bequite common in such situations. In view ofstudies finding a relatively strong relations-hip between speeding and risk of injury, itis expected that a reduction in injury riskwill occur if passenger can promote saferdriving practices.

Since speeding seems to occur frequent-ly without passengers feeling unsafe or anx-ious for that reason, a relevant measuremay be to inform adolescents about theincrease in risk affecting young driverswhen carrying passengers. Such informa-

tion may possibly motivate both the driverand the passengers to be more safety-cons-cious when in the car together.

If decision makers aim at promotingpositive social influence among adolescentcar passengers, it is probably most relevantto implement measures aimed at reducingthe fear of conflict and/or increasing ado-lescents’ confidence in their own ability toinfluence drivers’ behaviour. Role-playingand model-imitation are two relevant met-hods for learning and practicing such stra-tegies, but it is difficult to determine theeffectiveness of these methods since theyhave not yet been formally evaluated.

Since many adolescents seem to find ithard to ask drivers to drive more carefully,an additional measure to reduce accidentsamong adolescents may be to make publictransport more available at times when theaccident risk is at its highest, meaning atnight time during weekends.

Article by senior researcher Pål Ulleberg, Instituteof Transport Economics

Title: Young car passengers as guardian angels?

Factors influencing adolescent passengers' willing-

ness to influence young drivers

Authors: Pål Ulleberg

TØI report no: 766/2005

Language: Swedish with summary in English

Summary on www.toi.no

TRAFFIC SAFETY

PH

OTO

S.C

OM

26 | NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

promoted in different ways. Pieter Venterfrom CSIR (Council for Scientific andIndustrial Research) in South Africa talkedon precisely this problem and the way theymust prioritise their work because, alt-hough the number killed in traffic is high,in comparison with the number killed byAIDS and HIV it is low.

During the conference, the work of VTIwas displayed on a stand. On this, VTI pre-sented its work on traffic safety andenabled visitors to meet researchers anddiscuss their work.

Plans are already in full swing for thenext traffic safety conference, the prelimi-nary date for which is 2007.

Magdalena Green, VTI, Sweden

The traffic safety conference RoadSafety on Four Continents was arran-ged in October this year for the thir-teenth time. This year it was held inWarsaw, Poland, where VTI and thePolish Ministry for Infrastructurejointly acted as hosts. The conferen-ce was held in the tallest building inPoland, the Palace of Culture andScience. The 42 storey skyscraperwas built in 1955 by the SovietUnion as a gift to the Polish nation.

TRAFFIC SAFETY

The conference offered more than one hundredpapers in three parallel sessions. The discus-

sions ranged from a description of plans and stra-tegies for trafic safety work all over the world to theway technical solutions, training and informationcampaigns can improve traffic safety. Speakers anddelegates came from almost the whole world. TheDirector General of VTI, Urban Karlström, gree-ted the delegates in the opening session anddescribed traffic safety work in Sweden that is heldin high regard in most of the world. VTI also pre-sented papers on the use of bicycle helmets, speedcameras and the way the use of mobile telephonesaffects driving.

Sweden has a leading position in traffic safety

Road Safety on Four Continents

Common Objectives All Over the World

among the countries of the world. As earlyas seventy years ago, traffic safety was onthe political agenda and since then theintensive work has continued. The numberkilled in traffic in Scandinavia is very lowcompared with the rest of the world, one ofthe reasons for which may be that we worka lot with visions, plans and objectives. TheZero Vision that was presented in Swedenin 1997 is one of the long term ”goals”which is considered in several Europeancountries, and it was discussed during theconference. The Zero Vision has been eva-luate by e.g. Norway, and Tryggve Steirofrom SINTEF (Norwegian Institute forScientific and Industrial Research) andTerje Assum from TØI (Institute ofTransport Economics) described this. JörgBeckman, chair of ETSC (EuropeanTransport Safety Council) which has itsseat in Belgium, emphasised that it shouldapply in the whole EU.

Important forumIn spite of the tremendous amount of

work on traffic safety all over the world,every year about 125,000 people are killedin the thirty countries which are membersof OECD (Organisation for EconomicCooperation and Development). Forumsof this kind where all can share experien-ces and knowledge are an important partof traffic safety work. It is however essentialto appreciate that because of differences ininfrastructure, culture and economy in theworld, it is necessary for traffic safety to be

Kent Gustafson, VTI

kent.gustafson@vti.se

Rose-Marie Leveau, VTI

rose-marie.leveau@vti.se

www.vti.se

PH

OTO

: VTI

26 | NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

promoted in different ways. Pieter Venterfrom CSIR (Council for Scientific andIndustrial Research) in South Africa talkedon precisely this problem and the way theymust prioritise their work because, alt-hough the number killed in traffic is high,in comparison with the number killed byAIDS and HIV it is low.

During the conference, the work of VTIwas displayed on a stand. On this, VTI pre-sented its work on traffic safety andenabled visitors to meet researchers anddiscuss their work.

Plans are already in full swing for thenext traffic safety conference, the prelimi-nary date for which is 2007.

Magdalena Green, VTI, Sweden

The traffic safety conference RoadSafety on Four Continents was arran-ged in October this year for the thir-teenth time. This year it was held inWarsaw, Poland, where VTI and thePolish Ministry for Infrastructurejointly acted as hosts. The conferen-ce was held in the tallest building inPoland, the Palace of Culture andScience. The 42 storey skyscraperwas built in 1955 by the SovietUnion as a gift to the Polish nation.

TRAFFIC SAFETY

The conference offered more than one hundredpapers in three parallel sessions. The discus-

sions ranged from a description of plans and stra-tegies for trafic safety work all over the world to theway technical solutions, training and informationcampaigns can improve traffic safety. Speakers anddelegates came from almost the whole world. TheDirector General of VTI, Urban Karlström, gree-ted the delegates in the opening session anddescribed traffic safety work in Sweden that is heldin high regard in most of the world. VTI also pre-sented papers on the use of bicycle helmets, speedcameras and the way the use of mobile telephonesaffects driving.

Sweden has a leading position in traffic safety

Road Safety on Four Continents

Common Objectives All Over the World

among the countries of the world. As earlyas seventy years ago, traffic safety was onthe political agenda and since then theintensive work has continued. The numberkilled in traffic in Scandinavia is very lowcompared with the rest of the world, one ofthe reasons for which may be that we worka lot with visions, plans and objectives. TheZero Vision that was presented in Swedenin 1997 is one of the long term ”goals”which is considered in several Europeancountries, and it was discussed during theconference. The Zero Vision has been eva-luate by e.g. Norway, and Tryggve Steirofrom SINTEF (Norwegian Institute forScientific and Industrial Research) andTerje Assum from TØI (Institute ofTransport Economics) described this. JörgBeckman, chair of ETSC (EuropeanTransport Safety Council) which has itsseat in Belgium, emphasised that it shouldapply in the whole EU.

Important forumIn spite of the tremendous amount of

work on traffic safety all over the world,every year about 125,000 people are killedin the thirty countries which are membersof OECD (Organisation for EconomicCooperation and Development). Forumsof this kind where all can share experien-ces and knowledge are an important partof traffic safety work. It is however essentialto appreciate that because of differences ininfrastructure, culture and economy in theworld, it is necessary for traffic safety to be

Kent Gustafson, VTI

kent.gustafson@vti.se

Rose-Marie Leveau, VTI

rose-marie.leveau@vti.se

www.vti.se

PH

OTO

: VTI

NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 | 2928 | NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

Since 1969 Lee has had work relatedand private associations with Sweden.

He is now working on traffic problems inthe megacities of developing countries.Lee defines the most serious problems inthese megacities as traffic safety, environ-ment and congestion.

What is the future of these megacities?It is not very bright. The only area wherethey have made noteworthy inputs is inenvironment. This leaves traffic safety andcongestion which are at least as serious.

– I myself have a great belief in conges-tion charges since in these megacities thereare quite simply far too many vehicles, andthe increase has taken place in an extreme-ly short time. For instance, in Hanoi thereare half a million mopeds which is a sixfoldincrease in fourteen years, says Lee.

Lee has spent most of his life on rese-arch into traffic and energy. He has wor-ked, among others, at the InternationalEnergy Agency (IEA) in Paris. EMBARQhas projects in the largest cities in theworld, among them Mexico City andShanghai.

Which cities have the greatest problemstoday?– Mexico City, Manilla and New Delhi. Weare introducing a bus lane system inMexico City which we hope may solve someof the problems. Manilla has serious pro-blems due to diesel emissions from jeeps

Swedish Expertise can Help”Developing Countries Need Swedish Expertise in the

Field of Transport”

Lee Schipper who is Director of Research at EMBARQ, WorldResources Institute, Washington DC, paid a visit to VTI in June.It was by no means the first time that Lee visited Sweden of forthat matter VTI.

Lee Schipper, well known internationalresearcher in the fields of transportand energy

while the problems of New Delhi are parti-culates and congestion. The large cities inChina will also have serious problems. Carownership is growing faster than the abilityof the cities to cope with this. And the solu-tion of the problem is not always as easy asjust to build more roads.

What is needed to change a ”problemcity?”It looks as though these megacities arebeginning to appreciate the problems andare beginning to deal with them.

– Personally, I think that what is neededis a person who is deeply engaged and cancarry through strong measures regarding

At the seminar, which was held inEnglish, 80 colleagues from the

Nordic road sector exchanged ideas, howresearch and development ideas can beincorporated in practical use. The seminarcomprised some presentations and somegroup discussions within the areas of roadpavements, bridges, functional models andcondition evaluations. The Danish RoadDirectorate was represented by HenningChristiansen, Chairman of the DanishBoard of the Nordic Road Association and10-12 other employees in the Danish RoadDirectorate, including the organisers of theseminar, Gregers Hildebrand and BjarneSchmidt.

The seminar included many good state-ments and conclusions, including wishes toget more demonstrations of new inven-tions, better communication internally be-tween the different Nordic countries andexternally with EU countries. This last

Successful International Seminar – from Research to Practical Use

In September the Danish section of the Nordic Road Association(NVF) held a seminar on the implementation of road research ina modern road administration

conclusion was supported by the GeneralSecretary of FEHRL, Steve Phillips, whowas one of four keynote speakers. He alsopointed to the fact that it is important tofill the holes in European road research, sothe increased demands from politiciansand road users better can be met. At thesame time it is important to have spidskom-petencer, which can be ”bartered” withother countries’ expertise. Steve Phillipspointed to the area of noise as an area ofexpertise at the Danish Road Directorate.

Niels Christian Skov Nielsen reportedhow the Maintenance Unit daily uses re-search and development. He mentioned asexamples quick bridge repairs, noise redu-cing pavements as well as pubic-private co-operation.

Gert Ahé mentioned the new researchstrategy of the Danish Road Directorate,where noise, safety and environment areimportant subjects. He pointed out the

necessity that research should be carriedout for the benefit of society and that thisrequires a concensus and good projectmanagement. Fundraising, also internatio-nally, is another important aspect. In parti-cular, Gert Ahé pointed to long life asphaltas a means to solve a major problem forsociety, namely queues.

Jens Holmboe talked about theMotorring M3 in Copenhagen, which alsohas benefitted from research and develop-ment, such as intelligent signs and noisereducing pavements.

The conclusions and statements will be collected

in a short report (in Danish), but further informa-

tion can be obtained from Gregers Hildebrand

(ghb@vd.dk) or Bjarne Schmidt (bjs@vd.dk)

traffic in these cities. In Bogotá, for instan-ce, they have a strong mayor, and in fouryears he has managed to introduce a bussystem that has grown from carrying nobo-dy to transporting a million people daily.

– I also know that in Sweden and at VTIthere is a lot of expertise which these mega-cities could benefit from. In Sweden thereare well developed traffic models and sys-tems for traffic control, many years’ experi-ence in traffic safety, and you are far aheadas regards the environment, finishes Lee.Michael Ögren, VTI, Sweden

http://embraq.wri.org

PHOTOS.COM

PH

OTO

S.C

OM

PH

OTO

: VTI

NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 | 2928 | NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

Since 1969 Lee has had work relatedand private associations with Sweden.

He is now working on traffic problems inthe megacities of developing countries.Lee defines the most serious problems inthese megacities as traffic safety, environ-ment and congestion.

What is the future of these megacities?It is not very bright. The only area wherethey have made noteworthy inputs is inenvironment. This leaves traffic safety andcongestion which are at least as serious.

– I myself have a great belief in conges-tion charges since in these megacities thereare quite simply far too many vehicles, andthe increase has taken place in an extreme-ly short time. For instance, in Hanoi thereare half a million mopeds which is a sixfoldincrease in fourteen years, says Lee.

Lee has spent most of his life on rese-arch into traffic and energy. He has wor-ked, among others, at the InternationalEnergy Agency (IEA) in Paris. EMBARQhas projects in the largest cities in theworld, among them Mexico City andShanghai.

Which cities have the greatest problemstoday?– Mexico City, Manilla and New Delhi. Weare introducing a bus lane system inMexico City which we hope may solve someof the problems. Manilla has serious pro-blems due to diesel emissions from jeeps

Swedish Expertise can Help”Developing Countries Need Swedish Expertise in the

Field of Transport”

Lee Schipper who is Director of Research at EMBARQ, WorldResources Institute, Washington DC, paid a visit to VTI in June.It was by no means the first time that Lee visited Sweden of forthat matter VTI.

Lee Schipper, well known internationalresearcher in the fields of transportand energy

while the problems of New Delhi are parti-culates and congestion. The large cities inChina will also have serious problems. Carownership is growing faster than the abilityof the cities to cope with this. And the solu-tion of the problem is not always as easy asjust to build more roads.

What is needed to change a ”problemcity?”It looks as though these megacities arebeginning to appreciate the problems andare beginning to deal with them.

– Personally, I think that what is neededis a person who is deeply engaged and cancarry through strong measures regarding

At the seminar, which was held inEnglish, 80 colleagues from the

Nordic road sector exchanged ideas, howresearch and development ideas can beincorporated in practical use. The seminarcomprised some presentations and somegroup discussions within the areas of roadpavements, bridges, functional models andcondition evaluations. The Danish RoadDirectorate was represented by HenningChristiansen, Chairman of the DanishBoard of the Nordic Road Association and10-12 other employees in the Danish RoadDirectorate, including the organisers of theseminar, Gregers Hildebrand and BjarneSchmidt.

The seminar included many good state-ments and conclusions, including wishes toget more demonstrations of new inven-tions, better communication internally be-tween the different Nordic countries andexternally with EU countries. This last

Successful International Seminar – from Research to Practical Use

In September the Danish section of the Nordic Road Association(NVF) held a seminar on the implementation of road research ina modern road administration

conclusion was supported by the GeneralSecretary of FEHRL, Steve Phillips, whowas one of four keynote speakers. He alsopointed to the fact that it is important tofill the holes in European road research, sothe increased demands from politiciansand road users better can be met. At thesame time it is important to have spidskom-petencer, which can be ”bartered” withother countries’ expertise. Steve Phillipspointed to the area of noise as an area ofexpertise at the Danish Road Directorate.

Niels Christian Skov Nielsen reportedhow the Maintenance Unit daily uses re-search and development. He mentioned asexamples quick bridge repairs, noise redu-cing pavements as well as pubic-private co-operation.

Gert Ahé mentioned the new researchstrategy of the Danish Road Directorate,where noise, safety and environment areimportant subjects. He pointed out the

necessity that research should be carriedout for the benefit of society and that thisrequires a concensus and good projectmanagement. Fundraising, also internatio-nally, is another important aspect. In parti-cular, Gert Ahé pointed to long life asphaltas a means to solve a major problem forsociety, namely queues.

Jens Holmboe talked about theMotorring M3 in Copenhagen, which alsohas benefitted from research and develop-ment, such as intelligent signs and noisereducing pavements.

The conclusions and statements will be collected

in a short report (in Danish), but further informa-

tion can be obtained from Gregers Hildebrand

(ghb@vd.dk) or Bjarne Schmidt (bjs@vd.dk)

traffic in these cities. In Bogotá, for instan-ce, they have a strong mayor, and in fouryears he has managed to introduce a bussystem that has grown from carrying nobo-dy to transporting a million people daily.

– I also know that in Sweden and at VTIthere is a lot of expertise which these mega-cities could benefit from. In Sweden thereare well developed traffic models and sys-tems for traffic control, many years’ experi-ence in traffic safety, and you are far aheadas regards the environment, finishes Lee.Michael Ögren, VTI, Sweden

http://embraq.wri.org

PHOTOS.COM

PH

OTO

S.C

OM

PH

OTO

: VTI

nordic no. 2/3 2005 | 3130 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

Organising Trust in Public Transport

In this article, the concept and importance of trust betweenpublic transport operators and political authorities is addressed.The transition towards more competition puts the issues of trus-ting relationships and contractualised cooperation on the agenda.

Competitive tendering of local bus ope-rations is still spreading to further

areas in Europe, affecting changes in bothinter-organisational as well as personal rela-tionships. When contractual relations bet-ween people and organisations are chan-ging, not only the mutual expectations interms of what is negotiable are changing,but also the question of trust becomes sig-nificant. This does not imply that suchchanges necessarily lead to erosion of trust,although that may be the case, but ratherthat such changes imply a restructuring ofwhat can be trusted. Moreover, such chan-ges in the mutual understanding of whatcan be trusted can be counterproductive,at least in the short time.

The normative conditions underpin-ning one type of regulatory regime may besubject of tremor by at least two distinctmechanisms: 1) changes in the normativeframework of the negotiations (what pre-viously have been taken for granted), and2) changes in the trust-relationship betwe-en the actors (limiting the scope of oppor-tunistic behaviour, malfeasance etc). Inempirical terms, our case is the changingcontractual relations between political aut-horities and operators in the field of localpublic transport in Norway.

Norway is in a gradual move from a regi-me based on negotiated net cost conces-sions to the tendering out of gross cost con-tracts. This has implied changes at both theauthority side as well as the operator side of

the table, not to mention the boundingrelationship between them, moving from anegotiable long-term basis to a tenderedand short-term contractual basis. Not onlyhave Norwegian bus operations seen theintroduction of international operatorswith high demands of professional stockearnings, but also the up-building of pro-fessional procurement units on the autho-rity side with similar demands of profit.Left by itself, such a situation brings aboutclear expectations about the opponent’sstrategies based on pure profit maximisingobjectives. This picture, however, is distor-ted by the fact that the actual person incharge of each company often remains thesame as in the pre-tendering regime,remaining the high trust relationship fromthe previous regime on a personal basis.

This new personal high trust relationship,however, is now decoupled from the insti-tutional surroundings underpinning theold one.

The difference between the old to thenew contractual regime are stylised andsummarised in Table 1.

These characteristics are "idealised", i.e.we have tried to extract how the old andthe new regime differ on important dimen-sions, the mechanisms and guiding prin-ciples that, if they function well, make itpossible to achieve the goals for localpublic transport.

The table primarily refer to the regimeof tendered gross costs contracts as the"market firm" solution, grounded in thefact that trust in negotiations seems to beof less relevance in the case of UK open

Relations between public authorities and the operators in the old versus the new regime.

The public firm The market firm

Market structure Monopoly Competition

Ownership Local Foreign

Length of contract Long term Short-term

Predictability of contract prolongation High Low

Type of relation Informal/personal Formal

Characteristics of contract Vague Precise/exhaustive

Mutual bargaining principle Renegotiating compromise Maximising utility

Organisations’ main goal Welfare maximising Profit maximising

Guiding principal of optimisation Norm of customer Competition

orientation

entry style, as no contractual relationshipexists between the authorities and opera-tors. Furthermore, gross cost tendering isstill the most common practice of tende-ring and market approach in Europe today.

The new situation is characterised bydifferent competitive tendering regimes,underpinned by different concepts of trustwhich are working side by side. Hence, weare not moving from one single system toanother, but from one to a variety ofothers, each with distinctive challengeswhen it comes to trust, incentives andtransaction costs – and thereby distinctivetransactional problems to be handled.

Whereas the old regime was based onpredictability in terms of prolongation ofcontracts, and was to be able to cope withchanges in production trough stable perso-nal relations and thick trust, the new regi-me is, from the public authority’s point ofview, based on handling unpredictability inproduction by using short term contracts.However, from the company’s point ofview, this leads to the problem of coveringinvestment costs in short-time contractsand being uncertain whether the contractwill be prolonged or not. Hence, the new

regime, if trying to build on long-term con-tracts, has to handle lack of predictabilityof changes in demand and production, eit-her by increasingly making contracts moreformalised and detailed, or by buildingrelations of trust.

Trust or social capital can be seen as adistinct form of relations-specific invest-ments. The incentives and need for suchinvestments are related to the length of thecontract and probability of prolongation/renewal of the contract. And it is likely thatthe presence of thick trust relationshipmakes it easier for the different stakehol-ders to agree on thick descriptions of qua-lity dimensions underpinning the formalagreement. The other side of the coin,however, is that longer contract periodsand the development of a thick trust rela-tion is at odds with other characteristics ofthe new regime; competition between pro-fit-maximising actors.

The move from the old to the new sys-tem indicates a transition from internalisednormative action and relations towardsexternalised normative relations andactions. Both the old regime and the newregime, may, if the mutual expectations on

terms of action orientations are met,function well on its own premisses. Theproblem related to transition periods willprobably first and foremost be that publicauthorities are not well prepared to meetthe challenges in the new regime, to esta-blish the conditions on which the new regi-me has to be based.

By Frode Longva and Oddgeir Osland, Instituteof Transport Economics. This article is based ona paper presented at Thredbo9. See below.

In the new regime the relation between public transport operators and authorities is increasingly regulated by extensive and formal contracts.

Title: “Organizing trust” - on the institutional

underpinning and erosion of trust in different orga-

nizational forms in public transport. Paper presen-

ted at the 9th International conference on compe-

tition and ownership in land passenger transport

(Thredbo), in Lisbon, Portugal September 2005

Authors: Oddgeir Osland and Frode Longva

Language: English

nordic no. 2/3 2005 | 3130 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

Organising Trust in Public Transport

In this article, the concept and importance of trust betweenpublic transport operators and political authorities is addressed.The transition towards more competition puts the issues of trus-ting relationships and contractualised cooperation on the agenda.

Competitive tendering of local bus ope-rations is still spreading to further

areas in Europe, affecting changes in bothinter-organisational as well as personal rela-tionships. When contractual relations bet-ween people and organisations are chan-ging, not only the mutual expectations interms of what is negotiable are changing,but also the question of trust becomes sig-nificant. This does not imply that suchchanges necessarily lead to erosion of trust,although that may be the case, but ratherthat such changes imply a restructuring ofwhat can be trusted. Moreover, such chan-ges in the mutual understanding of whatcan be trusted can be counterproductive,at least in the short time.

The normative conditions underpin-ning one type of regulatory regime may besubject of tremor by at least two distinctmechanisms: 1) changes in the normativeframework of the negotiations (what pre-viously have been taken for granted), and2) changes in the trust-relationship betwe-en the actors (limiting the scope of oppor-tunistic behaviour, malfeasance etc). Inempirical terms, our case is the changingcontractual relations between political aut-horities and operators in the field of localpublic transport in Norway.

Norway is in a gradual move from a regi-me based on negotiated net cost conces-sions to the tendering out of gross cost con-tracts. This has implied changes at both theauthority side as well as the operator side of

the table, not to mention the boundingrelationship between them, moving from anegotiable long-term basis to a tenderedand short-term contractual basis. Not onlyhave Norwegian bus operations seen theintroduction of international operatorswith high demands of professional stockearnings, but also the up-building of pro-fessional procurement units on the autho-rity side with similar demands of profit.Left by itself, such a situation brings aboutclear expectations about the opponent’sstrategies based on pure profit maximisingobjectives. This picture, however, is distor-ted by the fact that the actual person incharge of each company often remains thesame as in the pre-tendering regime,remaining the high trust relationship fromthe previous regime on a personal basis.

This new personal high trust relationship,however, is now decoupled from the insti-tutional surroundings underpinning theold one.

The difference between the old to thenew contractual regime are stylised andsummarised in Table 1.

These characteristics are "idealised", i.e.we have tried to extract how the old andthe new regime differ on important dimen-sions, the mechanisms and guiding prin-ciples that, if they function well, make itpossible to achieve the goals for localpublic transport.

The table primarily refer to the regimeof tendered gross costs contracts as the"market firm" solution, grounded in thefact that trust in negotiations seems to beof less relevance in the case of UK open

Relations between public authorities and the operators in the old versus the new regime.

The public firm The market firm

Market structure Monopoly Competition

Ownership Local Foreign

Length of contract Long term Short-term

Predictability of contract prolongation High Low

Type of relation Informal/personal Formal

Characteristics of contract Vague Precise/exhaustive

Mutual bargaining principle Renegotiating compromise Maximising utility

Organisations’ main goal Welfare maximising Profit maximising

Guiding principal of optimisation Norm of customer Competition

orientation

entry style, as no contractual relationshipexists between the authorities and opera-tors. Furthermore, gross cost tendering isstill the most common practice of tende-ring and market approach in Europe today.

The new situation is characterised bydifferent competitive tendering regimes,underpinned by different concepts of trustwhich are working side by side. Hence, weare not moving from one single system toanother, but from one to a variety ofothers, each with distinctive challengeswhen it comes to trust, incentives andtransaction costs – and thereby distinctivetransactional problems to be handled.

Whereas the old regime was based onpredictability in terms of prolongation ofcontracts, and was to be able to cope withchanges in production trough stable perso-nal relations and thick trust, the new regi-me is, from the public authority’s point ofview, based on handling unpredictability inproduction by using short term contracts.However, from the company’s point ofview, this leads to the problem of coveringinvestment costs in short-time contractsand being uncertain whether the contractwill be prolonged or not. Hence, the new

regime, if trying to build on long-term con-tracts, has to handle lack of predictabilityof changes in demand and production, eit-her by increasingly making contracts moreformalised and detailed, or by buildingrelations of trust.

Trust or social capital can be seen as adistinct form of relations-specific invest-ments. The incentives and need for suchinvestments are related to the length of thecontract and probability of prolongation/renewal of the contract. And it is likely thatthe presence of thick trust relationshipmakes it easier for the different stakehol-ders to agree on thick descriptions of qua-lity dimensions underpinning the formalagreement. The other side of the coin,however, is that longer contract periodsand the development of a thick trust rela-tion is at odds with other characteristics ofthe new regime; competition between pro-fit-maximising actors.

The move from the old to the new sys-tem indicates a transition from internalisednormative action and relations towardsexternalised normative relations andactions. Both the old regime and the newregime, may, if the mutual expectations on

terms of action orientations are met,function well on its own premisses. Theproblem related to transition periods willprobably first and foremost be that publicauthorities are not well prepared to meetthe challenges in the new regime, to esta-blish the conditions on which the new regi-me has to be based.

By Frode Longva and Oddgeir Osland, Instituteof Transport Economics. This article is based ona paper presented at Thredbo9. See below.

In the new regime the relation between public transport operators and authorities is increasingly regulated by extensive and formal contracts.

Title: “Organizing trust” - on the institutional

underpinning and erosion of trust in different orga-

nizational forms in public transport. Paper presen-

ted at the 9th International conference on compe-

tition and ownership in land passenger transport

(Thredbo), in Lisbon, Portugal September 2005

Authors: Oddgeir Osland and Frode Longva

Language: English

nordic no. 2/3 2005 | 3332 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

Wild reindeer are sensitive to distur-bance and are known to have high

alertness against human activities. The dis-turbance caused by road traffic and humanactivities can reduce reindeer habitat use atrelatively large distances (several kilome-ters) on either side of roads. The result ofthis avoidance is a reduction in availablegrazing resources, which during the winterconsist mainly of lichens, in wide zonesparallel to roads, and an equivalent increa-se in grazing pressure in undisturbed areas.Because lichens needs 20 – 30 years to reco-ver after periods of intensive grazing, wildreindeer are regarded as especially vulne-rable to barriers that reduce their possibili-ties to reach new grazing grounds.

At Hardangervidda, the biggest moun-tain plateau in Southern Norway, thefunctional use of the wild reindeer area hasprobably changed from being a large scalerotation in the use of the food resourcesand calving areas, to a more restricted useof a smaller and central area. The northernparts of the Hardangervidda are forexample functionally parted from the restby Hw 7 and the rail road. This situation isnot unique to the northern parts ofHardangervidda, however, but appears tobe a general problem for most of the edgesof the plateau witch also happens to bemost affected by humans and less used byreindeer.

Monitoring the Effects of Highway Traffic on Wild

Reindeer by SatellitesOne of the major wildlife problems associated with transportinfrastructure development in Norway is the negative effect onreindeer populations. Documented effects include barrier effectsresulting in fragmented populations, and indirect impacts on rein-deer grazing caused by disturbance from road traffic and humanactivities in general.

The Norwegian Directorate for NatureManagement has suggested closing down adistance of about 40 km of the Hw 7 cros-sing the Hardangervidda during the wintermonths hoping to resume reindeer habitatuse in these parts of the area. Even if theroad has very low traffic in the wintermonths (ADT 300-400), the suggestion hascaused a lot of protests and discussionslocally.

In 2002 scientists from the NorwegianInstitute for Nature Research (NINA) wereengaged by the Norwegian Public RoadsAdministration (NPRA) in a 5-year study toundertake research on patterns of reindeerhabitat use and movements in areas belie-ved to be influenced by the road. The mainpurpose of the project is to find out towhich degree the road and/or the trafficgenerated by the road constitute a barrierfor the wild reindeer, and if it has a repel-ling effect on the animals. The NPRA willdraw up its recommendation to theParliament on the future management ofthe road based on the results of the project.

The project has equipped more than 20animals with GPS-transmitters providingdetailed and accurate data on their habitatuse and movements. The GPS units areprogrammed to localize each animal every3rd hour. The data is stored in the collarwhich includes a possibility for remote datatransfer.

Since the expressed effects in reindeerbehavior and habitat use are the result ofthe cumulative effects of different distur-bance sources, the project also aims todisentangle the relative contribution to dis-turbance from other sources than roadtraffic. E.g. power lines, cottages and alpi-ne resorts, and the recreational use by skiesand snow scooters.

Maps of the distribution of differentreindeer food resources (e.g. lichens) havebeen produced both by using field surveys,and by the use of satellite images. Whenthe preliminary GPS-data are comparedwith the distribution of lichen resources, itappears that animals do not use areasrichest in lichens; on the fringe of the pla-teau and in a zone 5 – 7 km from the Hw 7.This zone of avoidance also strengthensthe barrier effect of the road such that themigration routes to and from the north aremore or less cut off.

The field work closes in 2005, and theresults will be presented in 2006. The datacollected through the project will hopeful-ly also give us valuable information aboutthe relative disturbance from other distur-bance factors, so that action can be takentowards the right factors. The data so farindicates that the Hw 7 has an effect as afunctional barrier, and that appearance ofhuman disturbance in general have arepelling effect on the reindeer.

Future research should focus more onthe relative and cumulative effects of thedifferent disturbance factors, and whetherplacing selected stretches of the road intunnels can eliminate or reduce the negati-ve effects on reindeer.

Project duration: 2002 – 2006

Total costs: NOK 3.0 m

Contact: Bjørn Iuell, Environmental Section,

Directorate for Public Roads, Norwegian Public

Roads Administration, tel: +47 22 07 30 19, e-

mail: bjorn.iuell@vegvesen.no

Mounting of GPS-equipment on wildreindeer requires involvement fromveterinaries, scientists and a skilledhelicopter pilot. And good weatherconditions.

Just finished mounting GPS-equipment on a wild reindeernear Haarteigen on the Hardanger mountain plateau.

nordic no. 2/3 2005 | 3332 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

Wild reindeer are sensitive to distur-bance and are known to have high

alertness against human activities. The dis-turbance caused by road traffic and humanactivities can reduce reindeer habitat use atrelatively large distances (several kilome-ters) on either side of roads. The result ofthis avoidance is a reduction in availablegrazing resources, which during the winterconsist mainly of lichens, in wide zonesparallel to roads, and an equivalent increa-se in grazing pressure in undisturbed areas.Because lichens needs 20 – 30 years to reco-ver after periods of intensive grazing, wildreindeer are regarded as especially vulne-rable to barriers that reduce their possibili-ties to reach new grazing grounds.

At Hardangervidda, the biggest moun-tain plateau in Southern Norway, thefunctional use of the wild reindeer area hasprobably changed from being a large scalerotation in the use of the food resourcesand calving areas, to a more restricted useof a smaller and central area. The northernparts of the Hardangervidda are forexample functionally parted from the restby Hw 7 and the rail road. This situation isnot unique to the northern parts ofHardangervidda, however, but appears tobe a general problem for most of the edgesof the plateau witch also happens to bemost affected by humans and less used byreindeer.

Monitoring the Effects of Highway Traffic on Wild

Reindeer by SatellitesOne of the major wildlife problems associated with transportinfrastructure development in Norway is the negative effect onreindeer populations. Documented effects include barrier effectsresulting in fragmented populations, and indirect impacts on rein-deer grazing caused by disturbance from road traffic and humanactivities in general.

The Norwegian Directorate for NatureManagement has suggested closing down adistance of about 40 km of the Hw 7 cros-sing the Hardangervidda during the wintermonths hoping to resume reindeer habitatuse in these parts of the area. Even if theroad has very low traffic in the wintermonths (ADT 300-400), the suggestion hascaused a lot of protests and discussionslocally.

In 2002 scientists from the NorwegianInstitute for Nature Research (NINA) wereengaged by the Norwegian Public RoadsAdministration (NPRA) in a 5-year study toundertake research on patterns of reindeerhabitat use and movements in areas belie-ved to be influenced by the road. The mainpurpose of the project is to find out towhich degree the road and/or the trafficgenerated by the road constitute a barrierfor the wild reindeer, and if it has a repel-ling effect on the animals. The NPRA willdraw up its recommendation to theParliament on the future management ofthe road based on the results of the project.

The project has equipped more than 20animals with GPS-transmitters providingdetailed and accurate data on their habitatuse and movements. The GPS units areprogrammed to localize each animal every3rd hour. The data is stored in the collarwhich includes a possibility for remote datatransfer.

Since the expressed effects in reindeerbehavior and habitat use are the result ofthe cumulative effects of different distur-bance sources, the project also aims todisentangle the relative contribution to dis-turbance from other sources than roadtraffic. E.g. power lines, cottages and alpi-ne resorts, and the recreational use by skiesand snow scooters.

Maps of the distribution of differentreindeer food resources (e.g. lichens) havebeen produced both by using field surveys,and by the use of satellite images. Whenthe preliminary GPS-data are comparedwith the distribution of lichen resources, itappears that animals do not use areasrichest in lichens; on the fringe of the pla-teau and in a zone 5 – 7 km from the Hw 7.This zone of avoidance also strengthensthe barrier effect of the road such that themigration routes to and from the north aremore or less cut off.

The field work closes in 2005, and theresults will be presented in 2006. The datacollected through the project will hopeful-ly also give us valuable information aboutthe relative disturbance from other distur-bance factors, so that action can be takentowards the right factors. The data so farindicates that the Hw 7 has an effect as afunctional barrier, and that appearance ofhuman disturbance in general have arepelling effect on the reindeer.

Future research should focus more onthe relative and cumulative effects of thedifferent disturbance factors, and whetherplacing selected stretches of the road intunnels can eliminate or reduce the negati-ve effects on reindeer.

Project duration: 2002 – 2006

Total costs: NOK 3.0 m

Contact: Bjørn Iuell, Environmental Section,

Directorate for Public Roads, Norwegian Public

Roads Administration, tel: +47 22 07 30 19, e-

mail: bjorn.iuell@vegvesen.no

Mounting of GPS-equipment on wildreindeer requires involvement fromveterinaries, scientists and a skilledhelicopter pilot. And good weatherconditions.

Just finished mounting GPS-equipment on a wild reindeernear Haarteigen on the Hardanger mountain plateau.

Net present value Benefit-cost ratio

Discount rateInvestment cost 8% 4% 8% 4%

Region Projekt name (mill 2006 kr)

E18 Buskerud Høvik - Frydenhaug (Drammen bridge) 955 -5 625 0.00 0.52

E18 Buskerud Frydenhaug-Eik (South of Drammen bridge 705 480 1260 0.50 1.40

RV 7 Buskeryd Sokna - Ørgenvika 950 -30 405 -0.03 0.36

E6 Akershus Vinterbru - Assutjern 1210 300 1370 0.23 0.80

E18 Vestfold EV-18 Langåker - Bommestad 1260 143 1183 1.86 10.68

E18 Østfold Knapstad - Akershus grense 500 -760 223 -0.28 0.08

RV 150 Oslo Ulven - Sinsen 1711 -221 198 -0.17 0.15

E6 Hedemark Kolomoen - Kåterud 4 felt 430 -61 168 -0.11 0.33

RV 519 Rogaland FINNFAST 500 -72 263 -0.13 0.55

RV 544 Hordaland Halsnøysambandet 361 -54 138 -0.31 0.79

RV 80 Nordland Røvika - Straumnes 240 182 409 0.66 1.54

NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 | 3534 | NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

Norwegian Road Projects are nowProfitable – the Government Reducesthe Discount Rate

The appropriate rate of discount to usewhen assessing transportation projects hasbeen a debated issue in Norway during thelast four years. The discount rate for asses-sing road investment projects has been at 8% and was set by the Ministry ofTransportation and Communication in2002 according to guidelines from theMinistry of Finance. According to the gui-delines at that time, it was recommendedthat the discount rate should be composedof two parts (1) a risk free interest rate at3.5% and (2) a risk mark-up rate at 0.5 -4.5%. The risk mark-up rate is set to reflecthow sensitive benefits from public invest-ments project are to economic trends.Road projects were accorded the highestrisk mark-up meaning that benefits accru-ing from them were assumed to vary syste-matically with economic trends. Hence, thediscount rate for road projects was set at8% [3.5% + 4.5%]. Note now the explana-tions for the risk mark-up: if benefits aresensitive to economic trends they becomerisky because we would prefer less sensitiveand hence more certain investments.Therefore risky projects should be accor-ded a mark-up to take account of risk.

Given that the discount rate is used todiscount future benefits and costs of pro-jects, the higher the rate is the lower willthe net present value of projects be. Thushigher rates render projects less profitablewhile lower rates render them more profi-table. A discount rate of 8 % in a European

perspective has been seen by many as highand unreasonable. Many decision-makersi.e. politicians have interpreted the highdiscount rate for road projects as a vehicledriven by central authorities to re-directinvestments from roads to other sectors inthe economy. Table 1 below compares theNorwegian discount rate to those of otherEU countries.

The table is self explanatory in manyrespects; Norway has had the highest dis-count rate as compared to EU countriesincluding neighbouring countries such asSweden and Finland. It has therefore beencontended by many that the Norwegiandiscount rate is too high and illogical. Anillustrative point is that cross-border pro-jects such as the Svinesund Bridge, mentio-ned in one other article, is profitable forthe Swedes and unprofitable for theNorwegians; yet the link serves Norwaymore than any other nation for the reasonthat it serves the connectivity of Norwegiantransport towards the European continent.

The implication of the high rate at thenational level is that it may have led to themuch needed road investments in Norwaynot being realised and funds may havebeen directed to other sectors with lowerdiscount rate i.e. lower risk mark-up.

The change and its implications Fortunately, the Norwegian Royal Ministryof Finance has recently revised its standpo-int with respect to the discount rate forpublic investments including road invest-ments. The ministry, in its most recent gui-delines has advised that the discount ratefor typical public projects including roadsshould be set at 4 %; where 2 % is for riskfree component and 2% for risk mark-up.However, the ministry advices that for pro-jects with specifically higher risk, an addi-tional risk should be added and the sectorMinistries should develop a sound practicefor this. This means that the Ministry ofTransport should consider whether roadprojects should have a higher discountrate. The bottom line is that roads projectsare typical public investments and hence-forth have a discount rate of 4 % unlessproven otherwise.

The implication of the reduction of thediscount rate from 8 to 4 % is obvious;investments in the road sector are nowmore profitable than before, and they arenow on equal terms with the rest of theNorwegian public sector and also withcomparable EU-countries (see Table 1).

The impact of reduction of discountrate for the road projects is depicted in

Table 1: Comparison of Norwegian discount rate and other EU countries

Germany Sweden The Netherlands Finland Great Britain Norway France

Discount rate 3% 3% 4% 5% 6% 8% 5%

Table 2 where we compare its impacts onnet present values and benefit-cost ratioson selected projects.

Given the change in rate of discountfrom 8 to 4 %, many projects move frombeing unprofitable to profitable as indica-ted by the net present value. Illustrativegood examples are the Ulven –Sinsen,Kolomoen – Kåterud and the Halsøys-samband.

The change in discount rate has defini-te policy implications which we summarizein the conclusions below.

ConclusionsThe reduction of discount rates for roadprojects amounts to the following:

Table 2: The impact of changes of discount rate on road projects

1. The Norwegian discount rates are nowmore in line with most of the EU coun-tries; hence reasonable.

2. Norwegian road projects are now clear-ly more profitable than before.

3. The changes should imply more fundsfor road investments since they are pro-fitable.

4. The changes made imply that theMinistry of Finance may make socio-eco-nomic assessments of projects countmore in future allocation of funds.

5. It is now up to the Norwegian road sec-tor to show its creditability by perfor-ming sound cost-benefit analyses of pro-jects.

What now remains to be seen is whetherthe decision makers take these changesinto account and accredit funds to themuch needed road investments

ReferencesJames Odeck. Nye kalkulasjonsrenter gjørsamferdselsprosjekter svært ulønnsomme.Samferdsel nr 4, 2003James Odeck. Nå blir samferdselsprosjek-ter mer lønnsomme. Samferdsel nr 8, 2005.Rundskriv R-109/2005. Behandling av kal-kulasjonsrente, risiko, kalkulasjonspriserog skattekostnad i samfunnsøkonomiskeanalyser. http://odin.dep.no/filarkiv/258215/rundskriv_109_2005_.pdfVeileder i samfunnsøkonomiske analyser.Finansdepartementet, september 2005.http://odin.dep.no/fin/norsk/aktuelt/pressesenter/pressem/006071-070663/dok-bn.html

Contact:

James OdeckSenior Research Economist/ ProfessorNorwegian Public Roads Administration/University College, Molde and NorwegianTechnical University, Trondheim

Bilden är inte så bra

Net present value Benefit-cost ratio

Discount rateInvestment cost 8% 4% 8% 4%

Region Projekt name (mill 2006 kr)

E18 Buskerud Høvik - Frydenhaug (Drammen bridge) 955 -5 625 0.00 0.52

E18 Buskerud Frydenhaug-Eik (South of Drammen bridge 705 480 1260 0.50 1.40

RV 7 Buskeryd Sokna - Ørgenvika 950 -30 405 -0.03 0.36

E6 Akershus Vinterbru - Assutjern 1210 300 1370 0.23 0.80

E18 Vestfold EV-18 Langåker - Bommestad 1260 143 1183 1.86 10.68

E18 Østfold Knapstad - Akershus grense 500 -760 223 -0.28 0.08

RV 150 Oslo Ulven - Sinsen 1711 -221 198 -0.17 0.15

E6 Hedemark Kolomoen - Kåterud 4 felt 430 -61 168 -0.11 0.33

RV 519 Rogaland FINNFAST 500 -72 263 -0.13 0.55

RV 544 Hordaland Halsnøysambandet 361 -54 138 -0.31 0.79

RV 80 Nordland Røvika - Straumnes 240 182 409 0.66 1.54

NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 | 3534 | NORDIC NO. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

Norwegian Road Projects are nowProfitable – the Government Reducesthe Discount Rate

The appropriate rate of discount to usewhen assessing transportation projects hasbeen a debated issue in Norway during thelast four years. The discount rate for asses-sing road investment projects has been at 8% and was set by the Ministry ofTransportation and Communication in2002 according to guidelines from theMinistry of Finance. According to the gui-delines at that time, it was recommendedthat the discount rate should be composedof two parts (1) a risk free interest rate at3.5% and (2) a risk mark-up rate at 0.5 -4.5%. The risk mark-up rate is set to reflecthow sensitive benefits from public invest-ments project are to economic trends.Road projects were accorded the highestrisk mark-up meaning that benefits accru-ing from them were assumed to vary syste-matically with economic trends. Hence, thediscount rate for road projects was set at8% [3.5% + 4.5%]. Note now the explana-tions for the risk mark-up: if benefits aresensitive to economic trends they becomerisky because we would prefer less sensitiveand hence more certain investments.Therefore risky projects should be accor-ded a mark-up to take account of risk.

Given that the discount rate is used todiscount future benefits and costs of pro-jects, the higher the rate is the lower willthe net present value of projects be. Thushigher rates render projects less profitablewhile lower rates render them more profi-table. A discount rate of 8 % in a European

perspective has been seen by many as highand unreasonable. Many decision-makersi.e. politicians have interpreted the highdiscount rate for road projects as a vehicledriven by central authorities to re-directinvestments from roads to other sectors inthe economy. Table 1 below compares theNorwegian discount rate to those of otherEU countries.

The table is self explanatory in manyrespects; Norway has had the highest dis-count rate as compared to EU countriesincluding neighbouring countries such asSweden and Finland. It has therefore beencontended by many that the Norwegiandiscount rate is too high and illogical. Anillustrative point is that cross-border pro-jects such as the Svinesund Bridge, mentio-ned in one other article, is profitable forthe Swedes and unprofitable for theNorwegians; yet the link serves Norwaymore than any other nation for the reasonthat it serves the connectivity of Norwegiantransport towards the European continent.

The implication of the high rate at thenational level is that it may have led to themuch needed road investments in Norwaynot being realised and funds may havebeen directed to other sectors with lowerdiscount rate i.e. lower risk mark-up.

The change and its implications Fortunately, the Norwegian Royal Ministryof Finance has recently revised its standpo-int with respect to the discount rate forpublic investments including road invest-ments. The ministry, in its most recent gui-delines has advised that the discount ratefor typical public projects including roadsshould be set at 4 %; where 2 % is for riskfree component and 2% for risk mark-up.However, the ministry advices that for pro-jects with specifically higher risk, an addi-tional risk should be added and the sectorMinistries should develop a sound practicefor this. This means that the Ministry ofTransport should consider whether roadprojects should have a higher discountrate. The bottom line is that roads projectsare typical public investments and hence-forth have a discount rate of 4 % unlessproven otherwise.

The implication of the reduction of thediscount rate from 8 to 4 % is obvious;investments in the road sector are nowmore profitable than before, and they arenow on equal terms with the rest of theNorwegian public sector and also withcomparable EU-countries (see Table 1).

The impact of reduction of discountrate for the road projects is depicted in

Table 1: Comparison of Norwegian discount rate and other EU countries

Germany Sweden The Netherlands Finland Great Britain Norway France

Discount rate 3% 3% 4% 5% 6% 8% 5%

Table 2 where we compare its impacts onnet present values and benefit-cost ratioson selected projects.

Given the change in rate of discountfrom 8 to 4 %, many projects move frombeing unprofitable to profitable as indica-ted by the net present value. Illustrativegood examples are the Ulven –Sinsen,Kolomoen – Kåterud and the Halsøys-samband.

The change in discount rate has defini-te policy implications which we summarizein the conclusions below.

ConclusionsThe reduction of discount rates for roadprojects amounts to the following:

Table 2: The impact of changes of discount rate on road projects

1. The Norwegian discount rates are nowmore in line with most of the EU coun-tries; hence reasonable.

2. Norwegian road projects are now clear-ly more profitable than before.

3. The changes should imply more fundsfor road investments since they are pro-fitable.

4. The changes made imply that theMinistry of Finance may make socio-eco-nomic assessments of projects countmore in future allocation of funds.

5. It is now up to the Norwegian road sec-tor to show its creditability by perfor-ming sound cost-benefit analyses of pro-jects.

What now remains to be seen is whetherthe decision makers take these changesinto account and accredit funds to themuch needed road investments

ReferencesJames Odeck. Nye kalkulasjonsrenter gjørsamferdselsprosjekter svært ulønnsomme.Samferdsel nr 4, 2003James Odeck. Nå blir samferdselsprosjek-ter mer lønnsomme. Samferdsel nr 8, 2005.Rundskriv R-109/2005. Behandling av kal-kulasjonsrente, risiko, kalkulasjonspriserog skattekostnad i samfunnsøkonomiskeanalyser. http://odin.dep.no/filarkiv/258215/rundskriv_109_2005_.pdfVeileder i samfunnsøkonomiske analyser.Finansdepartementet, september 2005.http://odin.dep.no/fin/norsk/aktuelt/pressesenter/pressem/006071-070663/dok-bn.html

Contact:

James OdeckSenior Research Economist/ ProfessorNorwegian Public Roads Administration/University College, Molde and NorwegianTechnical University, Trondheim

Bilden är inte så bra

nordic no. 2/3 2005 | 3736 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

The Pol-Corridor project is a EUREKA-type collaborative research and indust-

ry undertaking that explores the esta-blishment of a new freight transfer corri-dor linking the Nordic countries withSoutheast Europe. The corridor will relyon a fast rail freight connection, the “BlueShuttle Train”, which will carry cargo regu-larly between two logistical hubs; the first isin Szczecin, Poland and the other inVienna, Austria (Figure 1).

IT to support intermodal freight businessOne of the important parts of the Pol-Corridor project was to outline the IT ser-vice architecture in order to design guideli-nes for implementation of information sys-tems, the rules for information exchangebetween the Pol-Corridor stakeholders,and the management of functional interfa-ces. An important task was to determinehow currently available IT systems couldserve this intermodal transport corridor.Another purpose was to identify the infor-mation gaps between different logisticaloperators, because numerous actors invol-ved in Pol-Corridor management own andoperate different, and to a certain degreeincongruent, IT systems. The analysis waselevated to the system level in order toassess what information services IT systemsserving the entire corridor should provide.Mapping of the systems was done at con-ceptual and logical levels without goinginto technical details.

Transport Information System in thePol-Corridor Intermodal FreightSupply Channel

The European Union is facing new challenges since new membercountries joined the system. The markets in Southeast Europefor import/export goods are growing rapidly. However, existinglogistical solutions – including information sharing between diffe-rent parties – are not coping with these challenges.

The process of constructing the Pol-Corridor IT service architecture consistedof several phases. We started by applyingthe generic Finnish freight architectureTARKKI (2) representing the future state-of-the-art in intelligent IT management ofan intermodal supply chain. This was sup-plemented by links to a maritime feederfacilitated by MeriArkki (3), a maritimecomponent of the IT architecture. Therelevant IT services incorporated in thesearchitectures were chosen for resolution ofthe Pol-Corridor information-transferneeds. A conceptual architecture includingall business processes was drafted for theentire supply chain so that maritime, rail,and road transportation were present inthe logistical process description.

Mapping of services and IT systemsNext, both existing and prospective IT sys-tems were mapped onto the Pol-Corridorarchitecture in order to determine whichservices were needed, which systems mightsatisfy those needs, and what kind of sys-tems were missing. The mapping processserved especially those IT companies thatwanted to see how their systems fitted intoa more comprehensive intermodal archi-tecture and which elements of businessprocesses, actors and functions they couldpotentially serve with their solutions.

Definition of the service architecturewas done by collecting IT services from dif-ferent systems offered by system providers

affiliated with the project. These serviceswere then listed and mapped against theneeds for generic IT services. Sub-sequently, we examined what kind of ser-vices each actor requires by identifying therelation between the actors and the busi-ness process components. This explorationrevealed a group of potential customerswhose service demands were not currentlyfulfilled. By doing so, the service providersgot information on what developmentopportunities their systems might expect.Once the verification of service architectu-re was completed, the information gathe-red was visualized by mapping the systemsonto a conceptual architecture. If the sys-tem was able to provide services related toa specific process component, the compo-nent was highlighted in pink (see Figure2). The ability of the system to fulfil theinformation needs harboured by a givenbusiness process component was denotedusing descriptors like ‘totally’, ‘mostly’ and‘partly’ depending on how well the systemperformed. This assessment was made byresearchers and was subjective and qualita-tive. An excerpt from the mapping of theresults is shown in Figure 2. The followingsystem providers were included in the map-ping process: Stockway Oy, AtBusinessCommunications Oyj, Procomp SolutionsOy, JERID, AXIT, and the IT divisions ofthe Czech, Swedish and Norwegian rail-ways.

Each system could be positioned within

the conceptual architecture, and the partsof the architecture that were covered bythese systems were visualized. The existen-ce of “white spots” in the architecture indi-cated that no services or systems were iden-tified. This was a noteworthy result that hel-ped to develop the information servicescovering the entire intermodal supplychain and its participants. All in all, therewere not many white spots in the architec-ture.

Putting IT architectures to workThe mapping exercise indicated that archi-tectures can be used for “benchmarking”of commercial systems and that these sys-tems can be mapped onto and positionedwithin the architecture. The mapping pro-cedure gave the IT companies informationabout the applicability of their solutions bypositioning their systems in the supplychain. This assessment demonstrated thatthere are many information systems thatcan well take care of intermodal logisticsprocesses. The question is rather how tointegrate these different systems and makethem technically inter-operable across dif-ferent countries and participants. However,since supply chain operators usually har-bour different interests as regards supplychain management and functionalities,this makes collaboration through inter-partner information exchange much morecomplicated.

This work showed that generic architec-

tures have a clearly instrumental functionfor both commercial systems providers andinformation service providers. The overallconclusion emphasizes the managerial roleof architectures. Architectures are not onlytools for “bit-wizards”, but are rather instru-ments capable of determining the patternsof behaviour of operating actors whichcould be used for managerial target settingand performance evaluation. The Pol-Corridor’s IT and service architecturedemonstrated the usefulness of genericarchitectures for commercial service provi-ders working on international manage-ment of intermodal logistical operations.

References(1) http://www.toi.no, PolCorridor Project’shome page.

(2) Granqvist, J., H. Hiljanen, A.Permala, P. Mäkinen, V. Rantala, A.Siponen (2003). Freight transport telemat-ics architecture, final report. FITS publica-tions 25/2003. Ministry of Transport andCommunications Finland. The report isalso available as a pdf file on http://www.vtt.fi/rte/projects/fits/julkaisut/hanke1/fits25_2003.pdf

(3) Mäkinen, P., J. Levo, J. Lähesmaa, P.Rautiainen (2004). Maritime ITSArchitecture, Core Processes andDevelompent Plan (Merenkulun telemati-ikka-arkkitehtuuri. Pääprosessit ja kehitys-suunnitelma). FITS publications 34/2004.Ministry of Transport and Communi-cations Finland. The report is also avai-lable as a pdf file on http://www.vtt.fi/rte/projects/fits/julkaisut/hanke1/fits34_2004.pdf

Anna-Maija Alaruikka, VTT, FinlandPekka Leviäkangas , VTT, FinlandJohanna Ludvigsen, TOI, Norway

For more information on Pol-Corridor IT contact:

Anna-Maija Alaruikka

Research Scientist

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

anna-maija.alaruikka@vtt.fi

For more information on Pol-Corridor project con-

tact:

Johanna Ludvigsen

Pol-Corridor co-ordinator

Institute of Transport Economics

jlu@toi.no

Pol-Corridor (1)

nordic no. 2/3 2005 | 3736 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

The Pol-Corridor project is a EUREKA-type collaborative research and indust-

ry undertaking that explores the esta-blishment of a new freight transfer corri-dor linking the Nordic countries withSoutheast Europe. The corridor will relyon a fast rail freight connection, the “BlueShuttle Train”, which will carry cargo regu-larly between two logistical hubs; the first isin Szczecin, Poland and the other inVienna, Austria (Figure 1).

IT to support intermodal freight businessOne of the important parts of the Pol-Corridor project was to outline the IT ser-vice architecture in order to design guideli-nes for implementation of information sys-tems, the rules for information exchangebetween the Pol-Corridor stakeholders,and the management of functional interfa-ces. An important task was to determinehow currently available IT systems couldserve this intermodal transport corridor.Another purpose was to identify the infor-mation gaps between different logisticaloperators, because numerous actors invol-ved in Pol-Corridor management own andoperate different, and to a certain degreeincongruent, IT systems. The analysis waselevated to the system level in order toassess what information services IT systemsserving the entire corridor should provide.Mapping of the systems was done at con-ceptual and logical levels without goinginto technical details.

Transport Information System in thePol-Corridor Intermodal FreightSupply Channel

The European Union is facing new challenges since new membercountries joined the system. The markets in Southeast Europefor import/export goods are growing rapidly. However, existinglogistical solutions – including information sharing between diffe-rent parties – are not coping with these challenges.

The process of constructing the Pol-Corridor IT service architecture consistedof several phases. We started by applyingthe generic Finnish freight architectureTARKKI (2) representing the future state-of-the-art in intelligent IT management ofan intermodal supply chain. This was sup-plemented by links to a maritime feederfacilitated by MeriArkki (3), a maritimecomponent of the IT architecture. Therelevant IT services incorporated in thesearchitectures were chosen for resolution ofthe Pol-Corridor information-transferneeds. A conceptual architecture includingall business processes was drafted for theentire supply chain so that maritime, rail,and road transportation were present inthe logistical process description.

Mapping of services and IT systemsNext, both existing and prospective IT sys-tems were mapped onto the Pol-Corridorarchitecture in order to determine whichservices were needed, which systems mightsatisfy those needs, and what kind of sys-tems were missing. The mapping processserved especially those IT companies thatwanted to see how their systems fitted intoa more comprehensive intermodal archi-tecture and which elements of businessprocesses, actors and functions they couldpotentially serve with their solutions.

Definition of the service architecturewas done by collecting IT services from dif-ferent systems offered by system providers

affiliated with the project. These serviceswere then listed and mapped against theneeds for generic IT services. Sub-sequently, we examined what kind of ser-vices each actor requires by identifying therelation between the actors and the busi-ness process components. This explorationrevealed a group of potential customerswhose service demands were not currentlyfulfilled. By doing so, the service providersgot information on what developmentopportunities their systems might expect.Once the verification of service architectu-re was completed, the information gathe-red was visualized by mapping the systemsonto a conceptual architecture. If the sys-tem was able to provide services related toa specific process component, the compo-nent was highlighted in pink (see Figure2). The ability of the system to fulfil theinformation needs harboured by a givenbusiness process component was denotedusing descriptors like ‘totally’, ‘mostly’ and‘partly’ depending on how well the systemperformed. This assessment was made byresearchers and was subjective and qualita-tive. An excerpt from the mapping of theresults is shown in Figure 2. The followingsystem providers were included in the map-ping process: Stockway Oy, AtBusinessCommunications Oyj, Procomp SolutionsOy, JERID, AXIT, and the IT divisions ofthe Czech, Swedish and Norwegian rail-ways.

Each system could be positioned within

the conceptual architecture, and the partsof the architecture that were covered bythese systems were visualized. The existen-ce of “white spots” in the architecture indi-cated that no services or systems were iden-tified. This was a noteworthy result that hel-ped to develop the information servicescovering the entire intermodal supplychain and its participants. All in all, therewere not many white spots in the architec-ture.

Putting IT architectures to workThe mapping exercise indicated that archi-tectures can be used for “benchmarking”of commercial systems and that these sys-tems can be mapped onto and positionedwithin the architecture. The mapping pro-cedure gave the IT companies informationabout the applicability of their solutions bypositioning their systems in the supplychain. This assessment demonstrated thatthere are many information systems thatcan well take care of intermodal logisticsprocesses. The question is rather how tointegrate these different systems and makethem technically inter-operable across dif-ferent countries and participants. However,since supply chain operators usually har-bour different interests as regards supplychain management and functionalities,this makes collaboration through inter-partner information exchange much morecomplicated.

This work showed that generic architec-

tures have a clearly instrumental functionfor both commercial systems providers andinformation service providers. The overallconclusion emphasizes the managerial roleof architectures. Architectures are not onlytools for “bit-wizards”, but are rather instru-ments capable of determining the patternsof behaviour of operating actors whichcould be used for managerial target settingand performance evaluation. The Pol-Corridor’s IT and service architecturedemonstrated the usefulness of genericarchitectures for commercial service provi-ders working on international manage-ment of intermodal logistical operations.

References(1) http://www.toi.no, PolCorridor Project’shome page.

(2) Granqvist, J., H. Hiljanen, A.Permala, P. Mäkinen, V. Rantala, A.Siponen (2003). Freight transport telemat-ics architecture, final report. FITS publica-tions 25/2003. Ministry of Transport andCommunications Finland. The report isalso available as a pdf file on http://www.vtt.fi/rte/projects/fits/julkaisut/hanke1/fits25_2003.pdf

(3) Mäkinen, P., J. Levo, J. Lähesmaa, P.Rautiainen (2004). Maritime ITSArchitecture, Core Processes andDevelompent Plan (Merenkulun telemati-ikka-arkkitehtuuri. Pääprosessit ja kehitys-suunnitelma). FITS publications 34/2004.Ministry of Transport and Communi-cations Finland. The report is also avai-lable as a pdf file on http://www.vtt.fi/rte/projects/fits/julkaisut/hanke1/fits34_2004.pdf

Anna-Maija Alaruikka, VTT, FinlandPekka Leviäkangas , VTT, FinlandJohanna Ludvigsen, TOI, Norway

For more information on Pol-Corridor IT contact:

Anna-Maija Alaruikka

Research Scientist

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

anna-maija.alaruikka@vtt.fi

For more information on Pol-Corridor project con-

tact:

Johanna Ludvigsen

Pol-Corridor co-ordinator

Institute of Transport Economics

jlu@toi.no

Pol-Corridor (1)

nordic no. 2/3 2005 | 3938 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

European co-operation in COST347 - Bringing ALT ActivitiesCloser Together

Title: European co-operation in COST 347 -

Bringing ALT Activities Closer Together

Authors: Gregers Hildebrand and Michael E. Nunn

– TRL LIMITED, United Kingdom

Series: Report 136

(http://www.vejdirektoratet.dk/publikationer/VIrap

136/index.htm)

Language: English

For decades it has been an accepted factthat accelerated load testing (ALT) is oneof the most important means of analyzingpavement behaviour. In spite of large costs,high benefit-cost ratios can be expectedfrom ALT research. However, these bene-fits are often obtained through nationalresearch programs that tailor the researchto the specific interests of the country con-cerned. A Pan-European approach wouldresult in a more robust outcome that hadwider acceptance, and hence reduce thecost to the individual countries.

COST 347 was established in October2000 under the European Commissionwith the objective to harmonize the scatte-red European ALT efforts. The harmoniza-tion is ex-pected to lead to more efficientuse of ALT research in combined effortsamong the different countries participa-ting in COST 347. This includes sharing ofresults, common testing methods, and co-operative research projects.

The results from COST 347 are verypromising. A total of 17 European coun-tries par-ticipate on a regular basis, so doesthe TRB Committee on Full Scale/Accelerated Pavement Testing, and closelinks exist to ALT centres in South Africa,Australia, and New Zealand. Among thedirect outcomes of our work are a newslet-ter, and an e-mail based discussion forum.A co-operation between the HVS Nordicand Denmark re-garding ALT research insemi-rigid pavements can also be attributedto COST 347.

ANNOTAED REPORTS

Among the future developments COST347 intends to work for the establishmentof an international association for ALT.

Mechanistic Design of Semi-RigidPavements - An IncrementalApproach

Title: Mechanistic Design of Semi-Rigid

Pavements - An Incremental Approach

Authors: Finn Thøgersen, Christian Busch, Anders

Henrichsen

Series: Report 138

(http://www.vejdirektoratet.dk/publikationer/VIrap

138/index.htm)

Language: English

A number of semi-rigid pavements con-structed in the 1970’ies in Denmark haveshown superior performance, with limitedreflective cracking and long life of the wea-ring courses. With this experience as back-ground, an incremental-recursive deterio-ration model has been set up for cementbound base materials. The model wascalibrated with data from full-scale test sec-tions loaded with a Heavy VehicleSimulator and further validated with datafrom the Danish motorway sections.Laboratory tests were performed in orderto investigate the effect of various mixdesign parameters for ce-ment bound mix-tures.

Noise reducing pavements –State of the art in Denmark

Title: Noise reducing pavements – State of the art

in Denmark

Authors: Hans Bendtsen, Bent Andersen

Series: Report 141

(http://www.vejdirektoratet.dk/publikationer/VIrap

141/index.htm)

Language: English

Noise is one of the most serious environ-mental problems caused by road traffic.About 28 % of all Danish homes are expo-sed to more than 55 dB, which is the offici-al recommended noise limit for road traf-

fic noise. The Danish government has along-term goal to reduce the noise to alevel that is considered satisfactory forhealth. According to the national roadnoise strategy, one of the most cost-effecti-ve means of noise abatement is the use ofnoise-reducing pavements.

In this report, the on-going Danish re-search to develop and test different types ofnoise-reducing pavements is presented anddiscussed. Single-layer porous pavementswith a high built-in air void and a smallmaximum aggregate size have been testedon a highway with a speedlimit of 80 km/h.Over the structural lifetime, the noisereduction of the porous pavements was 3-4dB relative to dense asphalt concrete with amaximum aggregate size of 12 mm. Inorder to achieve the same noise reduction,the traffic volume should be reduced bymore than 50 %. On an urban test roadwith a speedlimit of 50 km/h, similar sing-le-layer porous pavements have been tes-ted. Here, the observed noise reduction of3 dB disappeared within 2 years, becausethe pores of the pavement were clogged.Three new types of two-layer porousasphalt are now being tested on an urbanroad with a speed limit of 50 km/h. Thesepavements are designed and con-structedto avoid clogging and to improve durabili-ty. The pavements are cleaned with specialequipment using water under high pressu-re twice a year. After four years, noisereductions of approximately 3 dB havebeen measured compared to a denseasphalt concrete with a maximum aggrega-te size of 8 mm. In order to develop newtypes of cost-effective noise-reducing pave-ments for urban application, research andtesting of different kinds of thin surfacelayers have been started in the frameworkof an EU research project (SILVIA).

On September 27th the NPRA received theThe Construction of the Century award forits magnificent Atlantic Road. – I’m proud.That in addition The Bridges of Svinesund(the old and the new) were runners-up inthe competition is a great recognition forus, said Director General of the NorwegianPublic Roads Administration, Mr. OlavSoefteland.

- Good and useful roads can also bemonumental constructions, The DirectorGeneral added.

H.R.H. Crown Prince Haakon presen-ted the award which opened theNorwegian Construction Industries Fair,“Bygg Reis Deg”. The award is being han-ded as part of the centenary for the dis-bandment of the union with Sweden in1905. More then 40 000 people voted tocrown the winner.

The Atlantic Road The Atlantic Road also known as“Atlanterhavsvegen” consists of 8.3 km ofroad with eight bridges from Averøy to theEid municipal in the county of Moere andRomsdal. The longest and tallest bridge isthe 260 m Storseisundet Bridge. Vesselswith heights up to 23 m can sail under it.

Atlanterhavsvegen has an astoundinglocation leading over islands and islets atthe edge of the Atlantic Ocean. It has beenone of the most visited tourist attraction inNorway being situated on the nature itself.

The Construction of the Century1905 – 2005:

Double Victory to the Norwegian Public Roads Administration(NPRA)

The Bridges of SvinesundSvinesund is the center of trade and com-munication between Norway and Sweden.In June 1946, a bridge with a length of 420meters and a breadth of 9.5 meters wasopened. Construction costs at that timeamounted to 3.2 m NOK (0.4 m ). TheOld Bridge is now a protected historic con-struction. This is the first time theNorwegian and the Swedish authoritieshave gone together to protect a cultural

ANNOTATED REPORTS

heritage. The aim with the protection is toensure that the bridge becomes a land-mark for the connection between Norwayand Sweden on different planes.

On June 10th 2005 the New SvinesundBridge was opened for traffic after a con-struction period of two and a half years,construction costs of about 650 m NOK(about 82.5 m ). The new Bridge has alength of 704 meters and a width of 28.2meters.

nordic no. 2/3 2005 | 3938 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

European co-operation in COST347 - Bringing ALT ActivitiesCloser Together

Title: European co-operation in COST 347 -

Bringing ALT Activities Closer Together

Authors: Gregers Hildebrand and Michael E. Nunn

– TRL LIMITED, United Kingdom

Series: Report 136

(http://www.vejdirektoratet.dk/publikationer/VIrap

136/index.htm)

Language: English

For decades it has been an accepted factthat accelerated load testing (ALT) is oneof the most important means of analyzingpavement behaviour. In spite of large costs,high benefit-cost ratios can be expectedfrom ALT research. However, these bene-fits are often obtained through nationalresearch programs that tailor the researchto the specific interests of the country con-cerned. A Pan-European approach wouldresult in a more robust outcome that hadwider acceptance, and hence reduce thecost to the individual countries.

COST 347 was established in October2000 under the European Commissionwith the objective to harmonize the scatte-red European ALT efforts. The harmoniza-tion is ex-pected to lead to more efficientuse of ALT research in combined effortsamong the different countries participa-ting in COST 347. This includes sharing ofresults, common testing methods, and co-operative research projects.

The results from COST 347 are verypromising. A total of 17 European coun-tries par-ticipate on a regular basis, so doesthe TRB Committee on Full Scale/Accelerated Pavement Testing, and closelinks exist to ALT centres in South Africa,Australia, and New Zealand. Among thedirect outcomes of our work are a newslet-ter, and an e-mail based discussion forum.A co-operation between the HVS Nordicand Denmark re-garding ALT research insemi-rigid pavements can also be attributedto COST 347.

ANNOTAED REPORTS

Among the future developments COST347 intends to work for the establishmentof an international association for ALT.

Mechanistic Design of Semi-RigidPavements - An IncrementalApproach

Title: Mechanistic Design of Semi-Rigid

Pavements - An Incremental Approach

Authors: Finn Thøgersen, Christian Busch, Anders

Henrichsen

Series: Report 138

(http://www.vejdirektoratet.dk/publikationer/VIrap

138/index.htm)

Language: English

A number of semi-rigid pavements con-structed in the 1970’ies in Denmark haveshown superior performance, with limitedreflective cracking and long life of the wea-ring courses. With this experience as back-ground, an incremental-recursive deterio-ration model has been set up for cementbound base materials. The model wascalibrated with data from full-scale test sec-tions loaded with a Heavy VehicleSimulator and further validated with datafrom the Danish motorway sections.Laboratory tests were performed in orderto investigate the effect of various mixdesign parameters for ce-ment bound mix-tures.

Noise reducing pavements –State of the art in Denmark

Title: Noise reducing pavements – State of the art

in Denmark

Authors: Hans Bendtsen, Bent Andersen

Series: Report 141

(http://www.vejdirektoratet.dk/publikationer/VIrap

141/index.htm)

Language: English

Noise is one of the most serious environ-mental problems caused by road traffic.About 28 % of all Danish homes are expo-sed to more than 55 dB, which is the offici-al recommended noise limit for road traf-

fic noise. The Danish government has along-term goal to reduce the noise to alevel that is considered satisfactory forhealth. According to the national roadnoise strategy, one of the most cost-effecti-ve means of noise abatement is the use ofnoise-reducing pavements.

In this report, the on-going Danish re-search to develop and test different types ofnoise-reducing pavements is presented anddiscussed. Single-layer porous pavementswith a high built-in air void and a smallmaximum aggregate size have been testedon a highway with a speedlimit of 80 km/h.Over the structural lifetime, the noisereduction of the porous pavements was 3-4dB relative to dense asphalt concrete with amaximum aggregate size of 12 mm. Inorder to achieve the same noise reduction,the traffic volume should be reduced bymore than 50 %. On an urban test roadwith a speedlimit of 50 km/h, similar sing-le-layer porous pavements have been tes-ted. Here, the observed noise reduction of3 dB disappeared within 2 years, becausethe pores of the pavement were clogged.Three new types of two-layer porousasphalt are now being tested on an urbanroad with a speed limit of 50 km/h. Thesepavements are designed and con-structedto avoid clogging and to improve durabili-ty. The pavements are cleaned with specialequipment using water under high pressu-re twice a year. After four years, noisereductions of approximately 3 dB havebeen measured compared to a denseasphalt concrete with a maximum aggrega-te size of 8 mm. In order to develop newtypes of cost-effective noise-reducing pave-ments for urban application, research andtesting of different kinds of thin surfacelayers have been started in the frameworkof an EU research project (SILVIA).

On September 27th the NPRA received theThe Construction of the Century award forits magnificent Atlantic Road. – I’m proud.That in addition The Bridges of Svinesund(the old and the new) were runners-up inthe competition is a great recognition forus, said Director General of the NorwegianPublic Roads Administration, Mr. OlavSoefteland.

- Good and useful roads can also bemonumental constructions, The DirectorGeneral added.

H.R.H. Crown Prince Haakon presen-ted the award which opened theNorwegian Construction Industries Fair,“Bygg Reis Deg”. The award is being han-ded as part of the centenary for the dis-bandment of the union with Sweden in1905. More then 40 000 people voted tocrown the winner.

The Atlantic Road The Atlantic Road also known as“Atlanterhavsvegen” consists of 8.3 km ofroad with eight bridges from Averøy to theEid municipal in the county of Moere andRomsdal. The longest and tallest bridge isthe 260 m Storseisundet Bridge. Vesselswith heights up to 23 m can sail under it.

Atlanterhavsvegen has an astoundinglocation leading over islands and islets atthe edge of the Atlantic Ocean. It has beenone of the most visited tourist attraction inNorway being situated on the nature itself.

The Construction of the Century1905 – 2005:

Double Victory to the Norwegian Public Roads Administration(NPRA)

The Bridges of SvinesundSvinesund is the center of trade and com-munication between Norway and Sweden.In June 1946, a bridge with a length of 420meters and a breadth of 9.5 meters wasopened. Construction costs at that timeamounted to 3.2 m NOK (0.4 m ). TheOld Bridge is now a protected historic con-struction. This is the first time theNorwegian and the Swedish authoritieshave gone together to protect a cultural

ANNOTATED REPORTS

heritage. The aim with the protection is toensure that the bridge becomes a land-mark for the connection between Norwayand Sweden on different planes.

On June 10th 2005 the New SvinesundBridge was opened for traffic after a con-struction period of two and a half years,construction costs of about 650 m NOK(about 82.5 m ). The new Bridge has alength of 704 meters and a width of 28.2meters.

nordic no. 2/3 2005 | 4140 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

ANNOTATED REPORTS

Electronic transport information.Electronic Waybill

Title: KULTIS – Electronic Transport Information.

Electronic Waybill

Authors: Jari Salo, Juha Ikävalko, TIEKE ry, Jani

Granqvist, Antti Permala, VTT

Series: AINO publications 7/2005

Language: Finnish with English abstract

The focus of the KULTIS project was tostudy the needs, priorities and possibilitiesfor electronic transport documents andtheir implementation, using the electronicwaybill as a test case. The ultimate goal wasto reach a commonly agreed definition forthe data contents of the electronic waybill.The electronic waybill is one link in thechain of electronic documents for trans-port. In developing operations towardselectronic mode, the issue is not only chan-ging paper documents into their electronicequivalents, but it is also developing theprocesses and procedures within the logis-tics chain.

Effective use of the transport order (andorder confirmation) could be one steptowards streamlined processes. Usingelectronic means, the publication of a way-bill could be transferred from consignor tologistics operator or even be dropped. Astandardized transport label provides aphysical interface between the transportedgoods and the information steering thetransportation. Being a subset of theelectronic waybill, the data set of a trans-port label gives a proper starting pointwhen defining the information content forrepresentation of the electronic waybill inmobile peripherals.

The information content of the electro-nic waybill defined in this project includes,in addition to the traditional waybill, somenew data elements that help the physicaldelivery of goods, like enhanced informa-tion on parties and their contacts as well aslocations and status of the delivery.Technical development, like RFID tags, willin the future offer the possibility to have

updated tracking and tracing informationon delivered goods.

The juridical aspect also brings challen-ges for implementation of the electronicwaybill, especially from the viewpoint ofelectronic signatures and their acceptance.Finnish Law does not pose any obstacles tothe use of electronic signatures, but app-ropriate technical solutions and provisionof acceptable evidence are challenges thatmust be met. The project could propose aninitiative for revision of the legislation tothe Ministry of Justice where relevantneeds are identified in the implementationproject.

The objective of the implementationproject is to test and specify the createddata definition to meet operational requi-rements, and collect information andrequirements as background to a revisionof the legislation.

Pol-Corridor – shuttle freight trainservices

Title: Pol-Corridor. Assessment of Demand for the

Blue Shuttle Train's Services in North and South

European Markets

Authors: Pekka Leviäkangas, Jarkko Lehtinen,

Inna Berg, Anna-Maija Alaruikka

Series: VTT Research Notes 2293

Language: English

Publication available at:

http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/tiedotteet/2005/T2293.

pdf

The report describes the prospects of anew trans-European freight supply networkstretching from the Nordic Countries toCentral, Southern and South-EasternEurope. The northern part of the corridorconsists of sea-land connections fromSweden, Finland and Norway to an inter-modal hub in Poland. From there, the cor-ridor connects via a regularly scheduledblock train — the ”Blue Shuttle Train” —to an intermodal hub in Vienna. The sout-hern part of the corridor comprises theexisting land connections to destinationsin most of Central, Southern and South-

Eastern Europe. The report covers the results of Work

Package 1 of the Pol-Corridor project –Assessing the Demand for Blue ShuttleTrain's Services in North and SouthEuropean Markets.

The main objectives of Work Package 1were to assess the freight volumes current-ly shipped in the North-South directionand to forecast the international freightvolumes in the near future.

First, the assessment of the Pol-Corridor’s potential for carrying Finnishflows and the method for assessment arepresented. Most of the potential destina-tion countries can be identified, as canthose countries that are insignificant forthe Pol-Corridor concept. Also the max-imum and minimum potential for the BlueShuttle Train and the issue of balancedtransportation in North-South directionsare discussed.

Second, the potential for Nordic flowshas been assessed by using the same met-hod presented with the Finnish flows. Thisassessment provides deeper insight intopossible future development. Scenariosprojected up to the beginning of 2006 aredefined in order to probe the businesspotential of the Blue Shuttle Train.

It can be concluded that the Pol-Corridor and Blue Shuttle Train will be analternative for international North-Southlogistics, provided either of the followingpreconditions is fulfilled: 1) many coun-tries at the South end of the Pol-Corridordirect their Northbound flows to the BlueShuttle Train instead of onto trailers onroads; or 2) Austrian and Italian exportsuse the Blue Shuttle Train and Pol-Corridor for their northbound transport.

Little concern for data protection

Title: Pinning our faith on Big Brother... together

with all the little brothers?

Author: Inger-Anne Ravlum

TØI report no: 789/2005

Language: Norwegian with English summary

Summary on www.toi.no

The report presents the results of arepresentative survey on the population’sattitude towards and knowledge of the pro-tection of personal privacy. The populationhas strong trust that privacy is protected ina good way, and it is not particularly wor-ried that personal data can be misused. Alarge part does not reflect at all over thefact that personal data on them is collectedor they do not bother themselves with that.This also applies to those who say that theydo not trust that personal privacy is so wellprotected that one can safely disclose per-sonal data. Many of us disclose data that weactually do not wish to disclose. This givesreason to ask how well we guard our ownpersonal privacy.

Factors influencing driving speed

Title: Factors influencing driving speed

Author: Fridulv Sagberg

TØI report no: 765/2005

Language: Norwegian with English summary

Summary on www.toi.no

The project consisted of two parts. Part 1was a study of whether changed speedlimits influence driving speeds on road sec-tions adjacent to the change. Reduction ofthe limit from 90 to 80 km/h resulted inlower speed even on the following section.A similar 'speed generalisation' was obser-ved also on a motorway where the limit wasincreased from 90 to 100 km/h; drivingspeed increased on the following sectionthere as well.

Part 2 was a roadside study, in which dri-vers were stopped and interviewed aboutspeed and speed limits, after their speedhad been measured over a 3-km section. At

the same time, the speedometer was tested.Seventy percent violated the speed limit ina 70 km/h zone. The most important vari-able explaining speed level was driver age;fewer elderly drivers violated the speedlimit. The magnitude of the violationsvaried with the drivers' estimates of themost comfortable speed. The speedome-ters indicated on the average 4.4 km/h toohigh speed at 80 km/h. Only one out ofthree drivers knew about the error andadjusted their speed accordingly.Therefore, the speedometer error contri-butes to increased speed variation, and the-reby to platoon formation and overtakings.

Seventy percent violate the speed limit in a 70 km/h(43.5 mph) zone

Possibilities and barriers for roadsafety work in Sweden

Title: Possibilities and barriers for road safety

work in Sweden

Authors: Claus Hedegaard Sørensen, Terje Assum

Report no: 759/2005

Language: Danish with English summary

Summary on www.toi.no

In Sweden and elsewhere in Scandinaviathere are visions, objectives and plans forthe reduction of fatalities and serious inju-ries in road traffic. Nevertheless, it is diffic-ult to achieve the short-term road safetygoals. Which are the barriers and potenti-als for the reduction of fatalities? An analy-sis of the Swedish Road Administration(SRA) and its close partners shows barriersand potentials for road safety work inSweden. The most important barriers are

limited commitment to road safety in thepolice as well as in the SRA regional offices,in counties and municipalities. The mostimportant potential is committed nationalpoliticians.

Market Analysis of EuropeanHigh Speed Rail Lines

Title: Market Analysis of European High Speed

Rail Lines

Authors: Bertil Hylén, Gunnar Lindberg and Jan-

Eric Nilsson

Series: VTI publication, N26-2005

Contact: Bertil Hylén

bertil.hylen@vti.se

Banverket (the Swedish rail infrastructu-re manager) commissioned VTI to carryout a market analysis of High Speed RailLines in Europe. The analysis should serveas an important input in the further plan-ning of High Speed Rail Lines in Sweden.High Speed (HS) in this report refers to aspeed higher than 250 km/h. VTI has co-operated with partners in Germany,France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom andThe Netherlands where HS lines are opera-tional or under construction.

An important part of the work has beento present relevant comparisons betweenGötalandsbanan (Stockholm – Jönköping –Göteborg) in Sweden and similar lines inother countries. Götalandsbanan is inten-ded to serve the heart of Sweden with 3–3_million inhabitants; in many other coun-tries the population along a HS line is seve-ral times larger. Furthermore the assumedtravel distances along Götalandsbanan aresimilar to such distances abroad where railhas been able to compete successfully withair travel.

It has been difficult to identify any trans-port policy aspects which might influenceHS rail’s ability to compete with othermodes of transport. Competition fromlong distance buses (coaches) exists inSpain and the United Kingdom (UK) and

nordic no. 2/3 2005 | 4140 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

ANNOTATED REPORTS

Electronic transport information.Electronic Waybill

Title: KULTIS – Electronic Transport Information.

Electronic Waybill

Authors: Jari Salo, Juha Ikävalko, TIEKE ry, Jani

Granqvist, Antti Permala, VTT

Series: AINO publications 7/2005

Language: Finnish with English abstract

The focus of the KULTIS project was tostudy the needs, priorities and possibilitiesfor electronic transport documents andtheir implementation, using the electronicwaybill as a test case. The ultimate goal wasto reach a commonly agreed definition forthe data contents of the electronic waybill.The electronic waybill is one link in thechain of electronic documents for trans-port. In developing operations towardselectronic mode, the issue is not only chan-ging paper documents into their electronicequivalents, but it is also developing theprocesses and procedures within the logis-tics chain.

Effective use of the transport order (andorder confirmation) could be one steptowards streamlined processes. Usingelectronic means, the publication of a way-bill could be transferred from consignor tologistics operator or even be dropped. Astandardized transport label provides aphysical interface between the transportedgoods and the information steering thetransportation. Being a subset of theelectronic waybill, the data set of a trans-port label gives a proper starting pointwhen defining the information content forrepresentation of the electronic waybill inmobile peripherals.

The information content of the electro-nic waybill defined in this project includes,in addition to the traditional waybill, somenew data elements that help the physicaldelivery of goods, like enhanced informa-tion on parties and their contacts as well aslocations and status of the delivery.Technical development, like RFID tags, willin the future offer the possibility to have

updated tracking and tracing informationon delivered goods.

The juridical aspect also brings challen-ges for implementation of the electronicwaybill, especially from the viewpoint ofelectronic signatures and their acceptance.Finnish Law does not pose any obstacles tothe use of electronic signatures, but app-ropriate technical solutions and provisionof acceptable evidence are challenges thatmust be met. The project could propose aninitiative for revision of the legislation tothe Ministry of Justice where relevantneeds are identified in the implementationproject.

The objective of the implementationproject is to test and specify the createddata definition to meet operational requi-rements, and collect information andrequirements as background to a revisionof the legislation.

Pol-Corridor – shuttle freight trainservices

Title: Pol-Corridor. Assessment of Demand for the

Blue Shuttle Train's Services in North and South

European Markets

Authors: Pekka Leviäkangas, Jarkko Lehtinen,

Inna Berg, Anna-Maija Alaruikka

Series: VTT Research Notes 2293

Language: English

Publication available at:

http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/tiedotteet/2005/T2293.

pdf

The report describes the prospects of anew trans-European freight supply networkstretching from the Nordic Countries toCentral, Southern and South-EasternEurope. The northern part of the corridorconsists of sea-land connections fromSweden, Finland and Norway to an inter-modal hub in Poland. From there, the cor-ridor connects via a regularly scheduledblock train — the ”Blue Shuttle Train” —to an intermodal hub in Vienna. The sout-hern part of the corridor comprises theexisting land connections to destinationsin most of Central, Southern and South-

Eastern Europe. The report covers the results of Work

Package 1 of the Pol-Corridor project –Assessing the Demand for Blue ShuttleTrain's Services in North and SouthEuropean Markets.

The main objectives of Work Package 1were to assess the freight volumes current-ly shipped in the North-South directionand to forecast the international freightvolumes in the near future.

First, the assessment of the Pol-Corridor’s potential for carrying Finnishflows and the method for assessment arepresented. Most of the potential destina-tion countries can be identified, as canthose countries that are insignificant forthe Pol-Corridor concept. Also the max-imum and minimum potential for the BlueShuttle Train and the issue of balancedtransportation in North-South directionsare discussed.

Second, the potential for Nordic flowshas been assessed by using the same met-hod presented with the Finnish flows. Thisassessment provides deeper insight intopossible future development. Scenariosprojected up to the beginning of 2006 aredefined in order to probe the businesspotential of the Blue Shuttle Train.

It can be concluded that the Pol-Corridor and Blue Shuttle Train will be analternative for international North-Southlogistics, provided either of the followingpreconditions is fulfilled: 1) many coun-tries at the South end of the Pol-Corridordirect their Northbound flows to the BlueShuttle Train instead of onto trailers onroads; or 2) Austrian and Italian exportsuse the Blue Shuttle Train and Pol-Corridor for their northbound transport.

Little concern for data protection

Title: Pinning our faith on Big Brother... together

with all the little brothers?

Author: Inger-Anne Ravlum

TØI report no: 789/2005

Language: Norwegian with English summary

Summary on www.toi.no

The report presents the results of arepresentative survey on the population’sattitude towards and knowledge of the pro-tection of personal privacy. The populationhas strong trust that privacy is protected ina good way, and it is not particularly wor-ried that personal data can be misused. Alarge part does not reflect at all over thefact that personal data on them is collectedor they do not bother themselves with that.This also applies to those who say that theydo not trust that personal privacy is so wellprotected that one can safely disclose per-sonal data. Many of us disclose data that weactually do not wish to disclose. This givesreason to ask how well we guard our ownpersonal privacy.

Factors influencing driving speed

Title: Factors influencing driving speed

Author: Fridulv Sagberg

TØI report no: 765/2005

Language: Norwegian with English summary

Summary on www.toi.no

The project consisted of two parts. Part 1was a study of whether changed speedlimits influence driving speeds on road sec-tions adjacent to the change. Reduction ofthe limit from 90 to 80 km/h resulted inlower speed even on the following section.A similar 'speed generalisation' was obser-ved also on a motorway where the limit wasincreased from 90 to 100 km/h; drivingspeed increased on the following sectionthere as well.

Part 2 was a roadside study, in which dri-vers were stopped and interviewed aboutspeed and speed limits, after their speedhad been measured over a 3-km section. At

the same time, the speedometer was tested.Seventy percent violated the speed limit ina 70 km/h zone. The most important vari-able explaining speed level was driver age;fewer elderly drivers violated the speedlimit. The magnitude of the violationsvaried with the drivers' estimates of themost comfortable speed. The speedome-ters indicated on the average 4.4 km/h toohigh speed at 80 km/h. Only one out ofthree drivers knew about the error andadjusted their speed accordingly.Therefore, the speedometer error contri-butes to increased speed variation, and the-reby to platoon formation and overtakings.

Seventy percent violate the speed limit in a 70 km/h(43.5 mph) zone

Possibilities and barriers for roadsafety work in Sweden

Title: Possibilities and barriers for road safety

work in Sweden

Authors: Claus Hedegaard Sørensen, Terje Assum

Report no: 759/2005

Language: Danish with English summary

Summary on www.toi.no

In Sweden and elsewhere in Scandinaviathere are visions, objectives and plans forthe reduction of fatalities and serious inju-ries in road traffic. Nevertheless, it is diffic-ult to achieve the short-term road safetygoals. Which are the barriers and potenti-als for the reduction of fatalities? An analy-sis of the Swedish Road Administration(SRA) and its close partners shows barriersand potentials for road safety work inSweden. The most important barriers are

limited commitment to road safety in thepolice as well as in the SRA regional offices,in counties and municipalities. The mostimportant potential is committed nationalpoliticians.

Market Analysis of EuropeanHigh Speed Rail Lines

Title: Market Analysis of European High Speed

Rail Lines

Authors: Bertil Hylén, Gunnar Lindberg and Jan-

Eric Nilsson

Series: VTI publication, N26-2005

Contact: Bertil Hylén

bertil.hylen@vti.se

Banverket (the Swedish rail infrastructu-re manager) commissioned VTI to carryout a market analysis of High Speed RailLines in Europe. The analysis should serveas an important input in the further plan-ning of High Speed Rail Lines in Sweden.High Speed (HS) in this report refers to aspeed higher than 250 km/h. VTI has co-operated with partners in Germany,France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom andThe Netherlands where HS lines are opera-tional or under construction.

An important part of the work has beento present relevant comparisons betweenGötalandsbanan (Stockholm – Jönköping –Göteborg) in Sweden and similar lines inother countries. Götalandsbanan is inten-ded to serve the heart of Sweden with 3–3_million inhabitants; in many other coun-tries the population along a HS line is seve-ral times larger. Furthermore the assumedtravel distances along Götalandsbanan aresimilar to such distances abroad where railhas been able to compete successfully withair travel.

It has been difficult to identify any trans-port policy aspects which might influenceHS rail’s ability to compete with othermodes of transport. Competition fromlong distance buses (coaches) exists inSpain and the United Kingdom (UK) and

nordic no. 2/3 2005 | 4342 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

ANNOTATED REPORTS

to a lesser extent in Italy. There are nocommon trends in the development of lowcost airlines.

Germany is markedly polycentric withseveral major centres of population. Thereis no real HS network and there will not beany such network even in the long term.Instead the HS lines are connected by therest of the network which has been upgra-ded to 200 (230) km/h. The four HS linesact as “conduits”; traffic comes from majorcities, passes through the conduit and thenspreads out to different destinations.

High speed dominates rail services inFrance in a manner that is quite unlike anyother country, at least in Europe. HS trafficrepresents 2/3 of all passenger rail trafficas measured in passenger km. Trafficto/from Paris dominates strongly, the rela-tively frequent TGV services on the threeParisian HS lines spread out to about 150towns.

Rome–Florence is the first link in theItalian T-shaped network, the implementa-tion of this network has taken a lot longerthan planned – the Rome–Naples line willopen five years behind schedule.

Spain is similar to Sweden in somerespects – a relatively small population baseand few people along parts of theMadrid–Seville HS line. Long distancesand long travel times on the broad gaugenetwork gave domestic air transport anadvantage over rail for many years. TheMadrid–Seville HS line changed this dra-matically and also improved the rail sec-tor’s image.

School Transportation Vehicle’sIcon

Title: Evaluation of the school transportation

vehicle’s icon – an experimental study

Authors: Anna Anund, Linda Kronqvist and

Torbjörn Falkmer

Series: VTI publication, R516

Contact: Anna Anund

anna.anund@vti.se

This study aimed to test whether thepresent school transportation traffic iconsign leads to enhanced traffic safety, mea-sured as adjustment of traffic behaviourfrom fellow road users. The fellow roadusers’ behaviour on roads with 50 km/hand 70 km/h was compared in meetingswith school buses at stand still in real traf-fic. Three different types of marking theschool buses were tested:• without any sign• with the school transportation traffic

sign only• with the school transportation traffic

sign equipped with blinking/runninglights.

The fellow road users’ behaviour wasmeasured by their speed, lateral positionand fixation patterns on the buses. Inorder to further explore driver behaviour,self reported behaviour data and experien-ces from the study were gathered. In order

to record speed and lateral position, theVTI instrumented vehicle was used alongwith an eye tracker for the measurementsof eye movements.

Drivers meeting school buses at standstill on roads with a 70 km/h speed limitdid not lower their speed or increase theirlateral position to the bus if it was markedby the present school transportation trafficsign only. Actually, it did not matter if therewas a sign at all. If, however, the sign wascombined with blinking/running lights,the drivers decreased their speed and fix-ated longer and more often on the bus.

Drivers meeting school buses at standstill on roads with a 50 km/h speed limitdid lower their speeds only in the nearbyareas of the buses. Their lateral positionswere not affected by any type of schooltransportation signs. However, lower spe-eds were found on roads with 50 km/hwhen the present school transportationsign, without blinking/running lights waspresent, in comparison with no sign at all.When the sign was combined with blinkinglights, the drivers fixated more often onthe buses, i.e. they increased their visualfoveal attention compared to when thebuses were marked by the sign only or notmarked at all.

The study suggests that future schooltransportation signs should have blin-king/running lights, further confirmed bythe drivers’ self reported acceptance forsuch a system. The sign should be in anot-her format and with another type of iconthan the present, which in turn requiresfuture research.

Future regulations on school transporta-tion signs should be clarified to ensure thatfellow road users realise:• that increased attention is required• that children could be present in the

traffic environment• which safety precautions to undertake.

Unhealthy particles

Title: Inhalable particles from the interaction bet-

ween tyres, road pavement and friction materials.

Final report from the WearTox project.

Authors: Mats Gustafsson, Göran Blomqvist,

Andreas Dahl, Anders Gudmundsson, Anders

Ljungman, John Lindbom, Bertil Rudell and Erik

Swietlicki

Series: VTI publication, R520

Contact: Göran Blomqvist, goran.blomqvist@vti.se

Mats Gustafsson, mats.gustafsson@vti.se

High concentrations of inhalable partic-les (PM10) in ambient air have a provenrelation to mortality and different kinds ofairway disorders in the population. Thereare also indications of a connection to car-dio vascular diseases. The negative healtheffects of particles have caused the EU toadopt a directive, which in Sweden hasbeen implemented in environmental quali-ty standards for inhalable particles. Thesestandards are today exceeded in manycities in Sweden, especially in highly traf-ficked road and street environments in dryperiods during winter. In contrast to whatmight be expected, most of the PM10 donot originate from vehicle exhaust, butfrom the wear and resuspension of partic-les from the pavements, tyres and brakes.The most significant source seems to bepavement wear caused by studded tyre use.These facts have resulted in an increasinginterest in the properties and effects ofwear particles.

The aims of this project have been todescribe PM10 from studded tyre wear andto study their inflammatory effects inhuman airway cells. The VTI circular roadsimulator has been used to generate“clean” wear particles from two differentpavements; asphalt concrete (ABT) andstone mastic asphalt (ABS), with graniterespectively quartzite as the main stonematerials. The advantage of using the roadsimulator is that the contribution fromother sources can be minimised.

During the project time, the project was

expanded also to study particle generationby non-studded winter tyres (friction tyres)and two kinds of winter sanding agents,namely washed crushed stone and unwas-hed natural sand in combination with bothstudded and friction tyres.

The results show that pavement wear bystudded tyres generates about 40–50 timesas much PM10 as that by friction tyres.PM10 is totally dominated by fresh stonematerial. Apart from tyre type, the forma-tion of PM10 also depends on speed andpavement type. Compared with the partic-le material in general, wear particles have acomparatively high inflammation potenti-al. The particles' inflammation potentialalso depends on pavement type. Sandingmaterial consisting of unwashed naturalsand causes considerably higher PM10 for-mation than washed crushed stone, especi-ally in combination with studded tyres.

Durability of porous asphalt

Title: Durability of porous asphalt

Authors: Carsten Bredahl Nielsen, Jørn Raaberg,

Erik Nielsen

Series: Report 139

(http://www.vejdirektoratet.dk/publikationer/VIrap

139/index.htm)

Language: Danish with English abstract

‘Three Danish asphalt contractors appliedin March 2000 for financial support fromthe Danish Environmental ProtectionAgency programme for cleaner technologyto develop more durable drainage asphaltmixes. The reference of the project asregards durability is the drainage asphaltpavement, which has been carried out onØster Søgade in Copenhagen. It is thus theaim of the project to design a pavement,which has a better durability than the refe-rence pavement evaluated by materials tes-ted in the laboratory. The greatest possiblenoise reduction should at the same time bemaintained for the longest possible period.

The present report integrates severalmore detailed reports. In the reportasphalt testing (in Danish) the durability ofdifferent mixes is assessed from laboratorytesting, whereas the report mortar testing(in Danish) is a more detailed assessmentand opti-misation of the durability of themixes and explains the results of theasphalt testing. A Dutch guide on design,laying and maintenance of drainageasphalt is translated into Danish and integ-rated in relevant sections of the presentreport after a rewriting and adaptation toDanish conditions.

PH

OTO

S.C

OM

ILLU

STR

ATI

ON

: AR

IOM

nordic no. 2/3 2005 | 4342 | nordic no. 2/3 2005 www.vti.se/nordic

ANNOTATED REPORTS

to a lesser extent in Italy. There are nocommon trends in the development of lowcost airlines.

Germany is markedly polycentric withseveral major centres of population. Thereis no real HS network and there will not beany such network even in the long term.Instead the HS lines are connected by therest of the network which has been upgra-ded to 200 (230) km/h. The four HS linesact as “conduits”; traffic comes from majorcities, passes through the conduit and thenspreads out to different destinations.

High speed dominates rail services inFrance in a manner that is quite unlike anyother country, at least in Europe. HS trafficrepresents 2/3 of all passenger rail trafficas measured in passenger km. Trafficto/from Paris dominates strongly, the rela-tively frequent TGV services on the threeParisian HS lines spread out to about 150towns.

Rome–Florence is the first link in theItalian T-shaped network, the implementa-tion of this network has taken a lot longerthan planned – the Rome–Naples line willopen five years behind schedule.

Spain is similar to Sweden in somerespects – a relatively small population baseand few people along parts of theMadrid–Seville HS line. Long distancesand long travel times on the broad gaugenetwork gave domestic air transport anadvantage over rail for many years. TheMadrid–Seville HS line changed this dra-matically and also improved the rail sec-tor’s image.

School Transportation Vehicle’sIcon

Title: Evaluation of the school transportation

vehicle’s icon – an experimental study

Authors: Anna Anund, Linda Kronqvist and

Torbjörn Falkmer

Series: VTI publication, R516

Contact: Anna Anund

anna.anund@vti.se

This study aimed to test whether thepresent school transportation traffic iconsign leads to enhanced traffic safety, mea-sured as adjustment of traffic behaviourfrom fellow road users. The fellow roadusers’ behaviour on roads with 50 km/hand 70 km/h was compared in meetingswith school buses at stand still in real traf-fic. Three different types of marking theschool buses were tested:• without any sign• with the school transportation traffic

sign only• with the school transportation traffic

sign equipped with blinking/runninglights.

The fellow road users’ behaviour wasmeasured by their speed, lateral positionand fixation patterns on the buses. Inorder to further explore driver behaviour,self reported behaviour data and experien-ces from the study were gathered. In order

to record speed and lateral position, theVTI instrumented vehicle was used alongwith an eye tracker for the measurementsof eye movements.

Drivers meeting school buses at standstill on roads with a 70 km/h speed limitdid not lower their speed or increase theirlateral position to the bus if it was markedby the present school transportation trafficsign only. Actually, it did not matter if therewas a sign at all. If, however, the sign wascombined with blinking/running lights,the drivers decreased their speed and fix-ated longer and more often on the bus.

Drivers meeting school buses at standstill on roads with a 50 km/h speed limitdid lower their speeds only in the nearbyareas of the buses. Their lateral positionswere not affected by any type of schooltransportation signs. However, lower spe-eds were found on roads with 50 km/hwhen the present school transportationsign, without blinking/running lights waspresent, in comparison with no sign at all.When the sign was combined with blinkinglights, the drivers fixated more often onthe buses, i.e. they increased their visualfoveal attention compared to when thebuses were marked by the sign only or notmarked at all.

The study suggests that future schooltransportation signs should have blin-king/running lights, further confirmed bythe drivers’ self reported acceptance forsuch a system. The sign should be in anot-her format and with another type of iconthan the present, which in turn requiresfuture research.

Future regulations on school transporta-tion signs should be clarified to ensure thatfellow road users realise:• that increased attention is required• that children could be present in the

traffic environment• which safety precautions to undertake.

Unhealthy particles

Title: Inhalable particles from the interaction bet-

ween tyres, road pavement and friction materials.

Final report from the WearTox project.

Authors: Mats Gustafsson, Göran Blomqvist,

Andreas Dahl, Anders Gudmundsson, Anders

Ljungman, John Lindbom, Bertil Rudell and Erik

Swietlicki

Series: VTI publication, R520

Contact: Göran Blomqvist, goran.blomqvist@vti.se

Mats Gustafsson, mats.gustafsson@vti.se

High concentrations of inhalable partic-les (PM10) in ambient air have a provenrelation to mortality and different kinds ofairway disorders in the population. Thereare also indications of a connection to car-dio vascular diseases. The negative healtheffects of particles have caused the EU toadopt a directive, which in Sweden hasbeen implemented in environmental quali-ty standards for inhalable particles. Thesestandards are today exceeded in manycities in Sweden, especially in highly traf-ficked road and street environments in dryperiods during winter. In contrast to whatmight be expected, most of the PM10 donot originate from vehicle exhaust, butfrom the wear and resuspension of partic-les from the pavements, tyres and brakes.The most significant source seems to bepavement wear caused by studded tyre use.These facts have resulted in an increasinginterest in the properties and effects ofwear particles.

The aims of this project have been todescribe PM10 from studded tyre wear andto study their inflammatory effects inhuman airway cells. The VTI circular roadsimulator has been used to generate“clean” wear particles from two differentpavements; asphalt concrete (ABT) andstone mastic asphalt (ABS), with graniterespectively quartzite as the main stonematerials. The advantage of using the roadsimulator is that the contribution fromother sources can be minimised.

During the project time, the project was

expanded also to study particle generationby non-studded winter tyres (friction tyres)and two kinds of winter sanding agents,namely washed crushed stone and unwas-hed natural sand in combination with bothstudded and friction tyres.

The results show that pavement wear bystudded tyres generates about 40–50 timesas much PM10 as that by friction tyres.PM10 is totally dominated by fresh stonematerial. Apart from tyre type, the forma-tion of PM10 also depends on speed andpavement type. Compared with the partic-le material in general, wear particles have acomparatively high inflammation potenti-al. The particles' inflammation potentialalso depends on pavement type. Sandingmaterial consisting of unwashed naturalsand causes considerably higher PM10 for-mation than washed crushed stone, especi-ally in combination with studded tyres.

Durability of porous asphalt

Title: Durability of porous asphalt

Authors: Carsten Bredahl Nielsen, Jørn Raaberg,

Erik Nielsen

Series: Report 139

(http://www.vejdirektoratet.dk/publikationer/VIrap

139/index.htm)

Language: Danish with English abstract

‘Three Danish asphalt contractors appliedin March 2000 for financial support fromthe Danish Environmental ProtectionAgency programme for cleaner technologyto develop more durable drainage asphaltmixes. The reference of the project asregards durability is the drainage asphaltpavement, which has been carried out onØster Søgade in Copenhagen. It is thus theaim of the project to design a pavement,which has a better durability than the refe-rence pavement evaluated by materials tes-ted in the laboratory. The greatest possiblenoise reduction should at the same time bemaintained for the longest possible period.

The present report integrates severalmore detailed reports. In the reportasphalt testing (in Danish) the durability ofdifferent mixes is assessed from laboratorytesting, whereas the report mortar testing(in Danish) is a more detailed assessmentand opti-misation of the durability of themixes and explains the results of theasphalt testing. A Dutch guide on design,laying and maintenance of drainageasphalt is translated into Danish and integ-rated in relevant sections of the presentreport after a rewriting and adaptation toDanish conditions.

PH

OTO

S.C

OM

ILLU

STR

ATI

ON

: AR

IOM

Danish Road Institute Helen Hasz-SinghGuldalderen 12Postboks 235Fløng2640 HedehusenePhone +45 46 30 70 00Fax +45 46 30 71 05Email hhz@vd.dkWeb www.vd.dk

NORDICDENMARK

VTT Technical Research Centreof FinlandKari MäkeläP.O.Box 1000FI-02044 VTTPhone +358 20 722 4586Fax +358 20 722 7056Email kari.makela@vtt.fiWeb www.vtt.fi

FINLANDPublic Roads AdministrationHreinn HaraldssonBorgartún 7IS-105 ReykjavikPhone +354 563 1400Fax +354 562 2332Email hrh@vegag.isWeb www.vegagerdin.is

ICELAND

Transportøkonomisk instituttNils FearnleyPb. 6110 EtterstadNO-0602 Oslo, NorwayVisiting address: Grensesvingen 7,Oslo.Phone +47 22 57 38 00Fax +47 22 57 02 90Email toi@toi.noWeb www.toi.no

NORWAYNorwegian Public RoadsAdministrationP.O. Box 8142 DepN-0033 OsloPhone +47 22 07 35 00Fax +47 22 07 37 68Email firmapost@vegvesen.noWeb www.vegvesen.no

NORWAYVTIMagdalena GreenSE-581 95 LinköpingPhone +46 13 20 42 26Fax +46 13 14 14 36Orderphone +46 13 20 42 69Email magdalena.green@vit.seWeb www.vti.se/nordic

SWEDEN

Questions concerning the content ofthe articles, or orders forthe publications referred to,should be directed to thepublishing institution, seeaddressed above.

Requests for back issues, and notifi-cation of address changes.Readers outside the Nordiccountries: see Swedishaddress. Readers in theNordic countries: seeadresses above.

Web www.vti.se/nordic