Nordic Road and Transport Research 3-2002

New andSuccessful Water Sealing Method

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2 NORDIC ROAD & TRANSPORT RESEARCH NO. 3 2002 3NORDIC ROAD & TRANSPORT RESEARCH NO. 3 2002


C O N T E N T S

Use of Smart Card Payment System Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT), Building and Transport

New and Successful Water Sealing Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA)

Development of a High Speed Deflectograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8Danish Road Directorate (DRD)

International Conference on Asphalt Pavements – ISAP 2002 . . . 10Danish Road Directorate (DRD)

Transformation of European Transport Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)

Survey of Transport Research Resources in Europe. . . . . . . . . . . . . .13Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)

Evaluation of a Traffic Safety Campaign among Parents. . . . . . . . .14Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)

Cameras Led to a Speed Reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Institute of Transport Economics (TØI)

Driver Training, Driving Experience and Crash Risk. . . . . . . . . . . . .18Institute of Transport Economics (TØI)

Norwegian Travel Survey 2001. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Institute of Transport Economics (TØI)

A N N O TAT E D R E P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21


The planning of public transport is mainly based on traditional travel surveys. This article will introduce the methods to gather data about the supply and demand of the public transport using the SCPS (Smart Card Payment System) and some design tools and methods developed for public transport planning in Finland. The large-scale utilisation of the SCPS data requires that a new kind of analysis system should be developed on the ideas pre-sented here.

Though majority of the public transport trips in Finland is paid with smart cards, most of the systems are still independent. From the organisational point of view, new forms of co-operation must be devel-oped in order to control all payment trans-actions between different organisations along the multimodal travel chain.

The smart card systems enable the developing of individually tailored ticket systems. The most used ticket types are the season ticket that is valid in a certain region at a certain period of time and the e-money that can be used for travelling instead of cash. By combining these two elements, very flexible ticket systems can be developed. In the future it will be pos-sible to reserve a trip, buy a ticket and pay for it in advance with a mobile phone.

Design tools for public transport data

The basic data derived from the electronic payment system contains:- ticket type- trip fare (if not a season card)- line label- ID of scheduled departure - time of boarding.

The basic data is transferred from the bus unit to public transport databases e.g. Public Transport Register. The data items are attached to the basic data are:- the ID of bus stop used- estimates of arrival and departure times of vehicles at a stop

- number of boardings at each the stop.The basic data can not be stored con-

tinuously. However, this data is very useful for planning purposes and can be regarded as very valuable information about the use of public transport.

With SCPS the data of the Public Trans-port Register can be developed to be more detailed and accurate. We take on a new dimension for the data of the public trans-port supply, variation. Each departure of the line is driven differently. Different stops are used, number of passengers varies and the traffic situation is different on every run. The data gathered makes it possible to define the histogram of arrival times on each stop.

The final detailed profile includes infor-mation of time and load distributions. The profile of each route and scheduled depar-ture includes information of time distribu-tion at stops, load distribution between stops, main transfers areas or stops, main alighting stops and number of boarding, transfers and alightnings.

The smart card data includes also the ID of the card. Passengers remain anonymous all the time, but the tracking system is able to track trip chains made by one card. The boarding information will show us a passenger’s typical daily travel behaviour. We are able to separate the home based trips if we are able to determinate the location of ”home”. In the same way we are able to determinate the location of the workplace. However, only the trips where public transport is used can be tracked.

Trip chain is formed using the informa-tion on lines used, time and regularity of the travel. In the parsing procedure we use the information of the route used and next boarding location. It is assumed that the alighting has taken place near the next boarding if the lines are close to each other or that the alighting takes place near ”home”, working place, school or other regular visiting point.

All the information is confirmed by building up a “travel diary” similar to

Use of Smart Card Payment System Data

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Several data items are collected automatically in relation with each boarding.

TECHNICAL RESEARCH CENTRE OF FINLAND (VTT), BUILDING AND TRANSPORT


TECHNICAL RESEARCH CENTRE OF FINLAND (VTT), BUILDING AND TRANSPORT

those used in traditional travel surveys and filled in by the travellers themselves. In this case only the public transport trips are included.

Public transport planning

The SCPS data can be utilised for tariff, schedule, operating, route and network planning of public transport. Information can also be used in monitoring bus service regularity, accuracy and fare collection. It can also be used to find out possible gaps

in passenger services and variations in vehicle occupancy.

The line profiles developed from the SCPS data can be used in planning of routes, lines and timetables. Using data of receipts by lines we can improve the data required for economic planning of operation. When planning a regional public transport system we can utilise the improved data of trip chains. While this data is available for different time peri-ods and for different passenger groups (according to the type of the ticket), it

is valuable information for planning of individual bus lines, which then form the entire public transport network. Also stops used regularly for transfers can be determined and thus make the planning of the supply of bus services more accurate.

Transfers from one line to another and accuracy of timetables on stops are those key components of quality of service, which can be improved by using time distributions at stops.

What are the benefits

With the SCPS data the compilation of statistics can be speeded up, services can be improved and more accurate and reliable passenger information can be produced. Hence, the SCPS data can be utilised by public transport operators, by administrators of transport services as well as by passengers.

The main benefits of utilising the SCPS data are listed below:- accuracy of the public transport service can be improved- supply and demand of public transport (especially the bus service) can be more flexibly linked- operating costs can be reduced- tariff system can be refined by the use of different ticket types- schedules of public transport lines which have transfers between each other can be synchronised- sections where public transport priorities are needed can be recognised- economy of public transport operation can be improved- accuracy and reliability of passenger information can be improved, and net-work segments, where incidents are prob-able, can be identified.

As a conclusion we can say that the SCPS data is very useful in the planning of public transport; implementation of the above-described methodology would benefit all actors in the field.

Series: Reports and Memoranda of the Ministry of Transport and Communications B 14/2002 Authors: Mikko Lehtonen, et al. Language: Finnish with English abstractFinnish version of the report is available at: http://www.mintc.fi/www/sivut/dokumentit/julkaisu/mietinnot/2002/b142002.pdf

Detailed line profile.

Principle of the utilisation process of the SCPS data.


The 1260 m long Storhaug road tunnel has been excavated to improve the envi-ronment of the old part of the city of Stavanger. Part of the tunnel is situated below buildings founded on bog, where the rock overburden is between 4.0 and 6.0 m. As the drainage of the bog could cause severe settlement injuries to the old buildings, a maximum leakage of 0.03 l / min / m tunnel was allowed for the most vulnerable 150 m part of the tunnel.

To accomplish this aim, strict require-ments formulated by the Norwegian Road Research Laboratory (NRRL) had to be put into operation. Thanks to a suc-cessful cooperation between NRRL and the client, the Rogaland County Road Administration, continuous control of the grouting procedure was made possible during tunneling. The tunnel was exca-vated according to the T12 profile, which means a cross section of 85m2.

Rock characteristics

The project area is situated in rock that consists of different species of phyllites, ranging from greenish to black coloured ones. The greenish type is richer in chlo-rite and quartz. The bedrock has been severely subjected to the Caledonian orogeny, and lies situated in a thrust zone between the up-thrusted plates and the Precambrian base rocks. The declination of the rock structure is an average of 70o to NW and the gullies in the bedrock sur-face lie along the direction of the strike. The cleavage of the phyllite is very good, except where the folding of the thin layers is intense.

Numerous 1–2 cm thick clay seams are interbedded in the formation, and in the

NORWEGIAN PUBLIC ROADS ADMINISTRATION (NPRA)

less competent rock they occur with a distance less than 1 m, against an average of 4 m in the area. The clay seems to have a free swelling capacity of 180 per cent, classifying it as of middle activity. The rock is categorized as of soft to medium strength with an E-modul of 0.3–0.5 x 104 MPa and an uniaxial strength of 20–80 MPa. The specific gravity lies in the aver-age of 27 KN/m3. Classification by the RQD (Rock Quality Designation) system is found to be between 25–50.

The ground water level

Generally, rocks with interbedded clay seams have low conductivity of water. However, experience has demonstrated that there is conductivity along near verti-cal crossing lines between certain fissure and fault zones. In addition, along the cleavage layers, there also occur leak-ages that have to be sealed to fulfil the strict requirements. The initial leakage measured in the drill holes was normally found to be 2–7 l/min, the peak value was 20 l/min.

The ground water level was surveyed in drilled wells during a period of three years before the start of the excavation. It was presumed that maximum natural differ-ence would amount to 1 m, but the meas-urements have shown that the ground water level varied up to 70 cm. The build-ings were surveyed by using photographs, and fixed marks were installed before the start of the excavations. The ground water was monitored by means of 14 piezom-eters and 19 drilled wells. Six holes with lengths of 25 to 45 m and diameter 115 mm for water infiltration, provided the pregrouting appeared to be unsuccessful, were also drilled. The installations were tested before the start of the excavation. Tests demonstrated that there was insig-nificant correlation between water pres-sure tests and leakages in the wells.

Environmental effects

The rock types are classified as having a very poor ability for injection, and should require very high grout pressure to be injected. Because of the low overburden,

New and Successful Water Sealing MethodArticle written by Arne Grønhaug, Knut Borge Pedersen and Edvard Iversen, all from the Norwegian Road Technology Depart-ment.

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Visit our web site: www.vti.se/nordicVisit our web site: www.vti.se/nordic

NORWEGIAN PUBLIC ROADS ADMINISTRATION (NPRA)

strict procedures for monitoring and per-formance of the injection therefore had to be used. To test the drilling pattern and the injection procedure, field tests had to be performed. Also a procedure for con-trolling the drilling deviation had to be introduced. The leakage is tested by water pressure tests. In the Storhaug tunnel, 14 m long injection holes with an inclination of 18o to the tunnel axis and an overlap of 8 m were found to be the best solution.

Recent injection failures (Hallandsåsen, Sweden, and Romeriksporten, Norway) have focused on the environmental effects of the chemical grouts. Therefore, only cement based grouts were prescribed for the job. To allow for maximum conductiv-ity, microcement – supplied with additives – had to be used.

A successful procedure

Tunnel progress was achieved by blast-ing of pilot and then full profile in 3 m long rounds. The rock was stabilized by 2 m long CT-bolts and fibre reinforced shotcrete. Continuous mapping of the geology was made immediately after the blast and immediately before shotcreting. The initial drilling pattern appeared to be insufficient, and the pattern ended up with 62 drillholes per injection round. After setting, the sealing was tested by drilling and testing of 6–8 holes.

The construction procedure was impor-tant in providing a lot of information on tunnel sealing by injection, and useful for water sealing of tunnels in general, especially with regards to the procedures, consequences and costs involved. The leakage measured after the construction was finished was 0.01 l/min/m, a great improvement from the maximum leak-age established before the construction started. The consequences for the envi-ronment were recorded by the wells and the pore pressure monitoring during the injection, and after. Only three times the grout proceded to the surface. However, the monitoring provided for immediate changes, so no harm was done. The proce-dure used in the Storhaug tunnel allowed for doing the job according to the strict specifications.

Longitudal section of the most critical area of the Storhaug tunnel. Even with only a 5 metre overburden, the leakage into the tunnel is only 0.01 l/min/m in this area.

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DANISH ROAD DIRECTORATE (DRD)

• High productivity• Continuous measurements (point density - one point every 20 mm)• Measurements in each lane on motorways with several lanes• Effective scanning on network level• Savings since there is no longer a requirement to close roads during testing• Increased safety for road users and measurement personnel, since measurements take place at normal driving speed • Fewer inconveniences for road users, since the road need no longer to be closed either

partially or wholly. This is of importance on roads with high traffic density.

network, the method is inexpedient. The FWD only collects information at indi-vidual points and the measurements take place while the FWD is stationary. This last point makes testing on motorways both expensive and difficult, due to safety requirements, such as hazard warning vehicles.

A fast moving bearing capacity vehicle can collect information at the speed of traffic, thus making it possible to divide the road network into sections with good, fair or poor bearing capacity. This evalu-ation can be used by the road owner to concentrate maintenance on the sections where it is most urgently required.

Benefits

A number of the advantages of using a High Speed Deflectograph can be seen in Figure 1. The primary quantifiable benefit of the High Speed Deflectograph is its production capacity. With a driving speed during measurement of 70 km/h and five effective work hours per day, 1,750 km can be tested within a week. This means that all lane-km on the Danish state road network (approximately 6,000 km) can be tested in four weeks. By way of com-parison, it will require approximately 16 weeks to conduct FWD tests at the entire Danish state road network, which has an approximate length of 1,600 km. The

The Danish Road Directorate and Greenwood Engineering have with support from the Danish Agency for Trade and Industry under the Danish Ministry of Business and Industry developed laser-based equipment to measure the bearing capacity of roads at normal traffic speed. The new High Speed Deflectograph gives increased traffic safety when measuring bearing capacity and provides a considerably larger basis for planning of pavement maintenance.

Maintenance and rehabilitation of a road network require knowledge about its immediate condition as well as its future condition. Knowledge about the immedi-ate condition is used to make decisions about urgent repair works, e.g., while knowledge about the expected future con-dition is used for planning purposes. The interest of the road owner for the bearing capacity is a question of maintaining the investment – in other words the future lifetime of the road pavement. By meas-uring the bearing capacity of roads, it is possible to evaluate the consequences of increased traffic load or a change in the composition of heavy traffic.

At present, the Road Directorate, the counties and municipalities in Denmark use the Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) to determine the bearing capacity of roads. The FWD gives very precise and detailed information about the bearing capacity at individual points; however, to obtain information for the evaluation of the structural condition of an entire road

Development of a High Speed DeflectographArticle specially written by Gregers Hilde-brand, Danish Road Directorate, Danish Road Institute, [email protected] and Søren Rasmussen, Greenwood Engineering A/S, [email protected].

Figure 1.

Figure 2: The High Speed Deflectograph prototype. The measuring system is placed on the white beam in front of the wheel of the trailer, while the data collection equipment is in the box on the trailer.



able truck speed (70 or 80 km/h). The maximum speed of the vehicle is approxi-mately 95 km/h, which can be maintained without problems at the state road network in Denmark. The minimum speed for the High Speed Deflectograph tests is approxi-mately 20 km/h.

Test results

In August 2001 a major test of the High Speed Deflectograph prototype was per-formed at a section of motorway M30. Motorway M30 is a typical older Danish motorway with two lanes in each direc-tion and a narrow median. The pavement consists of 230 mm to 280 mm asphalt concrete on top of more than one meter of base and subbase materials composed of cement concrete, gravel and sand. The natural subgrade is moraine clay.

The purpose of the test on motorway M30 was to document the feasibility of the measuring concept. All measurements were conducted at driving speeds in the range 70–80 km/h. Several road sec-tions were measured two to three times, approximately one hour apart, to facilitate an investigation into the repeatability of the data.

Figure 3 shows both that there is good agreement between the two High Speed Deflectograph measurements (repeatabil-ity) and also that there is good connection between the deflection velocities deter-mined by High Speed Deflectograph and the FWD (reproducibility). The two High Speed Deflectograph measurements have been made on the same section within one hour. The FWD deflection velocity shown in Figure 3 is estimated on the basis of FWD measurements, taking into account

that the High Speed Deflectograph meas-ures the deflection velocity approximately 250 mm in front of the loading wheel.

The differences in the absolute level of the individual curves in Figure 3 are due to the influence of the driving speed, for which there still is no complete compen-sation. This does not, however, have any influence for the present use of the High Speed Deflectograph to point out road sec-tions with poor bearing capacity.

The tests carried out indicate that the High Speed Deflectograph can become an important vehicle for the evaluation of the bearing capacity of roads, and that a com-parison between results from the FWD and the High Speed Deflectograph is possible.

Future perspectives

The prototype has shown that the concept behind the High Speed Deflectograph is feasible in practice. What remain are some adjustments of the equipment and further test measurements on various road types.

In the future Greenwood Engineering plans to continue the development of the High Speed Deflectograph by adding more Doppler sensors, so that it becomes possible to determine the E-modulus of road materials by means of High Speed Deflectograph measurements. Greenwood Engineering and the Road Directorate are at present trying to find partners to partici-pate in the further development.

FWD tests would furthermore only give information about the heavily trafficked lane for every 100 meters.

Similarly, the High Speed Deflecto-graph is capable of testing all lane-km (approximately 20,000 km) of the Danish county road network in about 12 weeks.

It may furthermore be interesting to monitor the bearing capacity of larger urban, municipal roads using the High Speed Deflectograph. Because of the length of the High Speed Deflectograph and the limited widths and curve radii of most rural, municipal roads it will not be easy to perform high-speed tests on small country roads. The bearing capacity is, however, often not the main factor in the deterioration of these roads.

Advanced laser technique

The High Speed Deflectograph measuring principle is based on advanced laser tech-nology patented by Greenwood Engin-eering. Two special laser sensors applying the Doppler technique measure the vertical movement of the road surface resulting from loading by a truck. The difference between a loaded and an un-loaded cross profile of the road is used as an expression of the actual surface movement, which is the result of the loading by a truck with a known weight. With the Doppler technique it is possible to determine the deflection velocity of the road surface. To obtain optimum measuring conditions at all times a servo system and inertial units continu-ously monitor and control the positions of the Doppler sensors.

It can be seen from Figure 2 that the test-ing equipment is mounted on a long trailer towed by a standard truck. The measuring equipment is mounted on a rigid steel beam in front of the right wheel of the trailer. The wheel impacts the road surface with a force magnitude up to 50 kN and the resulting reaction from the road surface is registered by two (approximately) vertical laser Doppler sensors. Data acquisition equip-ment is located in the container on top of the trailer, while a controlling computer is located in the driver’s cabin. The long trailer was selected to avoid disturbance on the measured deflection velocity from the towing truck.

Tests are typically conducted at a driv-ing speed close to the maximum allow-

Figure 3: Comparison between two High Speed Deflectograph (HSD) measurement series and deflection velocities deducted from FWD data. It is assumed that the driving speed is 70 km/h.

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If you wish to receive further informa-tion, please see Report 117 on http://www.vd.dk/pdf/117vi.pdf.



In the period from 17–22 August 2002, the Ninth International Conference on Asphalt Pavements was held in Copenhagen and some 450 researchers attended from 50 countries.

The International Society for Asphalt Pavements, ISAP, is – as the name implies – an international society whose main focus area is asphalt pavements. ISAP was officially created in 1987 to ensure that conferences on the subject would continue to be held regularly. ISAP has since developed into a forum, where road research engineers, designers, students, suppliers and road construction contractors meet to discuss research, development and focus areas for asphalt pavements in coming years. ISAP con-ferences have earlier been held in USA, Delft, Nottingham and Seattle; five years ago Copenhagen and The Danish Road Directorate were chosen as host for the 2002 conference.

To judge by the number of participants (444), sponsorships, press coverage and the general comments of the participants, Denmark as host country was able to pro-vide a very satisfactory environment for the conference.

The authors of the 130 papers had the possibility during the conference to present the research results on which their papers were based. This was done in plenum sessions and a large number of parallel sessions, where the results could be discussed directly with the experts.

Printed Proceedings will be prepared which can be purchased through the ISAP headquarters (www.asphalt.org) from the beginning of 2003. There it will also be possible to buy a CD-ROM of the Pro-ceedings.

The conference gave good opportunities for participants to create networks across borders and the sector. The experts pre-sented their work and received immediate comments from practitioners. In return they obtained insight into the interna-tional level of research within their field of interest. This form of networking not only is beneficial for the participants of the ISAP conference but the entire inter-national road sector, by promoting a more stringent and purposeful effort in clearly defined areas. The result of international co-operation is a co-ordinated effort to find new and better ways of improv-ing the economy of maintenance and construction of road pavements as well as work to co-ordinate the international road network for the benefit for users and administrators.

Plenum Sessions

One of the areas which is of great inter-est internationally is perpetual (long life) pavements. One of the plenum sessions of the conference was on this subject. The term has been defined in the United States but in Europe is better known as “Long Life Pavements”. The interest in Long Life Pavements arose from the need to construct main roads, where neither the administration nor the road user needs to fear disturbances in the daily traffic due to road repairs except for short term occupation at about 10 year intervals for resurfacing.

Before the opening of the Conference itself, Workshops and Tutorials were arranged with the aim of adding value to conference delegates by:- increasing basic knowledge- providing practical focus- providing updated information- aiding delegates in dealing withadvanced information.

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony represented this symbiosis: The Permanent Secretary, Thomas Egebo, welcomed the partici-pants with a speech in which he stressed the importance of international networks for development of perpetual pavements (long life pavements), which are ben-eficial for the environment and from an economic point of view. The mayor of Frederiksberg, Mads Lebech, pointed out the necessity for fewer roadworks and maintenance - especially in a densely populated local community such as Fre-deriksberg. The Director of the Danish Road Directorate, Henning Christiansen, dealt with the necessity of intense research for the benefit of the road users and the fact that the road sector is often ignored but has an incredibly important function in society. Then, Stephen Brown from Nottingham, England, welcomed all participants as Chairman of ISAP. He reminded delegates of the significance of this series of conferences and the impor-tance of the papers presented to them over the past 30 years.

Conference topics

Seen from a technical point of view, a number of subjects were taken up on which there is special focus internation-ally. The topics of the conference were - design- construction and maintenance- performance- environment- accelerated testing.

International Conference on Asphalt Pavements – ISAP 2002Article specially written for Nordic Road & Transport Research by H.J. Ertman Larsen, [email protected], and Helen Hasz-Singh, [email protected].

Welcome speech was given by Prof. Stephen Brown, Chairman of ISAP.


written information become luxuries. Use of the World Wide Web, interactive computer tools and new video technol-ogy offer ways to cheaply and effectively disseminate new information. However, issues arise when considering how to best market the use of new media and attract users. There is also the issue associ-ated with ensuring the dissemination of valid information and research results.

New challenges

The conclusion of the conference, in addi-tion to noting its successful management, was that international road research still needs to progress before the aims from the two previous conferences, in Notting-ham and Seattle, are achieved. Stephen Brown reviewed progress since the last conference and noted real achievements in accelerated pavement testing and the use of computers to assist with theoreti-cal analysis and steady progress in other areas. There is increased awareness of asphalt durability problems and the need to improve understanding of pavement cracking in its various forms. Good progress is also being made on many environmental issues. The AASHTO 2002 guide and US Superpave project results are eagerly awaited. He also mentioned a number of challenges for the future:- noise reducing pavements – an advan-tage to the road’s neighbours as well as users- Long Life Pavements – necessary to implement the promising results to date- application of soil mechanics principles particularly for thin pavements- accelerated testing to validate theory and design- SMART roads – intelligent roads with in-built sensors, which report on the con-dition of the road- improved simple test methods- training and communication- “Paving the Gap” to involve contractors to implement new ideas.

The next ISAP Conference will be held in Quebec, Canada in 2006. It will be well worth attending.

and thus pointed out the background for future improvements. These future chal-lenges for the road sector were described by Cristo Padmos from the Ministry of Transport in the Netherlands. Finally, Hans Bendtsen outlined the basic mecha-nism of tyre-pavement interactions and described the potential for the develop-ment of noise reducing surfaces.

Open Forum Sessions

Two Open Forum Sessions were also held which were based on short pres-entations from a panel and discussions from the floor. One session was on the subject of New Contractual Relation-ships as a driver of innovation. Modern society and growth in transportation requires an efficient and high perform-ing infrastructure. Safety and high traffic flow are important and any restrictions due to reconstruction and maintenance must be kept at a minimum. For road transportation, this means high perform-ing pavements with a long service life and a low requirement for maintenance. A need has been identified for renewal in the construction sector, which must develop purchasing forms as well as tech-niques for greater cost effectiveness: - development of purchasing methods which can be adapted to the legislation in individual countries - development of new guarantees and insurance systems adapted to the purchas-ing form - improved possibilities for the introduc-tion of new products and the best avail-able techniques - development of new incentives for com-panies engaged in research and develop-ment - accelerated development of standards and technical type approval of products.

The second session dealt with Dis-semination of Knowledge. The purpose of this forum was to discuss effective strategies and tools for disseminating pavement knowledge and specifically research results. Simply publishing arti-cles and reports and making conference presentations does not guarantee that information will reach the appropriate audience. As agencies and other organi-sations face greater budget constraints, travel to conferences and time to digest

The level of ambition in the USA is high. It is predicted that pavements on main roads should be designed for a life-time of more than 50 years, whereas the wearing course should be able to with-stand heavy traffic for more than 20 years. The Americans have already come some way in preparing information, which can fulfil these aims.

In Europe, the Forum of Road Research Laboratories (FEHRL), on order from the Western European Road Directors (WERD) have started a project with the aim of identifying and demolishing the barriers which exist in order to produce Long Life Pavements. Ten laboratories are involved in the project, which is called ELLPAG.

On an international level, OECD has commenced work where cost-benefit in use of new technology, such as improved or alternative binders, will be examined on a theoretical level, in the laboratory and, later, as full scale tests.

Another Plenum Session dealt with noise and environmental issues. Noise from road traffic is one of the major environmental problems from the road transport system. Within the system, vehicle/tyre/road, the pavement engi-neer has to play an important role to reduce noise emissions. Road engineers have to face the problem and to con-tribute to lower tyre-road noise levels.The session aimed at increasing the moti-vation for improvements. The effects of noise and the resulting annoyance were shown by Ronny Klæboe, a psychologist and statistician with long experience in this field. Flemming Secher, head of the Transportation Office at the Environ-mental Protection Agency in Denmark,presented the new EU-directive on noise


The new Danish High Speed Deflectograph was shown during the ISAP 2002.


SWEDISH NATIONAL ROAD AND TRANSPORT RESEARCH INSTITUTE (VTI)

Transformation of European Transport Research

The European transport research landscape is at present undergoing a transformation. Increasingly intensive cooperation can be seen between differ-ent research environments in Europe.

There are two factors that play a part in driving this development.

– We can see a chance of more exten-sive exchange of experiences by joint research projects, exchange of guest researchers and shared use of expensive research equipment, says VTI’s Director General Urban Karlström.

However, cooperation between the dif-ferent members will not be exclusive. The by-laws of ECTRI lay down that a broader network can be organised in each country so that other transport research environ-ments may also take part in the research cooperation of ECTRI. VTI intends to take such an initiative in Sweden. There is no doubt that ECTRI has a good chance of becoming an important network of excel-lence within the framework of the new EU initiative.

Great importance to VTI

For VTI, European cooperation is of great importance. VTI is already cooperating with some organisations at European level. ECTRI is a very important comple-ment to the cooperation that is already taking place in highway engineering within FEHRL. VTI has long-standing experience of cooperation at European level.

– VTI also intends to play a major role in setting up the research centres that are now being established in Europe for the transport research of tomorrow, foretells Urban Karlström.

One is the realisation that successful research demands very close coopera-tion on the international level. In the field of transport research, Europe is far too fragmented. Cooperation and coordina-tion are essential. EU is also forcing the pace of this development by financing research in such a way that pan-European cooperation is stimulated. The 6th Frame-work Programme of the EU contains new instruments for this. The aspiration is to create an effective “network of excel-lence” that covers the whole of Europe.

Common problems

The other reason for this development is that the users of the results of trans-port research are increasingly players at European level. On the one hand, they may be people in the European Com-mission and others who are active within the framework of the common transport policy in Europe, and on the other hand, people in the business community that has the whole of Europe as its market. Many of the problems in the field of transport are also similar in many countries. The need for knowledge does not recognise national boundaries.

ECTRI

It is against this background that the formation of a new European transport organisation, ECTRI, is to be seen. It is a collaborative organisation comprising 15 countries. ECTRI is an acronym for European Conference of surface Trans-port Research Institutes. Its members are the major transport research institutes in Europe, for instance INRETS in France, TRL in the UK, TNO in Holland. VTI is also one of the founders of ECTRI.

Cooperation comprises the whole of land transport and thus covers both road and rail. The object of ECTRI is to pro-mote and intensify cooperation between the environments that make up ECTRI.

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Learn more at:http://www.ectri.org/missions.html

– We can now see a chance of more exten-sive exchange of experiences in Europe, says Director General Urban Karlström.


There are lots of expensive equipments in transport research, equipments that are costly to buy and to use. A new project is therefore being launched within EU which has the aim of increasing research and development cooperation among countries in Europe. The objective is to ensure that simulators, crash tracks and similar equipment are utilised much more efficiently than at present.

The project is called Transport Research Equipment in Europe, with the acronym TREE. The coordinator is the French counterpart of VTI, Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées, LCPC.

LCPC is at the centre of a network which has fifteen members, among them VTI.

– For us, it is extremely important to participate in such a project, says Kent Gus-tafson, Director of Research at VTI.

– The result may be that the equipment we have will be utilised to a greater extent, and also that we will receive more commissions. The driving simulator, crash track and the mobile road simulator HVS (Heavy Vehicle Simulator) are some of the expensive items of equipment that VTI has. The other coun-tries have also invested in large and costly machinery. A common feature of practically all of these is that they are not utilised opti-mally. At certain times the machines may be stationary or the tracks empty, which must be considered a tremendous waste of resources.

Catalogueing and indentification

What TREE shall do to start with is to record all the major investments made in Europe in the field of transport research. A catalogue will be drawn up. A website will also be set; this is to be used interactively and will be regularly updated as the project develops. The members of the project will be able to use the website more or less as a

Survey of Transport Research Resources in Europe

discussion forum.– Step two is to identify the equipments

and resources that are of critical impor-tance, i.e. equipments and resources which institutes must have for the sake of research, continues Kent Gustafson. The question to be answered next is; what is demanded by the road administration authorities and other finance providers in the different countries?

Proposing a strategy After this, TREE will propose a strategy for better utilisation of the equipment necessary for research, for instance through coopera-tive agreements. Equipment and resources have already been classified in four groups:- all equipment that has to do with road research and road testing, for instance road simulators- test equipment for bridges and tunnels and test installations for structures- equipment needed for geotechnical inves-tigations, for instance to simulate earth-quakes. (This type of equipment is installed in Greece and Italy.)- equipment related to road users, for instance driving simulators, low friction tracks and crash tracks.

– It would be extremely useful if we could establish increased cooperation in Europe in the field of transport research, says Kent Gustafson. The HVS referred to above is a good example of how such cooperation can be set up. It was bought jointly by VTI and our Finnish counterpart, VTT. And just now we are using HVS for a consortium in Poland. The equipment is testing different structures prior to the construction of a new toll motorway.

The TREE project will extend over three years and is estimated to cost ca MSEK 10.

– This is not even as much as the cost of a machine such as HVS, adds Kent Gustafson.

Among other installations, VTI has a crash track which has the equipment and the expertise to perform international crash tests also. (The photograph shows a crash test on a road barrier in accordance with the American standard.)

The VTI crash track is a good example of the type of equipment that will be included in the catalogue drawn up within the TREE project. It is a good example of the type of equipment that will be included in the survey conducted by TREE. Expensive equipment is purchased, but in most cases it is only used nationally.

– This is a tremendous waste of resources, says Kent Gustafson, VTI Director of Research.

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Article written by: Catarina Gisby/redakta



Traffic safety information to parents with young children has had a number of positive effects, although an investi-gation of a campaign, called Säkereken, in Blekinge in the south of Sweden has pointed out that problems still remain. The results have been compared with results from an earlier study of a random sample of families in Blekinge in 1998. The comparison indicates that children who are members of “Säkereken” travel more safely. Their parents also seem to know more about traffic safety.

Parents of new-born babies in Ble-kinge are offered up-to-date informa-tion on how to protect children in traffic. The information is one part of the traffic safety campaign Säkereken. In this study VTI researchers Anna Anund and Gunilla Sörensen have evaluated the situation for those families who par-ticipate in the campaign. The aim of the project was to evaluate the level of safety when children are travelling by car.

– We were also interested in what kind of information parents received, searched for and wanted to receive, say the two researchers.

– The questions about laws and rec-ommendations were structured so as to determine if the parents had any gaps in knowledge. Parents have to be aware of their gaps in knowledge to be motivated to take in information.

The rate of awareness

According to the various recommenda-tions, children younger than four years ought to be placed in a restraint facing backwards. This is not always the case. One out of four children aged three does not travel facing backwards and approxi-mately 13 per cent of the children aged 1–2 travel facing forward.

– This is remarkable, since a lot of parents answered that they felt very sure about their choice of restraint, the instal-lation of the restraint and the adjustment of the safety belt, Anna Anund points out.

The parents need information about how to position and adjust the safety belt. Four out of ten parents do not know how to position and adjust the diagonal part of the safety belt. A significant percent-age of children who are three years old occasionally travel with the safety belt under the arm instead of on the shoulder. It was more common for parents who were members of Säkereken to answer correctly to the questions about where to position the safety belt.

A lot of parents were not aware of the importance of placing the hip part of the safety belt towards the thigh instead of across the stomach. Only 20 per cent of the parents knew that the reason for using boosters is to make it possible to adjust the hip part of the safety belt.

The parents were also unaware of the recommendations concerning cars equipped with an airbag on the passenger seat in the front.

– Less than 50 per cent of the parents were aware of the recommendations sug-gesting that a passenger ought to be at least 140 cm tall to be placed on a seat

Evaluation of a Traffic Safety Campaign among Parents

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Title: Child safety restraints – An evaluation of a traffic safety campaign among parents in the south of SwedenAuthors: Anna Anund and Gunilla SörensenSeries: VTI meddelande 914Language: Swedish with English sum-maryThe report is also available as a pdf file on vti.se under Reports.

with an airbag says Gunilla Sörensen. – This is, however, a better result

when compared with the earlier study in Blekinge.

Still much to be done

Swedish law states that child restraints have to be used up to and including the year when the child is six years old. Only 32 per cent of the parents were aware of this. Child restraints have to have an E- or T-approval, but only 50 per cent of the parents surveyed were aware of this.

The parents who were members of the campaign were expected to have received more information on how to protect chil-dren when travelling by car. This proved not to be the case.

– It is highly probable that children are still travelling by car in contravention of the law and that information has not been received or absorbed by all the parents!

The source of information

The most common source of information in Blekinge was the Child Health Centre. However, parents suggested that experts and authorities, for example the Swed-ish National Road Administration should develop the information, even if it was acceptable to receive it from the Child Health Centre, car retailers and child restraint retailers or specific campaigns.

The parents also wanted information about the consequences in case of a crash, depending on the type of child restraint used. More information about how to protect children depending on their age, height and weight is also something that the parents are requesting.


Professor Ulf Sandberg, tyre/road noise expert at VTI, has published the first book ever covering the entire subject of exterior tyre/road noise emission, the dominant part of road traffic noise in most traffic situations.

– Tyre/Road Noise Reference Book has 640 pages and is intended to provide a comprehensive overview both for people with a strong environmental interest and for noise specialists, says Ulf Sandberg. Professor Jerzy Ejsmont, University of Gdansk in Poland, is co-author and both are well known and experienced in this field, having worked on the subject since the 1970s.

Several major policy documents from international organisations or expert groups have identified tyre/road noise as the component of road transportation noise which is the most urgently in need of reduction. Road traffic noise from a fleet of modern vehicles travelling at constant speed is generally dominated by noise from the tyre/road interaction.

In 2001, the EU introduced noise emis-sion limits for tyres and preparations are

Tyre/Road Noise in a New Book

currently being made within the UN/ECE to introduce a tyre noise emission regula-tion. International standards on tyre/road noise issues are underway.

The industry itself now often identifies tyre/road noise as a major future prob-lem to which substantial resources must be allocated. Road and environmental authorities face tyre/road noise as the major road traffic noise component in most situations when noise reduction is needed. A high competence in this sub-ject is necessary in order to meet future demands from society and customers.

– The book is very comprehensive and covers all imaginable aspects of exterior tyre/road noise, says Ulf Sandberg. We give suggestions for further reading for various categories of readers and the book can be used as a reference book in which the reader may find general as well as specialist information regarding virtu-ally any topic that he or she might want to look up.

– The book is intended to provide an overview in the field of tyre/road noise, says Ulf Sandberg.

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More information about the book, as well as how to order it, is available at:http://informex.info


2. E18 in Østfold county 10,800 m road section. A total of ten speed camera sites on a road section with an 80 km/h speed limit. The speed limit was 70 km/h along the rest of the road section.

3. E6 in Hedmark County 26,000 m road section. Four speed camera sites. 90 km/h speed limit. Speed has also been measured between the speed cameras, as well as at four sites between 7 and 19 km further on (in the direction of traffic) after the speed cameras have been passed.

4–6 km/h speed reduction

The net effect of speed cameras at speed camera sites varies between the road sec-tions from –6.16 km/h on the E6 in Hed-mark County to –4.18 km/h on the E6 in Østfold County. The change is clear and negative (speed reduction) at all speed camera sites covered by the table. On 80 km/h road sections, the effect is estimated to –5.72 km/h and at 70 km/h stretches to –5.04 km/h.

On each road section there is some vari-

INSTITUTE OF TRANSPORT ECONOMICS (TØI)

Speed cameras are effective in reducing speed. An before and after evaluation of three road sections in Norway equipped with speed cameras, shows an aver-age speed reduction of 4–6 km/h. The reduction was highest in sections with speed limit 90 km/h compared with sec-tions with speed limit 70 km/h.

Speed cameras have been used to record speeding in Norway since 1988. In 2002, some 250 cameras are in use around the country. Research has shown clear effects of speed cameras on accidents. In the Traffic Safety Handbook, the studies are summarised, and it has been concluded that there has been a total reduction in injury accidents of 17 per cent. However, information about the effects of speed cameras on driving speeds is insufficient.

Three test sections On this basis, TØI was in 1999 commis-sioned by the Ministry of Transport and Communications and the Police Direc-torate to carry out a study to evaluate the effect of speed cameras on driving speeds. This is done by comparing results from the Road Department’s automatic recording sites over a period of approxi-mately one year before speed cameras are installed, with a corresponding data set from a period of approximately one year after speed cameras are installed.

Three road sections were selected where speed cameras had been installed at the end of 1999/2000. The before measurements were taken in 1999, and the after measurements in 2000. In order to study the effects of speed cameras over a longer period, data was also collected for 2001 at two sites. All three sections where two-lane roads with average traffic around 10,000 vehicles per day. The fol-lowing road sections were selected:

1. E6 in Østfold County. 8,400 meter road section. 90 km/h speed limit. Ten speed camera sites distributed with 5 in each direction of travel.

Cameras Led to a Speed Reduction

ation in the effects in the different direc-tions of traffic.

The relationship between speed in the before situation and the net effect of speed cameras is analysed. Correspond-ing calculations of the net effect of speed cameras at each of the 20 individual speed camera sites where there are speed meas-urements, showed reductions in speed at all sites, varying from –1.38 km/h to –7.10 km/h.

For each speed limit there is a relation-ship between the calculated net effect of speed cameras at a speed camera site and the average speed at this site before the speed camera was introduced. If the speed in the before situation is high, the effect is greater than where the speed in the before situation is lower.

Speed profile

A speed profile is defined as a figure where speed is shown as a continuous function over a given road section. In order to portray a speed profile, continu-

A clear effect of speed cameras has also been demonstrated both 0.5 year and 1.5 year after the speed cameras were installed.


ous speed measurements are necessary. Our automatic average measurements are therefore strictly speaking not adequate to portray this, since we do not know the speed between the measurement sites. Nonetheless, in order to illustrate the longitudinal speed variation in the two directions of traffic we have done this, with some reservations.

Figure 1 shows the results from all measurement sites on the E18 Østfold. The upper part of the figure concerns the traffic direction from Sweden and the lower from Oslo. The horizontal axis shows the names of the measurement sites (the axis is not to scale). The vertical axis shows the average speed in km/h. The black curve shows the average speed after the speed cameras, while the grey curve shows the average speed before speed cameras, adjusted for changes in the comparison sites. The distance between the curves in each site represents the cal-culated net effect of speed cameras.

All sites in the figure have speed cam-eras, apart from Knapstad. The changes in

speed where speed cameras are installed are estimated to be between –4.30 km/h and –6.42 km/h. In Knapstad, between consecutive speed cameras, the change in speed is estimated to be 1.76 km/h in the direction from Sweden and –2.27 km/h in the direction from Oslo. The distances from the speed cameras and the measurement site at Knapstad are 4,750 m and 3,250 m measured in the direction

Title of report: Speed cameras (ATK) effects on speedAuthor: Arild Ragnøy (arild.ragnø[email protected])Series: TØI report 573/2002Language: Norwegian with summary in English (the summary is also available on http://www.toi.no/Publikasjoner/publication.asp?ID_Publ=1002.

of traffic. Figure 2 shows the results from the E6

Hedmark in a similar way.

Figure 1: Longitudinal speed profile E18 Østfold. (Speed limit shown in figure.) Aver-age speed before and after speed cameras in km/h. (Adjusted for changes in comparison sites.) Changes in average speed in km/h.

Figure 2: Longitudinal speed profile E6 Hedmark. Speed limit 90km/h. Relative average speed before and after speed cameras in km/h. (Adjusted for changes in comparison sites.) Change in average speed in km/h.

Speed variation and lasting effect

As shown in figure 1 and 2 the calcu-lated changes in speed longitudinally are greater at the speed camera sites than at the measurement sites between and after speed camera sites. It can therefore be claimed that speed cameras contribute to increased longitudinal variation in speed on the road sections studied. In the fig-ures, this is most clearly expressed on the E6, Hedmark (Figure 2).

At the speed camera site at Skava-bakken (E6 in Hedmark) a clear effect of speed cameras has been demonstrated both 0.5 year and 1.5 year after speed cameras were installed. The effect (net effect, adjusted for changes in comparison sites) is estimated for the actual periods to –8.30 km/h (after 0.5 year) and –8.10 km/h (after 1.5 year) respectively. This indicates that the effect is relatively stable over time.

Between speed camera sites, the effect is also relatively stable, but not as stable as at the speed camera sites. This may indicate that the tendency to increased longitudinal variation in speed along a road section as a result of speed cameras, increases with time.

Laser pistol measurement

Using a laser pistol connected to a laptop PC, measurements have been taken of the speed and position of vehicles in the direct vicinity of speed cameras. In order to accumulate the measurements of vehi-cles, special software has been developed as part of this project, which calculates average driving speeds within 10 metre intervals on the actual road section. Figure 3 shows the results of this type of calcula-tion made for the first speed camera of a series of 5. (The figure is based on 4,000 “laser shots” at 302 vehicles.)

The horizontal axis shows the distance in metre from the vehicle to the speed camera (negative distance is in front of the speed camera), and the vertical axis shows driving speed in km/h in the actual position. The grey line shows the actual measurement results, while the black line shows a mathematical “smoothing” of the measured speed profile.

The measurements in the three differ-ent situations described above show that road-users on average reduced their speed from a position about 100–150 metres before a speed camera installation and up to the speed camera installation itself by 1–2 km/h, before then increasing their speed again.

Figure 3: Speed profile at speed camera installations, Ingedal, E6 Østfold, traffic direction from Sweden. Driving speed in km/h v distance between speed camera posts and vehicles in m. First speed camera of a series of five.



An increase in the amount of driver training in Norway, from the present level of 2,000 km to at least 4,000 km, would reduce the post-licensing crash risk. The study, carried out by the Institute of Transport Economics, also indicates that the post-licensing crash risk increases with the amount of driver training up to a certain level. Additional training is associated with decreasing risk.

In Norway, the age limit for driver train-ing (with a professional or lay instructor) was lowered in 1994 from 17 to 16 years. One purpose of this change was to pro-vide learner drivers with more experience before starting driving on their own.

An evaluation carried out by the Insti-tute of Transport Economics indicates that the post-licensing crash risk increases with the amount of driver training up to a certain level, and that additional training is associated with decreasing risk. In other words, there is apparently an inverted U-shaped relationship between training and risk.

Possible explanation

A possible explanation is that training affects both the perceived and the actual driving skills, and that these are differen-tially influenced by driving experience; in other words, the learning curves are different for perceived and actual driv-ing skills. Those who have very little training are probably very cautious, thus avoiding dangerous situations. A mod-erate amount of training may result in increasing the perceived skills more than the actual skills, resulting in dangerous situations, which the novice drivers is not competent to handle safely. With still more experience, the discrepancy may be reduced, which explains the descending part of the inverted U. This hypothesised explanation has to be substantiated by

further research. The increase in risk with a moderate amount of training was demonstrated both for training in traffic schools and for private training (with a lay instructor).

In the previous analyses it was dem-onstrated that the crash risk is reduced by about 50 per cent during the first 8 to 9 months after licensing. Consequently it is expected that some of this reduc-tion may be obtained by increased pre-licensing training. On the other hand, more training will result in some crashes during the training itself. Since there is a decreasing marginal effect of training on post-licensing crash risk, there must be an optimal amount of training, above which additional training produces more crashes than it prevents. The optimal level is defined here as the amount of training resulting in the largest total decrease in the number of crashes per driver, when

considering the learning period and the first year of licensed driving.

Increased amount of training

Based on a set of more or less uncertain assumptions, the following tentative conclusions are presented. (The estimates of optimal amounts of training are based on the most conservative assumptions, in order not to overestimate the favourable effects of training).

Because the ratio of personal injury to property damage only is lower during training than when driving alone (prima-rily because of lower speeds), optimal amount of training is higher when per-sonal injury is considered, as compared to property damage only.

Involvement in personal injury is reduced by increasing the amount of training up to about 10,000 km.

Driver Training, Driving Experience and Crash Risk

An increase in driver training is positive in order to reduce the post-licensing crash risk, but the amount of training has to be over a certain level, says the author of the research report, Fridulv Sagberg at Institute of Transport Economics. In Norway you are obliged to mark the car with the letter “ L” (for learning) when training.



The largest decrease in personal injury involvement is obtained by increasing the amount of training by between 3,000 and 5,000 km.

Increasing the amount of training by more than 1,000 km may result in an increase in property damage only involve-ment.

A rather cautious recommendation from a safety point of view only would be to increase the amount of training by at least 2,000 km compared to the present level, which is about 2,000 km on the average.

The need of more research on the assumptions underlying these estimates is pointed out, especially to get more knowledge about the risk during driver training, and how it varies with total driv-ing distance, as well as about the effect of training on the post-licensing risk.

The analyses were based on question-naire responses from about 30,000 novice drivers.

Title: Driver training, driving experience, and crash riskAuthor: Fridulv Sagberg ([email protected])Series: TØI report 566/2002Language: Norwegian


Norwegian TravelSurvey 2001

64 per cent of the daily trips in Norway are taken in a personal use car.

85 per cent of the population in Norway live in a household that own, or have disposal of a car. 52 percent of the households have one car and 33 per cent have two or more cars. This is one of the findings in the 2001 Norwegian Travel Survey.

The 2001 Norwegian Travel Survey (NTS2001) is the fourth nationwide travel survey conducted in Norway. The pre-vious surveys were undertaken in 1985, 1992 and 1998. The objective of the travel surveys is to examine travel patterns and travel activities in the population. The surveys collect information on how often people travel, why people travel, how they travel and how travel behaviour dif-fers with respect to age, gender, place of residence, income etc.

More than 20,000 people 13 years and older were randomly selected to partici-pate in the NTS2001. Respondents were asked to report trips made on a certain day

(daily mobility), and any long distance trip undertaken during the last month before the interview. Long distance travel was defined as trips of a minimum 100 km crow flies distance and trips abroad. Inter-views were conducted by telephone.

Transport resources

85 per cent of the population live in a household that own, or have disposal of, a car. 52 per cent have one car and 33 percent have two or more cars.

19 per cent of the population have very good access to public transport where they live. However, the quality of the public transport system varies with place of residence. In urbanized areas, such as Oslo/Akershus, Bergen or Trondheim, more than two thirds of the population have good or very good access. In scat-tered populated areas the corresponding number is only six percent.

75 per cent own a bicycle, slightly less than three years ago. Nine per cent of


Title: 2001 Norwegian Travel Survey – key resultsAuthors: Jon Martin Denstadli and Randi Hjorthol Series: TØI report 588/2002Language: Norwegian


those aged 16 years and older own or have disposal of a moped or motorcycle.

Trip frequency

Average trip frequency is 3,1 trips per day. This is about the same as in 1992 and 1998. During a day, 15 per cent do not leave the house at all, i.e., have zero trips. 35 per cent make one or two trips, another 28 percent 3–4 trips, and 22 percent make five or more trips per day. The percentage of non-mobile people is slightly higher in 2001 than it was three years ago.

Average trip length is 11,9 km. Howe-ver, most trips are short, 40 per cent are shorter than three kilometres, 56 per cent are under 5 km.

During a month, 46 per cent of the population make one or more long dis-tance journeys. Average trip frequency for this group is 2,9. Three out of four “travellers” only make one or two trips.

Transport mode

64 per cent of the daily trips were taken in a personal use car (52 per cent driver and 12 per cent passenger), 26 per cent were non-motorised (walking/cycling), while public transport was used for about ten per cent of the trips. Bus is the most important type of public transport, accounting for almost 60 per cent of all trips done by public transport.

Personal use vehicles are also the most frequently used mode for long distance travel. During 2001, 64 per cent of all long distance journeys were taken in a personal use car. One out of five journeys were airplane trips, train and bus accoun-ted for five per cent each, and ferries/boats were used for six per cent of all long dis-tance journeys. Since 1998, commercial air travel has lost market shares, and more trips are taken by personal use car.

Trip purpose

Of all daily trips in 2001, 22 per cent were to/from work, 25 per cent were for shop-ping, 13 per cent were for care-related purposes (e.g., follow kids to/from day-care), 17 per cent were for leisure activi-ties, 13 per cent were to visit friends and relatives, and 10 per cent were for other purposes.

Note that trips in the NTS are to be reported stage-wise. This means that picking up kids at the kindergarten on the way home from work, is reported as an independent trip, the purpose being care. This disguises the importance of travel to/from work, which account for only 22 per cent of the total number of daily trips. However, if stages are merged into trips, almost half are to/from work.

Travel outside Norway

During a month, 15 per cent of all Nor-wegians aged 13 years and older travel to a destination outside Norway. 17 per cent of these trips are work-related, and 83 per cent are done for private purposes.

In 2001, 40 per cent of foreign travel was to Sweden, 16 per cent to Denmark, five per cent to Great Britain, and 11 per cent to other countries in North- and Middle-Europe. Another 18 per cent were to Southern-Europe, and seven per cent of the international trips Norwegians made in 2001 were to countries outside Europe.

a Happy New Year

2003!

a Happy New Year

2003!

wishes youwishes you


Title: Pavement performance models for secondary roads with thin overlays.Authors: Harri Spoof and Sami PetäjäSeries: Finnra Reports 1/2002Language: Finnish with English abstract

Title: Public transport signal priorities and real-time passenger informationAuthors: Mikko Lehtonen et al. Series: Reports and Memoranda of the Ministry of Transport and Communica-tions B 41/2001. Language: Finnish with English abstract Finnish version of the report is avail-able at: http://www.mintc.fi/www/sivut/dokumentit/julkaisu/mietinnot/2001/b4101_raportti.pdf

Annotated reports from VTT, Building and Transport

Pavement Performance Models for Secondary Roads with Thin Overlays This report is part of the Road Structures Research Program, TPPT (1994–2001). The objective of this task was to develop pavement performance models for sec-ondary roads with thin overlays to be used in the Pavement Management Systems of Finnra.

Test sections used for modelling were selected based on experimental design with variations in climatic location, sub-grade properties, traffic levels, overlay type and pavement age. In addition to the available network level information from the national condition database (KURRE), more detailed project level measurements were done on the test sections.

Pavement performance models were developed for transverse unevenness, which was described as the ridge height between wheel paths. Separate models were developed for different pavement surface types (soft asphalt concrete and asphalt concrete) and climatic conditions. The explanatory variables in the models are Surface Curvature Index (SCI450), pavement surface width and annual aver-age daily traffic (AADT). In addition, models for distress propagation were developed for longitudinal unevenness

and pavement distress clustered by pave-ment surface type (soft asphalt concrete and asphalt concrete).

The developed models are suited for use in the daily practice of pavement management when programming pave-ment maintenance and will therefore help the pavement manager to make prudent

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investments to his road network.

Public Transport Signal Priorities and Real-Time Passenger InformationThe study evaluated a pilot system on tramline 4 and bus line 23 in Helsinki. The system included AVL, CAD, public transport priorities at signals and dynamic passenger information at stops and in vehicles.

A public transport telematics system was launched in Helsinki, Finland in 1999. The system provides several public transport telematics functions such as real-time passenger information, bus and tram priorities at traffic signals and schedule monitoring. The aim of the system is to reduce the delays in public transport service, to improve the regular-ity and punctuality of the public trans-port service, and to improve passenger information. The aim of the study was to investigate the impacts, socio-economic

passengers. Three out of four passengers supported the expansion of the system. The signal priorities seemed to reduce the fuel consumption about 4 per cent and the exhaust emissions 1–5 per cent depending on the type of emissions.

benefits and technical performance of the telematics applications. The methods included before and after field studies, an interview and a survey, a simulation, and a socio-economic evaluation.

The telematics system seemed to have increased the number of passengers, reduced the delays at traffic signals, decreased the travel times and improved the regularity and punctuality of the public transport service. The results indi-cated that delays at signals were reduced by more than 40 per cent. The regularity and punctuality of the service were con-siderably improved.

The passengers regarded especially the stop displays useful. With the help of the displays it was, above all, possible to influence the travelling comfort of the


Title: Review of the Tanzania Road Sector Programme TAN 045 - Final ReportAuthors: Henning Lauridsen, Terje Assum and Immanuel N. KimamboSeries: TØI Report no: 571/2002Language: EnglishThe summary is available electronically on: http://www.toi.no/Publikasjoner/publication.asp?ID_Publ=1000

Annotated reports from the Institute of Transport Economics (TØI)

Review of the Tanzania Road Sector Programme The NORAD supported TAN 045 Road Sector Programme in Tanzania focuses on institutional strengthening of the Ministry of Works. TanRoads, a new semi-auto-nomous roads agency, was established in 2000. The review concludes that the programme has generally been running well. Considerable achievements have been made, although they fall somewhat short of initial expectations. Sustainabi-lity cannot be considered achieved as yet for the programme, but some components

ment development.are sustainable and others are moving towards sustainability. There is a need for continuation and widening of current sup-port to the sector. It is recommended that a new sector-wide five-years programme focuses on institutional development within three areas: - management and organisational devel-opment of Ministry of Works - management and organisational devel-opment of TanRoads - rural roads organisational and manage-

Environmental Annoyances in NorwayThe national surveys of living conditions (NSLC) in Norway are undertaken every 4th year. In 2001 3,250 persons (67 per cent response rate) responded to questions about how they perceive different noise and air pollution sources. As the same questions were used in the 1997 changes in people’s annoyances over the four year period can be analysed. The survey documents that road traffic is the source of the environ-mental problems that affect most people. 12 per cent report that they are somewhat

or highly annoyed outside their dwelling by road traffic, while the corresponding figure for aircraft noise is 5 per cent. The relocation of Oslo Airport from Fornebu, located near Oslo, to Gardermoen and reductions in the emission of vehicular and other air pollutants contribute to the reduc-tions in annoyances. The lack of more detailed exposure measures and control with modifying factors makes it difficult to numerically assess the effect of measures against noise and air pollution.

Title: Environmental annoyances in Norway 1997-2001Authors: Marika Kolbenstvedt and Ronny KlæboeSeries: TØI Report no: 592/2002Language: Norwegian with English sum-maryThe summary is available electronically on: http://www.toi.no/Publikasjoner/publication.asp?ID_Publ=1023

Annotated reports from the Danish Road Directorate (DRD)

Models for Determining Permanent Strains in the Subgrade and the Pavement Functional Condition Two test pavements and one strength-ened, overlaid variant of the second test pavement have been tested with the Danish Road Testing Machine. These test pavements were instrumented to enable measurements of strains and stresses in the pavement layers, and resilient and permanent strains in the subgrade at spe-cific load repetitions. Using the measured response data from two test pavements, several models were developed to predict permanent strain in the subgrade and the surface rutting (and roughness) as a func-tion of number of applied load repetitions, resilient strains and stresses.

Title: Models for Determining Permanent Strains in the Subgrade and the Pave-ment Functional ConditionAuthors: Wei Zhang and Robin A. Mac-donaldSeries: Report 115Language: EnglishOnly available electronically on: http://www.vd.dk/pdf/115vi.pdf


Evaluation of Roadworks Sites with Speed Cameras Work on and near the road is very exposed, and many road workers experience a lot of worry and insecurity on the job each day. The problem is the high speeds and far too small distances, in combination with inattention and lack of consideration on the part of drivers.

Because of this, the accident risk in conjunction with roadworks is higher than in other traffic. In an attempt to increase safety and improve the working condi-tions of road workers, camera surveil-lance of roadworks sites has been tested.

The method has been evaluated in the pilot study described in the report. Evalu-ation was part of an initiative in central Sweden, carried out in 2001.

The results of speed measurements show that camera surveillance has the potential to reduce speed past the road-works. The measured speed effects were of the order of 5 km/h when speed was measured before and after the installation of speed cameras with associated signs. It

is worth noting that the speed effect was independent of the level of speed, i.e. the reduction in speed was 5 km/h across the whole speed range. The reduction in speed due to the speed cameras also meant that the number of speed transgressions was cut by about half. Both the reduction in speed level and the drop in the proportion of those driving too fast must be consid-ered a great success.

Title: Utvärdering av kameraöver-vakade vägarbetsplatser – en pilotstudieAuthors: Anne Bolling and Lena NilssonSeries: VTI notat 64-2001Language: SwedishThe report is also available in Swedish as a pdf file on www.vti.se under Rapporter.

Title: Polering av asfaltbeläggning. Friktionsmätningar i Stockholm 1997–2000Authors: Torbjörn Jacobson and Fredrik HornwallSeries: VTI notat 17-2001Language: SwedishThe report is also available in Swed-ish as a pdf file on www.vti.se under Rapporter.

Polishing of Road Surfacings by TrafficIn recent years problems connected with low wet friction have been noted on wear resistant surfacings containing porphyry, mainly in late summer and in the autumn and in exposed positions. The latter may be roads carrying heavy traffic, sharp bends, intersections, roundabouts, i.e. carriageways where the kneading action of rubber tyres is most pronounced. Measurements from Stockholm have shown that friction can be rapidly reduced if the surfacing is prone to polishing, and accidents related to skidding have been reported on polished surfacings. Meas-urements made on the rural road network over the whole of southern and central Sweden did not give the same low friction values as the measurements in Stockholm; the porphyry surfacings on the rural road network exhibited considerably better wet friction during the same period.

In order to study the extent of polishing by traffic and the change in friction over the year, a survey was made of a number of asphalt surfacings in the Stockholm region. The surveys from 1997, 1998,

between dry and wet summers had also been noted before.

1999 and 2000 comprise repeated meas-urements during the year (from spring to early winter) on a number of surfacings in the Stockholm region. They refer to heav-ily trafficked roads, tunnels or bridges with wearing courses of the ABS16 type, containing porphyry or quartzite, or mixed material comprising porphyry and quartzite, or porphyry and local material. The speed limits vary between 50, 70, 90 and 110 km/h.

Measurements in 2000 showed that friction was somewhat lower in late summer/autumn than earlier in the year. On many roads, the friction measured in the autumn was below 0.5. As before, the lowest friction was found on surfacings containing porphyry. Surfacings with quartzite also had lower values than in previous summers, but the friction never dropped below 0.5. Polishing of porphyry by rubber tyres is greater in wet condi-tions, and the rainy summer in 2000 is probably the reason that friction exhibited the lowest values during the four year measurement series. Some difference

Annotated reports from the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute, VTI

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Nordic Road and Transport Research 3-2002

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