This report summarises the issues identified between 1989 and 1991 at three Round Tables of ISIRT (International Scientific Initiatives in Road Traffic), an international forum for researchers concerned with road safety, the environmental impacts of road traffic, and the future of access and mobility. Safe access in a stable environment in an era of road traffic is a difficult goal to achieve. Present mobility patterns and trends may not be sustainable for very long. Achieving sustainable patterns of activities and access to them will require systematic changes in how individuals choose activities and transport modes. Some appropriate steps are indicated, together with other issues that need further research and development, and options that should be kept open. The challenge of road traffic requires a range of interrelated and vigorous responses. Technical responses include changes to modes, roads and vehicles, and new information-technology-based forms of communication with drivers and intending drivers. Institutional responses include responses by public authorities, organisations and businesses. Responses concerned with behaviour and choices will influence responses of other types. Regulatory responses influence the manufacture and use of vehicles in the interests of safety and the environment. Financial and fiscal responses (a complex mixture of taxes, charges and subsidies) have evolved and have piecemeal logic.
Abstract