This report essentially describes the situation of the transport sector in Europe in 1992 and, with the help of charts, shows the changes that have occurred since 1970. The assessment of recent trends in Europe has been based on data provided by the 29 ECMT Member countries as at 31 December 1992. The volume of traffic has been calculated in terms of passenger-kilometres and tonne-kilometres. In order to base the overall trends on as many countries as possible, the indices used for several charts include estimates of traffic where 1992 figures are not available for certain countries. Owing to the break-up of what was formerly Yugoslavia, the statistical series used for this issue of the leaflet cannot be compared with those to previous years and, in addition, a break occurs in 1991 with the reunification of Germany. Since the data for the new Laender are taken into account as from that year, the total volumes of traffic recorded for ECMT as a whole show very substantial increases, thus concealing somewhat unfavourable trends associated with the poor economic climate prevailing in Europe. Moreover, the numbers of killed and injured on the roads of ECMT Member countries in 1991 also show an appreciable increase for the same reason. For the first time the leaflet includes statistical data on transport in those countries which became members of ECMT in 1992: Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovenia. A special section at the end of this leaflet gives the recent trends of transport in the 10 countries of Central and Eastern Europe which have joined ECMT since 1991. Owing to the specific characteristics of the transport systems in these countries and the radical changes these systems are currently undergoing, it was thought inadvisable to take account of these data in the aggregate figures calculated for the ECMT as a whole. (Author/publisher)
Abstract