In mid-1993, a questionnaire dealing with street and traffic issues in urban areas was sent to the 286 municipalities in Sweden. There were two objectives. One was to find out how professional road and traffic engineers looked upon certain aspects of traffic. The other was to identify and/or confirm relevant and urgent needs for research. More than 90% of the municipalities answered the questionnaire. In the beginning of the 1990s, there was an economic recession in Sweden, which led to a decrease in traffic. Therefore, most respondents were of the opinion that tendencies in traffic had improved. This applied to traffic safety as well as capacity issues, accessibility and the environment. However, these tendencies varied among different road user groups. The report also describes research fields considered essential by traffic engineers. Many pointed to a lack of sufficient knowledge in areas such as traffic safety, traffic engineering improvements and street maintenance. The planning of the investigation was financed from the research funds available to the VTI. The results were compiled with the aid of funds from the Swedish Communications Research Board (KFB). (A)
Samenvatting