Transportation research in general and travellers decision making in particular as a tool for transportation management. Paper presented at OECD Symposium "Road user perception and decision making", Rome, 13-15 November 1972.

In this introductory paper some conclusions, drawn from the Symposium on psychological aspects of driver behaviour (Noordwijkerhout, 1971), are mentioned, which show how little use was made of the results of driver behaviour research. In order to facilitate the analysis of driver behaviour a transportation decision making scheme is presented and explained. Then the task of the transportation researcher, elaboration and realization of research, priorities for measures and their implication on driver behaviour research, and the international co-ordination of road safety and traffic research are discussed. Finally some comments on the scope and substance of this OECD symposium are given.