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Last update 30/05/2007

Task 2_4:- “Socio-economic impacts of road conditions”

Lead Contact

Svante Johansson, Roadscanners AB

Objective

The aim of the Task was to improve the understanding of the significance of the low volume roads and the road conditions for people in the rural areas of the Northern Periphery of Europe, and thereby hope that more resources will be allocated to the low volume roads.

Outputs

One report

The means to accomplish this is to collect information of the socio-economic impact of the road conditions from the literature, by interviews and by calculation with a model and try to look at the consequences to industries and local residents if funding for low-traffic rural roads is not sufficient to ensure the serviceability of the local road network. Then we want to spread this information to people on all levels in the society, to politicians and to road administrations in order to have a better understanding for an increase of the budgets for low volume roads and thereby create better life conditions for people in the rural areas of Northern Europe.

The conclusions are that much work has been done and is going on in the socio-economic area in the partner countries. Target standards for the general road conditions and lowest acceptable standards are more or less expressed and socio-economic models are used for budget discussions and budget distribution. But for the low volume roads there are still much work to do.

It is recommended to follow the Scottish example to sort out the fragile areas of the partner countries. Then to define the lifeline roads which are of critical importance for the people in the rural areas. This should be demonstrated to the politicians and used in the budget negotiations with the Transportation Departments in the partner countries to have an increased understanding for the low volume roads. Then the lifeline roads should be treated with special care in the maintenance and rehabilitation programs.

It is also recommended to try to find a common standard for “shame levels” of the road conditions in the partner countries and to improve the models to better fit also the low volume roads.

Links

Roadscanners Oy

Acknowledgments

Jaro Potucek, SNRA, Pertti Virtala, FinnRA, Vesa Männistö, Inframan OY, Juha Äijö, 100 Gen OY Geir Berntsen and Kjell Solberg, NRA, Richard Evans and his staff and Howard Brindlay, HITRANS, to thank Ralph Schackleton and David Smart, WIC, Ron Munro, Highlands Council, Timo Saarenketo, Roadscanners Oy, Virpi Halttu, Roadscanners Oy, Mika Pyhähuhta from Laboratorio Uleåborg.