Highway & Network Management

Rajasthan is one of the most favoured tourist destinations of India for both domestic and international traffic on account of its rich array of historical forts, palaces, art and culture. In terms of area, Rajasthan is the country's largest state. Its size and strategic location means that it is traversed by substantial traffic linking the neighbouring states to the north and south. The National Highway (NH) road corridors currently accommodating this traffic are the NH-8, NH-11, NH-12, NH-14 and NH-1

As the world descended on Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics, visitors were able to travel around the city with confidence and intelligence thanks to a landmark project by IRF Member, Delcan

GTZ highlights a pioneering scheme illustrating the potential of Bus Rapid Transit systems as a viable approach to alleviate the traffic and social problems faced by large cities worldwide Most major cities worldwide have been characterised by the phenomenon of steadily growing urbanisation accompanied by exponentially increasing numbers of private motorised vehicles. This has led to congested roads and sprawling cities, with commuters having to travel long distances to and from work. Despite huge inves

Following a government decision, a new model for the management and financing of the road infrastructures sector was defined in 2007 and is now being implemented The national road agency (Estradas de Portugal or EP, EPE) was transformed into a state-owned public company, Estradas de Portugal, SA (EP, SA), and a new body, the Institute for Road Infrastructures (InIR), was created with public functions of regulation and supervision of road infrastructures. InIR is now the Portuguese national road authorit

New trials pave the way for smart road pricing using Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). In recent years, the concept of road charging has been gaining acceptability among Europe's policymakers.

The Portuguese experience with road safety has proved that planning, development, introduction, and hard work do pay off in the end. Paulo Marques Augusto, president of the National Road Safety Authority (ANSR), explained that in the last 10 years a decrease of over 50% has been achieved in the number of fatalities on the road network despite a continuing growth in traffic demand (there are five million vehicles in Portugal), and a similar reduction in travel time on most of the connections between Lisbon a

IRF BPC bringing GNSS-based road pricing a step closer to maturity. Today, road transport faces major challenges such as the ever-increasing need for safety, as well as for reduced congestion and pollution. These problems are particularly critical in highly populated zones, notably big cities and their surrounding areas. Different schemes are being proposed to improve the situation, including road pricing systems to automatically charge drivers for their use of road infrastructures.

The future financing of the European road network has again become a hot topic in Brussels On 15 October, 2010 in the Belgian capital, the Council of Transport Ministers hammered out a political compromise on the revision of the Eurovignette Directive that paves the way for the imposition of additional charges on road transport as a means of internalising externalities. Whether the imposition of these additional costs is justified or not remains the subject of protracted debate.