Do more trucks lead to more motor vehicle fatalities in European roads? Evaluating the impact of specific safety strategies.

Truck operations have recently become an important focus of academic research not only because road freight transport is a key part of logistics, but because trucks are usually associated with negative externalities including pollution, congestion and traffic accidents. While the negative environmental impacts of truck activities have been extensively analyzed, comparatively little attention has been paid to the role of trucks in road accidents. A review of the literature identifies various truck-traffic safety related issues: frequency of accidents and their determinants; risk factors associated with truck driver behavior (including cell phone use, fatigue, alcohol and drugs consumption); truck characteristics and facilities (roadway types, specific lanes and electronic stability programs) to improve performance of vehiclemaneuvering; and the safety characteristics of heavy and large trucks. However, to date, there seems to have been developed few studies evaluating the complex coexistence of trucks and cars on roads and that may support the implementation of differential road safety strategies applied to them. This paper focuses on the impact on the traffic fatalities rate of the interaction between trucks and cars on roads. We also assess the efficiency of two stricter road safety regulations for trucks, as yet not harmonized in the European Union; namely, speed limits and maximum blood alcohol concentration rates. For this, econometric models have been developed from a panel data set for European Union during the years 1999–2010. Our findings show that rising motorization rates for trucks lead to higher traffic fatalities, while rising motorization rates for cars do not. These effects remain constant across Europe, even in the most highly developed countries boasting the best highway networks. Furthermore, we also find that lower maximum speed limits for trucks are effective and maximum blood alcohol concentration rates for professional drivers are only effective when they are strictly set to zero. Therefore, our results point to that the differential treatment of trucks is not only adequate for mitigating an important source of congestion and pollution, but that the implementation of stricter road safety measures in European countries for the case of trucks also contributes significantly to reducing fatalities. In summary, and as a counterpoint to the negative impact of trucks on road traffic accidents, we conclude the effectiveness of efforts made in road safety policy (based on specific traffic regulations by vehicle type imposed by member States) to counteract the safety externalities of freight transportation in the European Union. In certain sense, our study might provide indirect support to public policies implemented at the macro European level to promote multimodal transport corridors. In this respect, there is an increasing focus at the European level on how freight transport can be moved from trucks on roads to more environmentally-sustainable modes, such as rail and ship.Dirección General de Tráfico SPIP2014127

Internal report cluster 1: Urban freight innovations and solutions for sustainable deliveries (3/4)

Technical report about sustainable urban freight solutions, part 3 of

The Role of Education in Self-Sustaining Community Development

Self-sustaining community development strategies, focused on education as a means for change, have great potential to make an impact on worldwide poverty. Instead of a one-time intervention with results that fade over time, the cyclical structure of participatory development will yield increasing results as time goes on. Teaching the community how to improve itself will increase its ability to deal with future problems, and positively impact women, children, and the environment in developing countries. This philosophy and practical strategy could be effective in any geographic location or culture, focusing on education and the ability of the local people to transform their own communities

COMPETITION AMONG HOSPITALS AND ITS MEASUREMENT: THEORY AND A CASE STUDY

Our paper provides several insights on the characteristics of the concept of “Poles d’Excellence Rurale” (PER) through bilateral comparisons with that of Competitive Pole (CP) and cluster. The concept of PER is a French government’ initiative designed for the development of rural areas similar to that of the Competitive Pole. We emphasize important particularities of these concepts by analyzing some of their similarities and major differences.Pole d’Excellence Rurale, Competitive Pole, cluster, rural development

Juva, Finland - developing local food with common goals and projects

The intention of this chapter is to draw a picture of the municipality of Juva as a site for the production, processing and use of local and organic food. This case study is based on information drawn mainly from interviews with local actors and from different documents

On the road to prosperity? The economic geography of China's national expressway network

Over the past two decades, China has embarked on an ambitious program of expressway network expansion. By facilitating market integration, this program aims both to promote efficiency at the national level and to contribute to the catch-up of lagging inland regions with prosperous Eastern ones. This paper evaluates the aggregate and spatial economic impacts of China's newly constructed National Expressway Network, focussing, in particular, on its short-run impacts. To achieve this aim, the authors adopt a counterfactual approach based on the estimation and simulation of a structural "new economic geography" model. Overall, they find that aggregate Chinese real income was approximately 6 percent higher than it would have been in 2007 had the expressway network not been built. Although there is considerable heterogeneity in the results, the authors do not find evidence of a significant reduction in disparities across prefectural level regions or of a reduction in urban-rural disparities. If anything, the expressway network appears to have reinforced existing patterns of spatial inequality, although, over time, these will likely be reduced by enhanced migration

Technology Transfer Versus Transformation

Research defines technology transfer from the viewpoint of business processes and personnel skills (Rogers, Takegami & Yin, 2001). The focus is on action to adapt and embrace an existing technology to gain efficiency (Gilsing et al., 2011). We examine this phenomenon as innovation based on the ability to transfer existing needs, desires, behaviors, and expectations to new technology. We find technology is adopted when transfer opportunities become manifest and each transfer builds upon its predecessor to create transformation in the long term. This relationship between transfer and transformation gradually builds technology adoption across chasms of the S-curve technology innovation curve

Identifying research priorities for the competitiveness of arable crops

EU agriculture and arable crops in particular are suffering from competitiveness deficits compared to other producers in the world economy. One potential strategy to cope with competitiveness challenges is to focus on research and technological innovation. The objective of this paper is to present the results of the project EUROCROP (Agricultural research for improving arable crop competitiveness – EUROCROP - http://www.eurocrop.cetiom.fr/), aimed at the identification of research priorities for arable crop competitiveness. The project adopts a definition of competitiveness based on a combination of economic competitiveness and social/environmental sustainability. Furthermore, the project utilises both a crop chain and a horizontal issue perspective, and develops research priorities through the interaction of the scientific level (expert group approach) and the stakeholder level (scenario analysis). The main result of the project is the elaboration of approximately eighty research topics. Among these, the main areas for research identified are A: Risk management and adaptation of arable farming; B: Innovation in cropping systems for high environmental and economic performances; C: Limiting the impact of arable crop cropping systems on green-house gas emissions; D: Better understanding of public concern about arable crop production and products and communication with global and local societies. The project confirms that a number of well established research topics retain their importance (e.g. yield improvement, plant protection). However, they require cautious coordination with an increasingly complex system of short term priorities.Arable crops, crop chain, competitiveness, research priorities, foresight, Agricultural and Food Policy,

European Arctic Initiatives Compendium

Julkaistu versi