Editorial

Abstract

This issue moves from articles related to questions of sustainable transport to the behaviour, and behavioural problems, of car drivers and ends with one paper that discusses the quality of a driver assistance gadget. To start with, Maryam K. Gilak and Alper Cebeci present an Environmental, financial, and accessibility analysis of low-density high-value goods shipment, pointing out that most chemical goods in the EU27 countries were transported via road. They remind of the fact that road transport produces considerably more CO2 than railway transport and that its cost is significantly higher than rail. To mitigate these problems four railroad intermodal scenarios are suggested and hypothetically evaluated. Moving to person transport, Sena Çinar, Şerife Yilmaz and Bahar Öz carried out field work to study Pedestrians' Crossing Behaviors and Crossing Preferences. With the help of an on-line survey and observations they explored pedestrian behaviour at a specific crossing site in Ankara, in order to understand behaviour, perceptions, and crossing preferences of pedestrians. They tried to identify safety-critical situations and to offer appropriate countermeasures. Not surprisingly, the biggest problems turned out to be vehicle traffic and parking vehicles. Infringements of rules by pedestrians were observed, as well. The majority of the pedestrians tend to jaywalk. Suggestions for appropriately arranging crossing facilities according to pedestrian preferences should result as a consequence of the study. The authors argue that proper design of facilities and management of traffic would encourage safe walking without sacrificing comfort: e.g., by reducing vehicle traffic, by managing parking more appropriately, and by increasing the number of pedestrian facilities.How about the Relationship Between Cycling Behaviour, Attitude to Traffic and Attitude to Daily Life of Junior and Senior High School Students? Yoshio Taniguchi, Shunji Taniguchi and Kazunori Shidoji dealt with this question in order to explore underlying psychological determinants. A survey involving 2077 junior and senior high school students showed, not surprisingly so, that low levels of safety orientation in their attitudes correlate with de-facto risky behaviour. Social desirability of their behaviour was less important to this group and they tended to use their bicycle in a more risky way, more concretely meaning distracted rapid cycling, which also was related to more frequent experiencing of near accidents. As these findings were similar to those derived in studies on car drivers, the authors concluded that similar educational measures as those for car drivers could have positive effects. They even suggest that traffic safety education for junior and senior high school students as cyclists could be effective for their later career as car drivers.Now to safety aspects connected to the behaviour of car drivers. Siva Matikana and B. Raghuram Kadali evaluated Vehicle Speed with Impact of Driver Behaviour at Horizontal Curves. In their study they could show that curve radius, number and types of vehicles in the opposite lane, and shoulder width all have significant effects on vehicle speeds in curves. The authors consider these findings useful for the design of the horizontal alignment of cu