Nationally, 1994 might be characterised both as a period of marking time and as a period of preparation so far as the making of new initiatives in transport research were concerned. This arose partly as a consequence of the changes taking place in the Research Councils, and partly because of the delays in establishing the calls for research under the Fourth Framework programme. Early 1995 now sees the uncertainties resolved and much activity in response to new opportunities. Nevertheless, there were several important new developments in 1994. Under the LINK programme, a project on assessing the effectiveness of children's road safety education was announced, with funding by the Department of Transport (DOT) from January 1995. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded (under its Sustainable Cities programme) an 'umbrella' project in the Environment Centre which will enable the range of factors contributing to urban sustainability to be studied in Leeds and Huddersfield. EPSRC also funded projects to assess how improved public awareness of transport issues improves the effectiveness of use of transport infrastructure; to improve the design of advanced stated preference experiments; to develop a traffic pollution model; and to assess drivers' response to automatic speed control in urban areas. New projects were also funded by the European Commission (EC) before the Fourth Framework programme was adopted.
展开▼
