e Increase Cannot be Assessed
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THERE is no doubt that road traffic
I increased in all cduntries in Europe in 1955, but there is little or no means of assessing either the magnitude or the structure of increases. Traffic counts were taken on a uniform basis on the main international road traffic arteries' of some 15 countries; results of these counts will be available for analysis in 1957."
This is stated in the Bulletin of Transport Statistics for Europe for 1955, compiled by the transport division of the Economic Commission for Europe, and published at 9s, by the United Nations, Geneva.
Studies are in progress with a view to elaborating a uniform method of calculating indices of road traffic density. In 1955 there was an increase of 10 per cent, in the number of lorries in Europe. but changes in the numbers of buses and coaches were small.
More information than before was made available for publication frofn Eastern Europe and Russia. Two new roads have been built in Russia, one from Kiev, via Kharkov and Rostov, to MineraInye Vody and Ordzhoni
kidze, and the other from Minsk to Brest.
In 1954, 3,305,900 metric tons of goods were carried by road in Russia, the figure for 1955 being 3,730,000. There was also a rapid growth of bus and coach traffic in Russia, Eastern Germany and Hungary.
In Russia, passenger-kilometres by road in 1950 were 5,200m. and by hit 88,000m.: in 1955 the respective figures were 20,900m. and 141,400m. The volume of road passenger traffic in these countries was small until recent years.
In Western Europe, a greater tonnage %,,,as moved by ancillary vehicles than by hauliers, although the average length of haul by ancillary vehicles was shorter than by professional carriers. The average length of haul for both forms of road transport was 25 miles.
The proportion of goods carried by road over medium or long distances was about 11-12 per cent. of the total, and in no country exceeded 20 per cent. In Britain and Norway, however, the tonkilometre factor for mediumand longdistance road traffic was higher than for short-distance.