Road Transport

The CiViTAS Initiative is the EU response to the growing problems caused by traffic in European urban centres such as traffic congestion, noise, exhaust gases and difficult access to the city centre. The CiViTAS Initiative helps cities to test and develop an integrated set of measures for sustainable urban mobility. One of the projects is CiViTAS ELAN where five cities Ljubljana, Gent, Zagreb, Brno and Porto are cooperating. The goal of this project is to improve the quality of life for citizens and to implement better solutions in urban transport by promoting and enhancing sustainable, clean and energy efficient ways of transport. It is funded by the FP7 Programme and total duration of the project is 48 months from 2008 to 2012. As a part of CiViTAS ELAN, the City of Zagreb wants to discourage the use of cars by making public transport and cycling as a more attractive alternative. CiViTAS highlights in Zagreb are: decrease of traffic congestion, improvement of quality, accessibility and attractiveness of public transport, switch to cleaner modes of public transport, lower environmental impact of city fleet, inclusion of the existing railway into the city’s public transport system, improvement of cycling conditions and introduction of alternative modes of transport and mobility i.e. car pooling. The paper will present some measures and their results after three years of project implementation such as decreased congestion in pilot corridor along Savska street, decreased energy consumption and noise, improved public transport quality by purchasing 70 energy efficiency trams and 160 buses on gas or bio-diesel, e-ticketing, inter-modal solutions, etc.

Level crossings (LCs) are points of conflict between rail and road traffic. Therefore, from the aspect of safety they are potentially high-risk traffic points. Traffic participants at LCs are pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, car drivers and locomotive drivers. The behaviour of traffic participants represents the main cause of traffic accidents at LCs. Most research examining road users’ behaviour at LCs has focused on car drivers and there are few studies dedicated to pedestrians and cyclists, especially in Croatia. Cyclists are often treated like pedestrians but cyclists can travel much faster than pedestrians, which can cause unexpected behaviour. The paper gives an overview of the existing cycling features in the City of Zagreb and the statistics of accidents on LCs in the Republic of Croatia. Also, through a review of the major recent studies on the behaviour of pedestrians and cyclists at railroad crossings, the trends have been presented as well as the results of research. The review paper will serve as the basis for further research of design, traffic safety and the behaviour of pedestrians and cyclists, and their correlation at the LCs in the Republic of Croatia

The global process of life in urban areas, and the enormous increase of agglomeration, placed today in front of transport planners, and other professionals’ crucial question: how to increase or retain mobility of the urban environment, with sustainable transport system? Parking, as a natural consequence of the use of personal vehicles, is the activity which can successfully manage the overall demand for transport using personal vehicles. Many cities around the world use parking policy as a good mechanism for managing demand for transport. The aim of this paper is to present a model of transportation demand management policy of parking in the City of Zagreb, and on the basis of the analysis, suggest future directions of the overall transport and parking policy in the City of Zagreb.

Studying cycling traffic issues in a beginner city – City of Zagreb, stems from unclear development policy, an increase in cycling volume, a large number of traffic accidents, an inadequate infrastructure and legislation, a small number of high quality studies and published papers, and the question, did current cycling policy and programs advance cycling? A comprehensive search of available literature, including data from the Zagreb Traffic Department, was made. These data do not adequately address the direction of causality, such as whether current cycling policy and programs advance cycling or whether cycling demand led to increased levels of cycling. This review paper suggests that, it is not yet possible to evaluate which pro-bicycle packages are the most effective and, development of cycling traffic requires a coordinated holistic planning strategy. Results could serve as a beacon light for similarly sized beginner cities, especially those who are located in South-eastern and Eastern Europe.

The traffic system is as essential to modern society as the circulatory system to the human body. Road section design is therefore a key infrastructure activity for economic development, and multi-criteria decision-making can provide an interdisciplinary approach that moves beyond purely economic optimisation to include technological, technical and ecological factors. The present work describes applying the multi-criteria Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method to evaluate road section design in an urban environment through differential weighting of various criteria and sub-criteria. The model is tested on a stretch of National Road D8 in the municipality of Podstrana near the city of Split (Croatia), which serves as an important route for commuters and tourists. The proposed AHP model provided reliable results that were robust to sensitivity analysis. This approach involving differential criterion weighting may prove useful for evaluating and selecting appropriate road section designs for this and other contexts.

Developing cycling traffic helps urban centres to advance sustainable citizen mobility. The reason for researching cycling traffic issues in a beginner city (City of Zagreb) stems from poor safety numbers, an increase in volume, unclear development policy, an inadequate infrastructure and legislation. The question arises, did current cycling policy and programs advance cycling? We analyse the current state of cycling traffic and cycle promotion policy in order to assess the actual impacts of these various interventions on the level of cycling. A comprehensive search of available literature, including data from the City Office, has been made. This review paper suggests that development of cycling traffic requires coordinated programs and a holistic planning strategy which includes all stakeholders. Results could serve as a beacon light for similarly sized beginner cities, especially those who are located in Eastern Europe.

The global process of life in urban areas, and the enormous increase of agglomeration, placed today in front of transport planners, and other professionals’ crucial question: how to increase or retain mobility of the urban environment, with sustainable transport system? Parking, as a natural consequence of the use of personal vehicles, is the activity which can successfully manage the overall demand for transport using personal vehicles. Many cities around the world use parking policy as a good mechanism for managing demand for transport. The aim of this paper is to present a model of transportation demand management policy of parking in the City of Zagreb, and on the basis of the analysis, suggest future directions of the overall transport and parking policy in the City of Zagreb.