King of the roads
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)PENING the ninth International Road Federation Congress in Itockholm on Monday, King Carl Gustaf of Sweden stressed the eed for the commercial and social development of road transport, mites a CM reporter.
Technical expertise had to be mployed to produce national rid international infrastructures ) meet commercial, energy and nvironmental demands, he aid. But delegates should reember that road transport is nly a means to an end — imroving the quality of life.
The theme of ahe five-day Dngress was "Road to the utu re".
Bengt Lyberg, chairman of the wedish Road Transport Federaon, said road transport is ssential to the development of le world's economy.
"Yet it has come to be rearded as a symbol of undesirble social conditions which had given rise to the derogatory symbols and slogans of the pressure groups," he added.
Swedish Road Transport Mini,ster Claes Elmstedt told Congress that road transport is meeting the demands of modern society and while it is essential that it should continue to do so this could not be done at the expense of the environment.
More vehicles do not necessarily mean greater danger to the public, he said. While transport had increased in Sweden during the past decade, the number of road accidents had decreased — the result of better highway planning.
The United Kingdom delegate Maurice Milne, representing the International Road Transport Union, said that his organisation shares the desire of all road transport organisations to improve road transport with safety. Finance is always the inhibiting factor, he said, and since transport is a worldwide problem he called on the United Nations to finance research.
"Economics have dictated the greater use of larger and heavier vehicles for the transport of goods within countries and across national boundaries. This means that the regulations for the use of such vehicles must be harmonised," he said.
Proper regard to environmental problems, particularly with towns and village roads used by hgv, should be given first consideration. In the UK, he said, this thinking has prompted the setting up of a high-powered group which has now reported to the Government and other national bodies; the international implications of the decisions which would follow would be crucial to the free movement by road of vehicles. IRF chairman Jean Clouet said road hauliers have always adapted quickly to changing conditions, but others had demonstrated less flexibility and imagination. "Local government spending on road transport is conditioned by environmental pressures," he added.
At the inaugural session King Carl Gustaf presented the IRF "Man of the Year" award to His Excellency Sheik Hussien Ibrahim Mansouri, Minister of Communications for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.