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In return for the toll paid, the road user is entitled to the best possible service offered by the concession holding companies, by whom he is regarded primarily as a customer.
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With this in mind, the motorways companies' objectives are twofold :
• To keep traffic flowing in all situations 'as regards weather, etc.) in appropriate safety and driving conditions. The companies do this with the support of their surveillance patrols (who intervene in case of accidents) and their maintenance teams for salting, snow clearance, road maintenance, and so on) ;
• To offer a variety of services aimed at the comfort and safety of the user :
- Rest areas every 15 km. Surrounded by grass and trees, these areas are provided with lavatories and, most often, with picnic tables and games for children ;
- Service areas every 40 km approximately. These offer levatories with baby changing tables, service stations and shops, restaurants and sometimes hotels, telephones, fax machines and so on. Certain service areas are designed specially for trucks and have rest rooms, TV, showers, etc.;
- A repair service with the user can contact from emergency telephones along the motorway. The repairers can reach the driver within 20 minutes ; the price is calculated on the basis of a guaranteed flat rate tariff, with no surprises for the client ;
- The provision of road information by means of variable message sign and, on certain roads, FM motorway radio stations ;
- Various means of paing the toll : cash, foreign currency, credit cards,, "hands free" electronic payment.
In the future ASECAP will concentrate its effort on three main priorities :
- Providing a high level of service throughout the entire European Toll Motorway Network ;
- Developing and refining in-car information facilities in order to inform the driver, practically continuously and in real-time, about traffic conditions ;
- Harmonising Electronic Toll Collection systems so that a single transponder suffices for a journey through the different European networks.
The interoperability of the Electronic Fee Collection is the aim of the most important ASECAP project, co-financed by the European Commission : CESARE ( Common EFC System for an ASECAP Road Tolling European System). |
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Motorways are four times safer than ordinary roads. The concession holding companies guarantee safety and maximum service to the users in return for the tolls they pay.
Over the last 25 years, improvements to safety systems have reduced the number and seriousness of accidents :
- Installation of crash barriers in the central reservation and to the right of the carriageway;
- Edge marking (painted lines, delineators, etc.) enhancing the visibility and clarity of the carriageway;
- Protuberant paintings, visible at night in rainy weather, warning of exits ;
- Draining pavements, eliminating aquaplaning and spray, and also reducing surface noise by 4 to 5 db ;
- Thanks to the patrols who keep the roads under surveillance around the clock, and the emergency telephones located every 2 km, incidents are now reported within 4 minutes.
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All these endeavors have reduced significantly the rate of fatal accidents on ASECAP’s motorways. Between 1980 and 1996, for instance, this rate fell by over 50% in Spain and reached 65% in France.
Further progress can be expected in terms of :
- improvements in safety equipment ;
- changes in user behaviour, partly due to the awareness campaigns regularly carried out by the concession holding companies ;
- dealing with incidents more quickly, involving facilities that make use of the latest technology, such as Migrazur, and systems that are still insufficiently utilised such as the radiotelephone and radio.
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Like other forms of infrastructure (airports, high speed train, and so on) motorways do not escape criticism from the defenders of the environment, mostly with regard to the nuisances linked to the car, noise, air and water pollution, and so on.
The automobile industry, for its part, points out that between 1970 and 1996 it reduced pollutant emissions by a factor of ten. Particle emissions fell from 0.14 to 0.08 g/k in the new diesel models entering service on January 1, 1996.
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In due course, further standards will reduce these discharges still further.
Quite apart from these issues, the concession holding companies consider it preferable to channel motor traffic on to the toll motorways, where it is easier to monitor the situation and, at the same time, protect the environment more effectively.
For some twenty years now, ASECAP has been working on this major issue. It will continue to do its best in a number of different fields :
- Water : Sealed sedimentation tanks now make it possible to control the risk of pollution to groundwater and watercourses ;
- Noise : Draining pavements and noise screens, together with the introduction of more stringent
town planning rules, help reduce the nuisance ;
- Fauna, flora and biotopes : The companies are eliminating the divisive effects of motorways with, for example, special crossings for game and other mammals.
- Insertion in the landscape : From the initial impact studies to the opening of the road, the engineers and landscape designers of the concession holdind companies now work together in order to integrate the motorway into the countryside it traverses without damaging it and, as far as possible, showing it in its best light.
Using special techniques for treating " natural " areas, they now know how to sustain the biodiversity of flora on motorway embankments. Similarly they also know how to protect and even reconstitute
wetlands. In this field, ASECAP is in favour of establishing ecological watchdogs, similar to the economic model ; |
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The 30th of December 2002 the European Commission submitted to the European Parliament and to the Council of Ministers a proposal for a directive “on minimum safety requirements for tunnels located on the Trans-European Road Network” (COM (2002) 769 final).
Important input for this document was also provided by a number of International Organisations such as UNECE, PIARC, OECD, etc.
Given that ASECAP members operate more than 19.000 Km of tolled infrastructures, lying on the Trans-European network and including a very large amount of tunnels, a common ASECAP position has been prepared on that delicate issue.
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