A Kiskőrösi Közúti Szakgyűjtemény Évkönyve 2000-2006. (2007)

VIII. SUMMARY

Changes in the financing, the volume of expenditures and the obvious demand for road network developments all together resulted in considerable and frequent structural changes of the public road administration. For the purpose of controlling and managing regional control units, that had been adjusted to the regional administration, a strong central Road Management and Coordination Directorate was established in 1991. Along with the development of the market economy, one part of the central road administration management and the whole regional road aministration management was converted into non-profit organizations and public benefit companies in 1996, the owner thereof being the competent ministry. In the different governmental cycles several other changes occurred, depending on the different political emphasis, on the different objectives and the development of financing. The actual proportion of public road development and maintenance has always been reflected in the functions of the organizations. This was especially evident in the Hungarian public road administration between 1999 and 2004. Current reforms of the national economy require cost-effective solutions, and thus, the structural reorganization has become unavoidable in the road administration, too. In 2005, a large, centralized road-operating organization was established through the concentration of previously independent regional entities. The study reviews these changes by analysing the last 15 years, and evaluates also in an international context, to what extent the structure of the national public road management complies with social and economic challenges. PÁLFAY, Antal 7. The Hungarian Freeway Network between 1994 and 2006 In 1994, by the conclusion the first concession contract, development of the Hungarian freeway network got up speed. The concession system raised resources, brought technological innovation, established a ground for the operation of toll highways, introduced a new culture of operation and road pricing, and turned the ever more efficient and more reasonable network development into a political matter of prestige. Between 1994 and 2006 the freeway network increased almost to its threefold, we reached half of the European network density, all driving lanes were reconstructed, operation centres were rebuilt, and equipment fleets for operation renewed. Developments occurred often in the midst of organizational, operational, financial and conceptual changes and of the opposition of environmental protection organizations. The expansion of the network reshaped regional development and land use, and induced new logistic systems. Objectives of the coming years as regards the freeway network aim at the establishment of European transport corridors crossing the country, the attainment of a European network density, and the development of regions that lag behind. An important element is that these developments are already supported by the financial assistance of the EU. On both the construction and the operation market, the evolvement of competition and the implementation of reasonable technical solutions at a reasonable cost is expected. SZÁLKAI, Gábor 8. The First Hungarian Public Road Traffic Census The time of the first Hungarian public road traffic census has been surrounded by uncertainty for a long time. The reason for the misconception was that it came to no composition, mapping or publication of the results after the survey; available documents have rested unexplored deep in archival stores for more than 130 years. The aim of my research was to discover these results which were thought to be lost. I managed to explore detailed data from two counting years of the first counting period, which lasted from 1869 till 1876, i.e. data of the countings in 1870/71 and 1874, while aggregated data turned up for the years 1869 and 1872/73. The complement with Prime Number K 173, that can be found in the National Archives of Hungary of the Ministry for Public Work and Transport Affairs, contains the material that I found during the archival research. Beside the information related to the ordainment and the implementation of the census, the revealed results provide a detailed picture on the extent of the traffic volume of wagons on state roads, by observation sections. The maximal traffic on the sections around cities proves the accuracy of census results, while the regional disaggregation shows a lower traffic in the Western part, and a higher traffic in the Eastern part of the country. This difference is supposed to come from regional disparities as regards the level of development of the railway network. 127