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Following the measures foreseen in the Transport White Paper 2001, situation of road safety has improved. Road fatalities have declined by more than 17 % since 2001 in the EU. However, with around 41 600 deaths and more than 1.7 million injured in 2005, road remains the least safe mode of transport and objectives to halve the number of fatalities on road by 2010 is most likely not feasible to achieve. Therefore a need for the intelligent vehicle safety systems, that enable to raise the level of road safety, is much higher than ever before. The Intelligent Vehicle Safety Systems ensure a superior safety on road would it be vehicle-based or infrastructure-related systems. These can be divided into passive and active safety applications where the former help people stay alive and uninjured in a crash, while the latter help drivers to avoid accidents. Some of the most promising (e-call) and the most used (ABS, ESP) systems are analised more specifically in the paper. Possible solutions to deploying intelligent transport systems in Lithuania are also introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main tasks approached by the European Union is the liberalisation of railway transport service market. The foremost problem solved in this paper is the interoperability of various railway systems in the countries of the European Union. Thus, the immediate goal is to solve the problem of the interoperability of different railway systems used in the European Union. A distinction between railway track gauges (from 1435 to 1668 mm), particular couples of wagons, various clearances of rolling stock, different systems of infrastructure etc. are the main impediments. One of the problems in the nearest future will be the evaluation of the brakes of different wagons produced in Western Europe and the former Soviet Union. Freight trains in Lithuania consist of these two types of wagons, and therefore some problems of correcting the results of calculating braking distances and brake force may arise. The main object of this research is to investigate the methods evaluating the brakes of rolling-stock and to assess the possibilities of integrating and harmonizing these different methods. The reliability of the methods evaluating the brakes of rolling-stock is one of the most important components enabling the interoperability of railway transport in the EU network. The brakes of Russian wagons are calculated by MPS Rules for Traction Calculations, approved by the Russian Ministry of Transport (till 2004 - Ministry of Communication Ways of Russia)). On the other hand, the brakes of the wagons produced in Western Europe should be calculated applying TSI (Technical Specifications for Interoperability) methodology. The main parameter following TSI (Technical Specifications for Interoperability) methodology is braked mass and following MPS (Railway Transport Ministry of Russia) method -- a pressing force of the brake shoes. The questions of determining the braked mass of wagons and correcting mean braking distance are presented. The compatibility of two different evaluating methods is discussed. Finally, the basic conclusions are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commercialisation of research results is very important in the world now. The situation of this problem in Europe is analysed in the paper. The possibility to use 4-6 Framework programme projects for commercialisation of research results is discussed at large. The situation of the results commercialisation using international projects in Lithuania as an example of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU) is surveyed. The analysis of international projects results for ten last years in the VGTU using research reports and archive data of the VGTU is performed. Proposals for developing the international projects and the way to intensify the research results of commercialisation in Lithuania are presented in conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]