D. ROUSSET 
Over the past 3 years, you have followed the organisation of this Congress very closely, which was largely carried out by your Department. And as first delegate to PIARC of the country hosting this Congress, the task of reporting on the week of the Congress is also yours.

This Congress has been based around the theme of "sustainable development". In regards to economic development, one can see that the road has played a good role. Some figures: on a worldwide scale, road transport ensures more than 80% of the kilometres travelled by the users within their country and more than 50% for freight. The number of motorized vehicles increases by almost 3% each year.

How do we integrate in this context, the concept of sustainability, while not compromising the well being of the current generation or that of future generations?

P. PARISÉ 
You have provided an accurate summary of the difficulties which we are facing.

Everyone is raising this question. The road ensures the majority of journeys of goods and people. A large portion of these journeys are essential to social and economic well being and at the same time it is known that the planet will not continue to support today's rate of automobile development but at this stage, an alternative model doesn't exist. Under these conditions, which decision should be made - to stop building roads to support the development of the other modes of transport? But then the situation of congestion, which as everybody knows has economic costs, will multiply and are of social and environmental importance. At the other end of the spectrum, to continue in the current direction without paying awareness to these signs will likely end in catastrophe.

D. ROUSSET 
Two extreme situations of course, we hope to avoid. Thus, where are the road administrations positioned between these two extremes are and what can be their role in this debate.

P. PARISÉ 
In such an important debate, the decision does not belong to the road administrations. It is up to politicians and society as a whole to decide but road administrations do have a responsibility to make proposals. Moreover, it is the raison d'être of this Congress for 100 years which allows us to exchange our practices, in order to find solutions and to propose these solutions to our governments.

And to come to the first part of the question "where are the road administrations positioned on the continuum?" Well, I believe that they are positioned somewhere in the middle. They will explore all possibilities in order to decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

D. ROUSSET 
In order to explore all the possible solutions, the World Road Association has organized its work into four broad themes: governance, sustainable mobility, safety and quality of the road infrastructure. Let us speak about the first: what is the relationship between governance and sustainable development?

P. PARISÉ 
One can say - broadly speaking of course - that, good governance is to make the right decision and not to over consume. Good decisions are decisions that include transparency and consultation. These principles are valid in all fields but particularly in the field of the environment.

For this Congress, PIARC wanted to focus the work it has carried out on governance on three precise subjects: economic aspects, financial aspects and finally that of the effectiveness of road administrations.

D. ROUSSET 
Which paths of progress have emerged from the debates for each of these subjects?

P. PARISÉ 
On the economic aspect, it was not a discovery; it was more of a confirmation - if one wants to meet the needs of the population while spending less, with a minimum of negative effects upon the environment and while achieving a maximum of safety, it is necessary to further encourage the development of evaluation methods. Evaluations are required both prior to the beginning of projects and of course, after completion in order to learn all possible lessons.

And then it is necessary to reconsider - the "demand for road transport = the creation or widening of a road". We have to question all cases. Good governance is:

1. to raise the question to find out if there are other means, other possibilities;
2. to agree to open the debate; and,
3. to be able to justify in a clear and objective manner the choices which one makes.

With regards to financing, the Congress showed that the countries, the governments, the administrations, had an increasingly comprehensive knowledge of pricing mechanisms. And the Ministers' session where we had a considerable range of representatives of the governments (57 exactly), demonstrated that road pricing is no longer just considered purely for the purpose of financing infrastructure but also for the purpose of modal shift and of the reorientation of traffic demand.

Lastly, regarding the effectiveness of the administration in terms of organization, it has been confirmed that there is not one single good solution - it is not a question of making a "copy and paste" drawing on aspects of existing models. It is necessary to carry out a thorough institutional analysis of the country concerned, including issues such as political relations, etc. All of these aspects contribute to determine what constitutes a good organization. There is no ready made, pre-existing model.

On the question of the effectiveness of the administrations, the Committee which worked on this subject identified four very important points. The first is the continuation of the fight against corruption. The second important focus, it is that of human resources because we have an issue in this profession that there are a large number of staff who will shortly be of retirement age. We also have shortages in certain fields of competencies; we need to find new men and women to work in these key areas. The third focus is that of the consultation with the various parties including the users, the elected officials, the associations, the companies and industries.

Thus, the road administrations can sometimes tend to work in isolation. It is necessary to be more open in our consultations and consult with all stakeholders. And finally, the fourth focus is the need for all road administrations to have at their disposal a system that makes it possible to know well in advance and in a manner relevant to the state of the assets in order to be able to make the good decisions, take wise decisions, to maintain these assets.

D. ROUSSET 
Here, we have all that was known around the topic of good governance, a relatively new topic for you. The second subject was sustainable mobility.

A brief reminder in a few words. The issues of energy consumption and global warming strongly relate to the road since on a global level, the activities which cause the most greenhouse gas emissions are transport, heating and industry.

France has initiated a new approach in this field which Jean-Louis Borloo explained to us during his presentation at the opening session of the Congress. This is related to the integration into one single Ministry, the domains of transport, energy and ecology. And then there is this step which results from the concepts of governance, of partnership which we engaged in France under the name of "Grenelle of the Environment".

Before detailing what was said in the work of the Congress, I propose to you to hear from Mr. Jean Jouzel, who is co-president of one of the 6 Working Groups formed for "Grenelle of the Environment". He is also member of the Board of the GIEC, the international group of experts who consider these questions of global warming. Let us listen to him on the relationship between politics and the environment (video).

Jean Jouzel wished that you also consider these questions. Thus, what conclusions have been reached on this strategic topic of sustainable mobility?

P. PARISÉ 
Indeed, what should be retained, is that in order to reduce the ecological foot print of road transport, there are 3 principal means of action which we were reminded of by Jean Jouzel: to act on the engines and the fuels, to encourage modal shifts and multimodality and, also, to maximise the possibilities of regional planning.

Concerning multimodality, PIARC had scheduled no less than 7 conferences on the subject, all having a good audience. The visits organized on the Paris tram and the urban fittings in favour of the non-motorized modes of transport were also a great success.

D. ROUSSET 
The world road community seem to move on, I believe that one can state this today, of this shift, but in practical terms, are there tools available that the Congress attendees will be able to find in the proceedings of the Congress once they have been produced? Will there be reports produced by the committees of PIARC in order to enter into this new approach to mobility?

P. PARISÉ 
Yes, of course and they are numerous. For example, Technical Committee 2.2 studied the "cube model", developed by our Scandinavian friends to determine good installations to be realized. This method is original since it passes by a systematic analysis of the whole of the user's needs, an analysis which also relates to all networks and finally to the various means of improving the supply. It is a very complete method which addresses the whole spectrum and I believe that this approach created much interest.

Second example: TC2.1 carried out the analysis and the development of a list of good practices for the implementation of the Kyoto protocol, by examining 11 practical cases to develop then a synthesis of the good practices. And Technical Committee 2.4 was interested in freight and in particular, endeavoured to produce recommendations to explain in which situations the maritime or the railway could be more judicious than road transport and also make recommendations on the localization of the multimodal platforms and the various ways of realizing them.

D. ROUSSET
You have touched there on the issue of regional planning. Is this an effective method for decreasing CO2 emissions?

P. PARISÉ 
From this point of view, several sessions highlighted something obvious: it is essential to avoid the unnecessary use of transport. This means that for freight, it is absolutely necessary to break the chains of production which incorporate excessive transportation.

There are a certain number of examples such as potatoes which are cultivated in Spain, are peeled in France and are conditioned in Belgium. Another example more relevant to the road sector: paving stones which are manufactured in China and are then imported here into Europe to make streets. It is not necessary to have a Nobel Prize for economy to realize that something is not right. There is obviously no point of managing the industry, but when one can use transport so unnecessarily, one demonstrates that transport is not expensive enough. And if transport is not expensive enough, it is that they are in fact subsidized by a levy on the planet.

For the urban environment, the location of settlements, the problems are similar. It is known that the urban sprawl increases the need for travel and this also is a burden on our environmental capital. Regional planning creates transformations over long cycles that will only produce results on the medium and long term. It is certainly necessary to launch research programmes without precedent on the new vehicle motorization. I think that it is a very, very important aspect. And then, as you mentioned, it is necessary to make a more effective use of tariff policy.

D. ROUSSET
And then Patrice Parisé, it should be said that transport has of course, a direct effect on our quality of life of course and on our health. The World Health Organization estimates that pollution related to transport causes 500 000 deaths each year and 4 to 5 million cases of chronic bronchitis. One cannot be unaware of figures like these in an association like PIARC.

P. PARISÉ 
The issues here are indeed enormous. I would like to point out that the United Nations claims that in 2015, there will be 36 megalopolises of more than 8 million inhabitants. It is not far away.

One can have the remark that collectively, there is not within PIARC, a sufficient number of representatives from cities and experts who deal with urban problems, which can explain why our Association until now has not sufficiently addressed these questions. But there were conferences on this subject which were very successful. I will quote the example of the 200 delegates who followed the special session SP8 which was devoted to congestion and we also did on-site experience last night when there were 3 000 people at Porte Maillot who experienced congestion.

D. ROUSSET 
Then precisely what has come out of this work, to tackle these problems?

P. PARISÉ 
Firstly, it appeared that non motorized mobility (walking, cycling, etc.) was studied in essence but there have not been sufficient studies on the complementarities of these soft modes with other means of transport. And if it were done, experts who worked on the subject considered that with inexpensive installations, one could make extremely effective changes.

And then I believe that on this subject, it is necessary to warn the countries that did not yet dive in to the "all cars mode" for trips in the cities to avoid making this error. And then finally, as we have spoken about already at length, it is necessary to make the best use of the networks. There too is a factor of improvement and a reduction in the emissions.

D. ROUSSET 
The third topic, which is that of road safety, has caused many debates and does not cease to increase in developing countries. Road accidents are responsible for nearly 1.2 million deaths worldwide each year. Before taking stock of what the Congress said on this subject, I propose to you to again hear a short recording. They are testimonies of representatives of users, associations of consumers, League against road violence, well-known here in France and organisation for prevention. Let us listen (video)

Some words Patrice Parisé on these testimonies?

P. PARISÉ 
I believe that they are revealing to a certain measure of the merging of views between the users, the associations which represent them and the road administrations on the fact that it is necessary to address the three components that are the infrastructure, driver behaviour and the vehicle.

D. ROUSSET 
At the interface between the man and the road, there are still margins of progress. I believe this was reflected in the various conferences?

P. PARISÉ 
The road community, I believe, shares the idea that it is necessary to conceive the road based on what one expects from it. And it is nevertheless necessary to recognize that this is not completely the case again today.

D. ROUSSET 
Can you specify why?

P. PARISÉ 
All the studies show that the drivers adapt their behaviour according to the message which they receive from the road. Each road delivers a message. It delivers an implicit message by its geometry, its width, its environment. And it also delivers an explicit message via the signals: traditional indication (panels) and all the information which comes from the new technologies. The clearer the message delivered by the road is, the more the driver adapts its behaviour according to the message. The road administrations have an important job to do in order to ensure that the roads send the right message so that the user behaves in the right way.

D. ROUSSET 
Yes but if one speaks about new technologies, one felt some reserves from the consumers in particular. They bring a gain of safety, but under certain conditions nonetheless?

P. PARISÉ 
Of course. I believe that it is necessary to distinguish technologies which relate to the vehicles (braking systems, airbags and so on) from control assistance systems. There, without contest, new technologies can bring something. But the remarks indeed showed that it is necessary to pay attention to the man-machine interface which must be studied adequately, because if technologies are multiplied and distract the driver's attention, obviously it will lead to the opposite effect.

D. ROUSSET 
And concerning the infrastructure, about risk management?

P. PARISÉ 
What emerges from the work of the Congress is a new concept which incorporates road safety in a global approach of risk evaluation. And there, work of Technical Committee 3.2 is interesting since they have developed a toolkit to assist the administrations to enter into this risk evaluation method. They did this based upon an analysis of the practices in 23 countries.

D. ROUSSET 
This demonstrates the importance of the exchanges in knowledge, as the League against road violence also mentioned. The last strategic topic that you had chosen to address this week is that of the quality of the infrastructure. A very vast subject and only a little time to speak about it, but all the same, can you leave us with one point?

P. PARISÉ 
I will say firstly, that it is the subject which prompted the creation of the Association 100 years ago. On Monday, Jean-François Corté told us that the primary concern of our predecessors was to prevent dust on the roads. After 100 years, technical quality is always an extremely important subject (there are many groups of experts which work on this issue) but the characterization of quality has evolved. It is obviously always necessary to build roads and bridges which last but it is necessary to use energy saving materials and to spare natural resources where possible. It is obvious that the Association pays great attention to these questions. The ceremony of the PIARC prizes on Monday showed the fields towards which we turn, the bituminous mix at low temperature, incorporating plant based binders instead of oil...

D. ROUSSET 
So many very, very new techniques. Do believe in them, sincerely Patrice Parisé and how much?

P. PARISÉ 
Not only I believe in them but I am not the only one. I point out that the special session on "new concepts, new ideas" was attended by nearly 300 participants. The other point in which we very much believe is that of waste recycling. And there, the road administrations have a really important action to carry out. In order to be able to reincorporate waste in road materials, it is necessary that the specifications, the markets, the technical rules, allow that. The industrialists push us. It is necessary that we answer this expectation to incorporate more and more recyclable materials into our new roadways. It is obviously both favourable to the environment and for the protection of our resources.

D. ROUSSET 
The quality of the infrastructure is also a factor to be taken into account in order to improve the environmental assessment of the road infrastructure. Let us return to the economic aspect. There are very interesting projections which were highlighted during the Congress.

P. PARISÉ 
There are indeed very interesting considerations which are carried out on the high lifespans. And it is also a topic closely related to sustainable development. If you allow me the expression "one should not make disposable things because if one creates work of bad quality, in a more or less short term they will have to be rebuilt and it is overall, not economical. It is necessary to build works which are durable and it is especially necessary to have an economic vision which is focussed on the long term. And it should especially be remembered that one should not neglect maintenance in order to not have to carry out expensive rebuilding. It is obvious but it should be remembered, at anytime.

D. ROUSSET  
We have had a brief discussion on the various subjects covered in this Congress. What is your final word?

P. PARISÉ
I believe that this Congress has shown that "the choice for sustainable development" was not an opportunist slogan, but that there is a real awakening of the actors of the road world on this issue: the road community took the question and has addressed the issue firmly.

The second observation which I would like to make in order to help us to progress in the future: it seems to me that we have a black and white vision that maintains a too clear dichotomy between the industrialized and the developing countries. I think that things are a little bit more complicated than this, and that we should work to address the broad issues with the various countries rather than to work on topics which relate to a specific group of countries. We do this already but I think that it is necessary to go further in this direction, on specific problems there are already areas of dialogue, organizations which are able to address them and thus it is via this transversal approach, i.e. a common approach of the main questions for all the countries of the world, that PIARC has a formidable role to play to assist with the formation of a world wide consensus, if possible on a question as important as the road. Thus, there is work for the century ahead.

To finish, I would like to thank you all for having taken part in this Congress: it is you who made it a success. France was honoured and happy to receive you and to welcome you.

Also allow me to thank the whole French road community, the companies, the engineering and design departments, the industrialists and the administrations of the local authorities which were mobilized together with the State within the French Committee of PIARC so that this Centenary event adequately marked the occasion. Of course, I thank my colleagues from PIARC, including the President Colin Jordan, as well as the General-Secretariat of the Association with whom we have well collaborated.

Lastly, I ask you to applaud Hubert Peigné, Louis Fernique and all of their team, which, with the assistance of our sympathetic and effective company (Europa Organisation, Market Place and Package), ensured the preparation and the organization of this week which, I hope will have matched your expectations.

Thank you for your attention.