Overview
INRETS was created in 1985 and falls under the authority of the ministries of research and transport. Its main objectives are to make and assess all research and technological developments to improve systems and means of transport and traffic from a technical, social and economic point of view. It also valorises and develops all research activities in these fields, and disseminates knowledge in France and abroad.
Its technological and scientific themes are the following:
- evolution of travellers' journeys;
- organisation of freight transport;
- regulation of road and air traffic;
- innovation in guided transport;
- improvement of road safety;
- working conditions of professionals;
- comfort of journeys;
- energy consumption;
- electronics in rail transport; and
- IT systems in transport.
For the current internal research programme (2001-2004), the research is organised around four themes, to meet social demands and ministries' requirements:
- Road safety
- Driving assistance
- Transports and services network
- Sustainability and environment.
These research themes are accompanied by 11 major projects aiming at developing interdisciplinary approaches, to orient research activities to actions regarded as priority, to participate in this research process by federative actions, to contribute to the renewal of research themes in INRETS.
Within each theme, several subjects, described below, are studied:
- Road safety: knowledge of the road system and its components (humans, vehicles, infrastructure); factors and consequences of road accidents, protection of road users, conception and assessment of road safety policies;
- Driving assistance: intelligent systems for driving assistance and automated roads; modelling and simulation, urban and interurban guided transport systems, use of new information and communication technologies in transport.
- Transport and services network: modelling and management of transport networks
intermodality and multimodality in passenger transport, intermodality in freight transport, analysis and socio-economic evaluation of networks and infrastructure; - Sustainability and environment: transport and environment, sustainable mobility in cities, electric vehicles, dynamic and diagnosis of guided transport.