The annual road sector conference will be held On April 22 and 23, in Jurmala. It will be attended by managers and leading specialists of road administrations of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland, as well as representatives of the sector and municipalities, officials of state institutions and experts in various fields of the road sector: traffic safety, road maintenance and construction, and other Latvian and foreign specialists.

Today is traditionally dedicated to traffic safety and road network development. It will be opened by Atis Švinka, Minister of Transport, and Mārtiņš Lazdovskis, Chairman of the Board of State Limited Liability Company “Latvian State Roads” (LSR).

In the context of Riga and Pierīga, Kristaps Kauliņš, Director of the Department of Urban Space and Mobility of the Riga City Council and Klāvs Grieze, Director of Development Division, LSR, will speak about road infrastructure. Guntis Grāveris, the leading expert of Strategy Department, LSR, will explain how important high-quality planning of municipal territories is for traffic safety and how unresolved access solutions may create risks. In turn, Edgars Mekšs, Chairman of the Ludza Region Council, will talk about his experience in taking over state roads.

Janno Sammul, Director of Road Management Department of the Estonian Transport Administration, will inform about the development of the road network and financing of state roads in the neighbouring country, Szymon Piechowiak, Deputy Director of the Director’s Office of the General Directorate of National Roads and Motorways of Poland,  will introduce the experience of the rapid development of Polish road infrastructure.

Gundars Kains, Director of Traffic Organization Division, LSR, at the conference will speak on traffic safety issues, while Jurģis Briedis, an environmental accessibility expert of Apeirons Foundation for the Disabled Persons and their Friends, will talk about ensuring environmental accessibility in road projects.

In the discussion on the first day of the conference, experts will discuss how people’s thinking and behaviour in traffic may be changed to improve road safety. The discussion will be attended by Ivars Austers, Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Latvia (LU), Zanda Rubene, Professor of Educational Sciences at the University of Latvia, Jurģis Šķilters, Professor of Cognitive Sciences at the University of Latvia, Mārtiņš Lazdovskis, Chairman of the Board of “Latvian State Roads”,  Arturs Smilga, Deputy Chief of the State Police Main Order Police Department, and Oskars Irbītis, Head of the Serious Road Traffic Accident Research Project of Road Traffic Safety Directorate. The discussion will be moderated by Pauls Timrots, host of the Zebra TV programme.