The development of road transport – opportunities and threats to the environment and society

Abstract

Economic development, on the one hand, is realizing because of development of road transport through increased transport work (in the case of commercial vehicles) but on the other hand – economic development is a base of the development of road transport through the development of technology, increasing the income and expectations of societies. These mutual relations generate both, opportunities and threats to the environment and society resulting from the development of road transport. The purpose of the article is to identify and analyze the opportunities as well as the risks connected with the development of road transport for the environment and society. The analysis covered issues related to environmental protection, supplementing them with technical and social problems. Individual aspects were identified and analyzed within these issues and each time they were classified as an opportunity or a threat. Conclusions were drawn about the direction of road transport development from a social point of view, taking into account the principles of sustainable development.