Introduction
Background
CAPE (Co-ordinated Action for Pan-European Transport and Environment Telematics Implementation Support) is a European Union (EU) funded project that aims to encourage the greater use of telematics or so-called Information Society Technologies (IST) in central and eastern Europe and the EU.A key objective of CAPE is to survey, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the needs and priorities among central and east European and EU local and regional self-governing authorities for transport and environment telematics solutions.
In this respect, a qualitative examination of the organisational, technical and legal frameworks, related policies and priorities has been undertaken for each of the EU accession countries within central and eastern Europe. These include: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
Complementing this, two quantitative surveys (based on questionnaire
submissions) of the status and priorities for telematics solutions in central
and eastern Europe (CEE), and a third for the EU have been prepared:
Status and Priority for Transport Telematics Applications in CEE; Status and Priority for Environment Telematics Applications in CEE; Status and Priority for Environment Telematics Applications in EU.
Methodological Background of the Quantitative Surveys
For the quantitative surveys, questionnaire mailing was based on a thoroughly researched database of contact persons within public authorities . In compiling this, the following sources were relied upon:Data supplied by POLIS, ISEP and other supporting European local authority networks (Eurocities, Telecities, Car Free Cities) which tend to be (positively) biased towards more active and technologi-cally advanced authorities. complementary data extracted from the European Local Government Organisation database.
In order to ensure survey representation, approximate target numbers
for mailing were determined by the relative share of population for each
country in relation to the overall population of the EU region. The questionnaire
was translated into the five most common languages (English, French, German,
Spanish, Italian) . The questionnaire (see Annex 3) was largely based
on multiple-choice questions, thereby enabling the simple extrapolation
of data from each respondent.
Survey mailing was undertaken during October 1998. In November/December
1998, all authorities not having responded were reminded by mail. Additionally
many authorities were asked by telephone to participate in the survey,
especially in areas where initial responses were low. Results were entered
into a Microsoft ACCESS database during January 1999 and finalised during
spring 1999.
1 Outside the CAPE project, two comparable surveys
on general and transport telematics use are available from the European
Digital Cities (EDC) project, another support action of the Telematics
Application Programme of the EU.
2 For further information on procedures for
the questionnaire survey see: Annex I.
3 For further information on the survey response
and representativeness see: Annex II.
Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe
