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Sustainable transport

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Sustainable transport, also commonly referred to as Sustainable Transportation or Sustainable Mobility, has no widely accepted definition. Since it is a sector-specific sub-set to the post-1988 sustainable development movement, it is often defined in words such as this: “Sustainable transportation is about meeting or helping meet the mobility needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet these needs.” But this is only a starting point.

The concept of sustainable transport is a reaction to some of the things that have gone radically and visibly wrong with transportation policy, practice and performance over the last half of the twentieth century in particular (unsustainable resource take, energy profligacy, pollution, declining service levels despite increasing investments, poor service for specific social and economic groups). Over most of the century, it was assumed that adequate transportation structures needed to be built since they provide an essential underpinning to growth and economic health. Accordingly the main concern of transport planners and policy makers was in the "supply" of transportation, and specifically in ensuring that the supporting infrastructure was going to be adequate to support all projected requirements. The dominant approach was, therefore, to forecast and then build to meet. In public transport planning likewise it was the supply and efficient operation of vehicles that got the bulk of attention. As a result, it is claimed by many analysts and observers that most places have as a result heavily overbuilt their physical transportation infrastructures, which in fact has led to unsustainable levels of traffic and resource use.

The sustainable transport movement, which has gradually gained in force over the last decade and a half, has in the process started to shift the emphasis in public spending and actions away from building and supply, to management and demand. In all cases the values of heightened respect of the environment and prudent use of natural resources are central, with varying degrees of urgency expressed by different actors and interests. That said, it is still very much a minority movement and most actual expenditures in the sector are determined by criteria other than sustainability. What remains clear is that sustainable transportation mainly refers to human behavior, not to technology. In that sense, a behavioral approach considers not only a set of non-polluting and human scaled travel behaviors, regardless of the means and technology used, but also a set of reinforcers both individual and social to promote that sort of behaviors.

Colloquially, sustainable transport is used to describe all forms of transport which minimise emissions of carbon dioxide and pollutants. It can refer to public transport, car sharing, walking and cycling as well as technology such as electric and hybrid cars and biodiesel. In particular the phrase has been adopted by environmental campaign groups and the British and Australian national and local governments, though both the phrase and the concepts have now spread around the world.

Evolution of concept: 1988-present

Understanding of what sustainable transport is all about has steadily advanced in the last fifteen years. One early and often cited definition offered back in 1994 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) may be noted: "Transportation that does not endanger public health or ecosystems and meets mobility needs consistent with (a) use of renewable resources at below their rates of regeneration and (b) use of non-renewable resources at below the rates of development of renewable substitutes". This provided a conservative benchmark view of what sustainable transport is all about which is still often put forward in the public debate.

The New Zealand Ministry for the Environment offers this more widely shared and complete definition, which extends the reach in terms which are today generally accepted in the field:

“Sustainable transport is about finding ways to move people, goods and information in ways that reduce its impact on the environment, the economy, and society. Some options include:
  • Using transport modes that use energy more efficiently, such as walking or cycling and public transport
  • Improving transport choice by increasing the quality of public transport, cycling and walking facilities, services and environments
  • Improving the efficiency of our car use, such as using more fuel efficient vehicles, driving more efficiently, avoiding cold starts, and car pooling
  • Using cleaner fuels and technologies
  • Using telecommunications to reduce or replace physical travel, such as tele-working or tele-shopping
  • Planning the layout of our cities to bring people and their needs closer together, and to make cities more vibrant and walkable
  • Developing policies that allow and promote these options, such as the New Zealand Transport Strategy.” [1]

A shorter definition by the Sustran network does a good job in one paragraph of summarizing the consensus view from the vantage of transport activists and many NGOs:

Sustainable transportation concerns systems, policies, and technologies. It aims for the efficient transit of goods and services, and sustainable freight and delivery systems. The design of vehicle-free city planning, along with pedestrian and bicycle friendly design of neighborhoods is a critical aspect for grassroots activities, as are telework and teleconferencing. It is more about accessibility and mobility, than about 'transportation'. [2] (See the TDM Encyclopedia of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute for more definitions.)

In general the phrase is used to encourage more attention to “softer transport options” such as improved provision for cycling, walking, public spaces, rail and other forms of public transport, together with more aggressive control of car use in central areas. It is not usually used to qualify high technology projects such as monorails, personal rapid transit and the like, not least since one of the earmarks of sustainable transport projects is that they are in general careful users of money and space.

Sustainable transportation programs are increasingly giving attention to the importance of cutting the number of vehicles in circulation (VMT) though a wide range of Transportation Demand Management measures. They also look to “movement substitutes” such as telework, telecommuting and better clustering of activities so as to reduce the need for motorized transport.

Whereas it started as a movement driven by environmental concerns, over these last years there has been increased emphasis on social equity and fairness issues, and in particular the need to ensure proper access and services for lower income groups and people with mobility limitations, including the fast growing population of older citizens. Many of those who have not traditionally been well served have been those who either cannot or should not drive their own cars, and those for whom the cost of ownership causes a severe financial burden.

The automotive and energy industries increasingly use the term Sustainable Mobility to describe and promote their technology developments, primarily in the areas of new motive and engine technologies and advances. The impact of these advances, however, requires at least one or two decades to make a perceptible difference in terms of sustainability.

Short history of international action

The terms ‘sustainable transport’ is an almost accidental follow-on to the earlier term Sustainable Development whose origins in turn were the 1987 Our Common Future (1987, World Commission on Environment and Development of the United Nations). In the years following publication of the Brundtland Report, there was considerable discussion of a variety of issues that are part of the sustainable development nexus, but transportation considerations were not in the front line in those early years.

One of the first international organizations to have a closer look at the concept of sustainable transport from the vantage of government policy was a small international working group led by Peter Wiederkehr at the OECD in 1994, that agreed that a new policy approach is needed which places environmental criteria up front along with other policy goals. Recognizing this need, the OECD initiated in 1994 an international project to define and chart a path towards Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST). The overall objectives of the EST project are to provide an understanding of EST, its implications and requirements, and to develop methods and guidelines towards its realization. The core of the EST approach was to develop long-term scenarios and identify instruments and strategies capable of achieving it. To this end the OECD organized with the Government of Canada the 1996 International Conference: Towards Sustainable Transportation in Vancouver, Canada. One result of this were the 1996 Vancouver Principles towards Sustainable Transportation. (The OECD project shut down its operation in July 2004, though the members of the original working group continue to communicate and collaborate at the specific project and policy level under the leadership of the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Environment.)

Examples

The EU Directorate-General for Transport and Energy (DG-TREN) has launched a programme which focusses mostly on Urban Transport. It's main measures are:

  • Collective passenger transport
    • Accessibility
    • Flexibel mobility services
    • Intermodality
    • Marketing
    • Network development
    • Park & Ride
    • People with reduced mobility
    • Public private co-operation
    • Quality Corridors / lines
    • Quality of service
    • Security
    • Ticketing and tarification
    • Travel information
  • Less car intensive lifestyle
  • Urban Goods Transport
    • Clean vehicles / clean fleet
    • Distribution scheme
    • Fleet management & route planning
    • Loading and uploading
    • Loading Zone
    • Public private co-operation
    • Urban distribution center
  • Soft measures
    • Child / school / student mobility
    • Cycling
    • Integrated policies /Integrated planning strategie
    • Intermodal mobility services
    • Mobility center
    • Mobility management (for Events)
    • Mobility management (for housing areas)
    • Mobility management for companies and organisation
    • Mobility marketing and awareness
    • People with reduced mobility
    • User/Citizen Participation
    • Walking
  • Transport management
    • Access management / Enforcement
    • Guidance Systems
    • Multi modal travel information
    • Real time travel information
    • Smart card
    • Traffic control / management center
    • Traffic information
    • Vehicle location based services

See also

Context

Demand management

Supply management

Other

Bibliography

  • Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence, Island Press, Washington DC, 1999. Newman P and Kenworthy J, ISBN 1-55963-660-2.
  • Sustainable Transportation Networks, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, England, 2000. Nagurney A, ISBN 1-84064-357-9
The Wikibook [[wikibooks:|]] has a page on the topic of: How to reduce transportation fuel costs
  • International Journal of Sustainable Transportation[3]

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