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Towards a resource-efficient transport system
April 3, 2010
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Introduction
This report presents a summary of selected issues from the European Environment Agency Transport and Environment Reporting Mechanism (EEA TERM) set of transport and environment integration indicators. It is not simply a replication of indicators but rather an attempt to put insights from the indicators into the context of efforts to develop European policy towards achieving a low-carbon transport system.
The objective of this report is to indicate some of the main challenges to reducing the environmental impacts of transport and to make suggestions to improve the environmental performance of the transport system as a whole. The report examines issues centred around transport and climate change, which need to be addressed in the coming years. These issues are derived partly from the policy questions that form the backbone of TERM and partly from other ongoing work at EEA. As with previous TERM reports, this report evaluates the indicator trends measuring progress towards…
Commuting in Belgian metropolitan areas: The power of the Alonso-Muth model
April 2, 2010
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Abstract
In order to understand patterns of urban commuter flows, insight is required into urban spatial structure (and vice versa). The present contribution first provides a concise overview of the theoretical perspectives from which economists and geographers approach commuting issues. Subsequently, the focus shifts to the classical spatial-economic urban models and how they explain commuter movements. We conduct a number of cluster analyses from which we are able to derive a commuting typology of city region areas. We conclude that distance (which also comprises journey time and proximity of traffic infrastructure), housing characteristics, housing environment, and income continue to play key roles in commuting patterns in the metropolitan areas under consideration.
EU Green Paper: Towards a new culture for urban mobility
September 25, 2007
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Urban mobility is recognised as an important facilitator of growth and employment with a strong impact on sustainable development in the EU. The Commission therefore has decided to present a Green Paper on urban mobility in order to explore if and how it can add value to action already taken at local level. Several EU policies have already addressed urban transport issues in past years. Legislative initiatives have been developed, sometimes in a rather fragmented way.
Success And Failures In Urban Transport Planning In Europe: Understanding The Transport System
March 28, 2007|Sadhana Vol. 32, Part 4, August 2007, pp. 293–307
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Technological determinism has become a kind of religion for many people since it appears to offer solutions for societal problems as never before in history. Transport is one of the fascinating technology branches developed during the last 200 years. Effortless movement over long distances has become possible
for car users as long as cheap fossil energy is available. However, the effect of fast transport on urban structures and society was not taken into account when developing these technical means. Technologists and economists have used indicators for expected benefits of these fast transport modes without taking into account the real system effects on society and urban structures. Plausible assumptions and hopes instead of scientific understanding of the complex system are used in practice. In contradiction to widely held beliefs of transportation planners, there is actually no growth of mobility if counted in number of trips per person per day, no time saving by increasing…
for car users as long as cheap fossil energy is available. However, the effect of fast transport on urban structures and society was not taken into account when developing these technical means. Technologists and economists have used indicators for expected benefits of these fast transport modes without taking into account the real system effects on society and urban structures. Plausible assumptions and hopes instead of scientific understanding of the complex system are used in practice. In contradiction to widely held beliefs of transportation planners, there is actually no growth of mobility if counted in number of trips per person per day, no time saving by increasing…
Transit Oriented Development: Transnational and National Actions Within Europe
March 18, 2004|Heriot-Watt University
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This paper seeks to provide a point of departure by arguing that in Europe, the idea of transit-oriented development is central to an emerging set of trans-national ideas and practices under the labels of “spatial planning” and (increasingly) “territorial cohesion”. However, the paper suggests that this emerging policy consensus is more fragile than it might appear. Similarly, the paper shows that TOD in a more familiar guise is endorsed in national planning policy in the UK, but that outcomes are mediated by other planning doctrines and by consumer preferences. Finally the paper suggests some questions for further research.
Making Transit Work: Insight from Western Europe, Canada, and the United States
January 1, 2001|Transportation Research Board
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This report was prepared for policy makers searching for ways to boost public transit use in U.S. urban areas and wishing to know what can be learned from the experiences of Canada and Western Europe. With few exceptions, public transit has a more prominent role in Canada and Western Europe than in the United States. This is true not only in large cities, but also in many smaller communities and throughout entire metropolitan areas. Transit is used for about 10 percent of urban trips in Western Europe, compared with about 2 percent in the United States. Canadians use public transit about twice as much as Americans, although there is considerable variation across Canada, just as there is in Western Europe and the United States.
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