Report Of The Hundredth Round Table On Transport Economics

To mark its hundredth Round Table on transport economics, the ECMT decided to publish a special issue. Fifty European experts were asked to submit papers examining not only the major issues addressed by transport economics in the past, but also those that are likely to emerge in the future.

This report examines the rapid expansion of international express delivery services in Europe.

This Round Table presents the data that is available to date on infrastructure-induced mobility.

This Round Table brings together the leading European experts on changing daily mobility to more ecological forms, and identifies the key policies for the immediate future that could reconcile towns and transport.

Do roads induce mobility? This might sound like a strange question, yet it only stands to reason that building new roads - or other infrastructure - may actually encourage people to use the new additional capacity to travel more. Induced mobility is a hotly debated issue, but the experts are no longer in any doubt that it is a very real phenomenon. However, measuring it is another matter, since we do not have sufficient data or experience in this area. This Round Table presents the data that is available to date on infrastructure-induced mobility. From the introductory reports and discussions, it is clear that much progress has been made in the last few years. As recently as ten years ago, many experts would have disputed the very existence of the induced mobility phenomenon. Today a consensus is emerging: Round Table 105 gives the full report.

Although deregulation is well under way in the transport sector, regular coach services are still largely regulated. Governments see them as potentially competing with rail transport services. However, in countries that have had some experience with deregulation the outcome has clearly been positive (except for local short-distance services). The Round Table began with a review of regular interurban coach services based on case studies in countries which had adopted an original approach. This report shows the industry in a totally new light. One of its main findings is that there is a specific market for customers that have no other means of transport. Opening up this market would benefit the most economically disadvantaged sectors of the population. But that is not the only lesson to be learned from this Round Table.

Encouraging wage earners to use public transport has a vital role to play in meeting environment objectives, particularly the challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Changing people's behavior calls for action in the workplace and one option open to employers is to recruit mobility managers whose task is to help reduce employees' dependence on private car use. Governments can support such initiatives by running information campaigns, by publishing practical guides to incentive schemes and by harmonizing regulatory and fiscal frameworks. Round Table 121 was devoted to this topic and opened with a discussion of the provision of free parking facilities to company employees in the United States, a practice that has many knock-on effects and ramifications. One solution is for companies to replace free parking with cash-out schemes under which financial benefits are given to employees who choose not to make use of their free parking space. The Round Table then proceeded to consider several examples of employee mobility schemes in Europe--pilot project "Sanfte Mobilitäts-Partnershaft"--Company management of staff's travel choices [model establishments: BMLFUW, theFederal Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry ... ; UBA GmbH, the Federal Office for the Environment; the AVL List GmbH (research company); Tulln State Hospital; and the Medienhaus Vorarlberg (newspaper publisher)]--and ended by drawing conclusions of interest to local, regional and national authorities aiming to chart a course of action towards achieving the goal of sustainable transport.--Publisher's description.

Includes a chapter on the UK. On cover: Round Table 102