The traffic and transport system and effects on

accessibility, the environment and safety:

An introduction

INSTITUUT VOOR MOBILITEIT

Transport
§ Transport is the result from:
1. the wants, needs, preferences and choice
options of people and firms;
2. the locations of activities such as living,
working and shopping;
3. transport resistance, often expressed in
time, money, costs and other factors, which
we refer to as ‘effort’ and which include,
among others, risks, reliability of the
transport system and comfort.
Transport
(1) The needs, desires, preferences,
wants, and choice options of people…
§ Transport is complex because people are different:
§ Income
§ Age, sex
§ Attitudes, e.g. need for status, power, territory drifts
§ Time availability
§ Household structure
§ Disabilities
§ …
Transport
(2) Where activities take place – location
§ Transport results from need to
§ participate in activities that are spread in time and place
§ Bring goods/people from one place to another
§ And thus depends on the location of activities and
where people live, work, shop, spend their free
time
Transport
(3) Transport resistance
§ Generalized transport cost (GTC)
§ Time (reliability)
§ Cost of transport
§ Comfort
§ Safety

§ Depends on:
§ Quantity and quality of the transport infrastructure
§ Traffic volumes (-> congestion)
§ Infrastructure related regulations (e.g. speeds)
§ Vehicle type: cost, comfort
§ Technological developments
Accessibility
§ Definition:
‘the extent to which land- use and transport systems:
§ enable (groups of) individuals to reach activities or
destinations by means of a (combination of)
transport mode(s) at various times of the day’,
§ enable companies, facilities and other activity places
to receive people, goods and information at
various times of the day’.
Transport
§ Transport has an impact on:
§ Traffic safety (road accidents)
§ The environment (noise, pollution, emissions, live
ability)
§ State of the traffic system (travel times)

§ Influencing factors:
• Technology (ITS, vehicle safety
systems)
• Driver behavior (way of using
vehicles: speed, risk taking, …)
• Demography
Transport policy
§ Policy initiatives taken by governments at
different levels aimed at managing the
transport system:
§ to maximize the positive outcomes
(accessibility, economic and social deployment,
travel time, equality)
§ to minimize the negative outcomes
(congestion, accidents, emissions, noise, …)
Transport policy
§ Policy evaluation aimed at ex-ante and
ex-post evaluation of policy initiatives
§ Different appraisal techniques: SCBA,
MCA, …