Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Sustainable Transportation pp 81–109Cite as

Transportation and Sustainability

  • Chapter

Part of the book series: Springer Texts in Business and Economics ((STBE))

Abstract

As discussed in Chap. 3, the transportation system is often envisioned as the engine of development. It is seen as the backbone of the twentieth century’s economic and social progress and is the means by which humans access goods and services and connect to communities. Yet, it is also a major contributor to environmental degradation and community disruption, which is often inequitably distributed. The falling costs and increasing efficiency of the transportation system have enabled the emergence of the throughput society (see Sect. 2.3). The ease with which materials and goods can be moved within and between nations has transformed the structure of national economies, enabling connectivity across the world. This process is further enhanced by the global emergence of information and communication technology (ICT). The complexity unleashed by the integration of regional and national economies means that tracing who or what is responsible for negative externalities is not a simple question to ask or answer. With the possibility of two billion vehicles on the horizon (Sperling and Gordon 2010) and growing mobility trends around the world, the challenges presented by transportation are likely to command public attention for the foreseeable future.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Source: The United Nations Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, http://www.unep.org/Documents/Default.asp?DocumentID=97&ArticleID=1503 (accessed on April 19, 2015).

  2. 2.

    See, for example, the 2013 report by the UN-Habitat on “Planning and Design for Sustainable Urban Mobility: Global Report on Human Settlements.”

  3. 3.

    These objectives were supported by a call for public awareness campaigns and human resource development to highlight and support the need for change (UN 1993, § 7.53).

  4. 4.

    Chapters 7 and 9 of Agenda 21 had an influential role in shaping the President’s Council on Sustainable Development’s (PCSD’s) approach to transportation discussed in Sect. 4.2.3. Specifically, the PCSD (1996b, 1999) considered transportation in the context of sustainable communities and global climate change.

  5. 5.

    Source: The United Nations Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, http://www.unep.org/Documents/Default.asp?DocumentID=78&ArticleID=1163 (accessed on April 19, 2015).

  6. 6.

    For a summary of the latest European work on sustainable transportation, see the European Commission, Sustainable Transport, http://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/sustainable/index_en.htm (accessed on April 19, 2015).

  7. 7.

    It would be almost a decade until the European Council (2001) endorsed its internationally-accepted definition of sustainable transportation that is discussed in Sect. 4.2.4.

  8. 8.

    During its 6-year existence (1993–1999), the PCSD prepared three reports (PCSD 1996a, b, 1999) that are often referred to as a basis for a national strategy on sustainable development (Dernbach 2002; Dernbach and Bernstein 2003; Spyke 2005).

  9. 9.

    The ten national goals for promoting sustainable development were grouped under the following headings: (1) Health and the Environment; (2) Economic Prosperity; (3) Equity; (4) Conservation of Nature; (5) Stewardship; (6) Sustainable Communities; (7) Civic Engagement; (8) Population; (9) International Responsibility; and (10) Education (PCSD 1996b).

  10. 10.

    Three recommendations put forward by the Climate Change Action Plan focused on transportation. These were to (1) provide workers with the option to cash-in the value of their employer-paid parking spaces to pay for commuting alternatives to the automobile; (2) reduce VMT; and (3) create a tire labeling program to help consumers identify tires that have low rolling resistance (Clinton and Gore 1993).

  11. 11.

    See, for example, the 1999 Clinton–Gore Livable Communities Initiative, http://clinton3.nara.gov/CEQ/livability.html (accessed on April 19, 2015) and the 2009 HUD-DOT-EPA Partnership for Sustainable Communities, http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/partnership/index.html (accessed on April 19, 2015), and the FHWA’s Livability Initiative, http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/livability/ (accessed on April 19, 2015).

  12. 12.

    See the US DOT Transportation and Climate Change Clearinghouse, http://climate.dot.gov/ (accessed on April 19, 2015).

  13. 13.

    The EST project consisted of six teams of experts from nine countries. Each team focused on one of the following geographic regions—Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, the Quebec-Windsor corridor in Canada, the greater Oslo region in Norway, and the Alpine region that consisted of parts of Austria, France, Italy, and Switzerland.

  14. 14.

    In a paper reviewing the main results of the OECD EST project, Caid et al. (2002, p. 220) present a slightly revised EST definition that includes a fourth component: “provides for safe, economically viable, and socially acceptable access to people, places, goods, and services” (p. 220). Caid et al.’s (2002) addition to the EST definition and the European Council’s revision of the CST definition (discussed below) provide good examples of how definitions of sustainable transportation are seldom fixed and are continually evolving.

  15. 15.

    The urbanrural nexus (that can be characterized as consisting of flows of urbanrural people, goods, and services) was a key topic of conversation during the deliberations of the UN Open Working Group (OWG) on SDGs (IISD 2014). In particular, the OWG discussed the link that transportation provides between rural and urban areas and how the two are interdependent. The overriding concern was to ensure that any targets developed would not position urban and rural areas against one another, given their “common destiny” (IISD 2014, p. 7). It is noteworthy that the OWG choose not to differentiate between the urban and rural setting in their recommended targets (see Table 4.1).

  16. 16.

    The six targets focus on improving rural access, improving urban access, improving national access and regional connectivity, improving road safety and security, reducing air pollution, and reducing emissions (SLoCat 2014a).

  17. 17.

    The Bogota Declaration that was adopted at the Regional Sustainable Transport Forum in Bogota, held on June 23–24, 2011, provides a more nuanced version of this definition. It defines sustainable transportation as “the provision of services and infrastructure for the mobility of people and goods needed for economic and social development and improved quality of life and competitiveness. These services and transport infrastructure provide secure, reliable, economical, efficient, equitable and affordable access to all, while mitigating the negative impacts on health and the environment locally and globally, in the short, medium and long term without compromising the development of future generations” (FTS 2011, p. 1).

  18. 18.

    In practice, however, only the first four of these types of capital are considered in any detail due to the difficulty in measuring social capital.

  19. 19.

    The elegance of market mechanisms is that a government would not be required to determine how the burden of staying within ecological and resource-use limits should be divided between sectors. Instead, the trading mechanisms would (theoretically) allocate these burdens in the most economically efficient manner.

  20. 20.

    The tight interconnection between natural and manufactured capital means that if the use of natural capital is constrained, so too is the development of manufactured capital. However, to what extent the development of manufactured capital is constrained will depend upon whether a weak or strong form of sustainable development is applied (see Sect. 2.3).

  21. 21.

    Source: The Natural Capital Project, http://www.naturalcapitalproject.org/ (accessed on April 19, 2015).

References

  • Amekudzi, A. A., Meyer, M. D., Ross, C. L., & Barrella, E. (2011). Transportation planning and sustainability guidebook. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Transportation. Available at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/hep/climate/sustainability/sustain00.cfm

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashford, N. A., & Hall, R. P. (2011). Technology, globalization, and sustainable development: Transforming the industrial state. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashford, N. A., Hall, R. P., & Ashford, R. (2012). Addressing the crisis in employment and consumer demand: reconciliation with environmental and financial sustainability. The European Financial Review, October-November, 63–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Banister, D. (2005). Unsustainable transport: City transport in the new century. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrella, E., Amekudzi, A. A., Meyer, M. D., Ross, C. L., & Turchetta, D. (2010). Best practices and common approaches for considering sustainability at U.S. state transportation agencies. Transportation Research Record, 2174, 10–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beatley, T. (1995). The many meanings of sustainability: Introduction to a special issue of JPL. Journal of Planning Literature, 9, 339–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benfield, F. K., & Replogle, M. (2002). Transportation. In J. C. Dernbach (Ed.), Stumbling towards sustainability (pp. 647–665). Washington, DC: Environmental Law Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Black, W. R. (1996). Sustainable transportation: A U.S. perspective. Journal of Transport Geography, 4, 151–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Black, W. R. (2010). Sustainable transportation: Problems and solutions. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Booz Allen Hamilton. (2014). National Cooperative Highway Research Program Report 750: Strategic issues facing transportation, Volume 4: Sustainability as an organizing principle for transportation agencies. McLean, VA: Booz Allen Hamilton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brunner, R. D., & Klein, R. (1999). Harvesting experience: A reappraisal of the U.S. Climate Change Action Plan. Policy Sciences, 32(2), 133–161.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caid, N., Crist, P., Gilbert, R., & Wiederkehr, P. (2002). Environmentally sustainable transport: Concept, goal and strategy—The OECD’s EST Project. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Transport, 153, 219–226.

    Google Scholar 

  • Centre for Sustainable Transportation. (1997). Definition and vision of sustainable transportation. Ontario: The Centre for Sustainable Transportation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clinton, W. J., & Gore, A. (1993). The climate change action plan. Washington, DC: The White House. http://gcrio.gcrio.org/USCCAP/toc.html

    Google Scholar 

  • Costanza, R., & Daly, H. E. (1992). Natural capital and sustainable development. Conservation Biology, 6, 37–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daly, H. E. (1991a). Elements of environmental macroeconomics. In R. Costanza & L. Wainger (Eds.), Ecological economics: The science and management of sustainability (pp. 32–46). New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daly, H. E. (1991b). Steady-state economics. Washington, DC: Island Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dernbach, J. C. (2002). National governance. In J. C. Dernbach (Ed.), Stumbling toward sustainability (pp. 723–743). Washington, DC: Environmental Law Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dernbach, J. C. (2003). Achieving sustainable development: The centrality and multiple facets of integrated decisionmaking. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, 10, 247–285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dernbach, J. C., & Bernstein, S. (2003). Pursuing sustainable communities: Looking back, looking forward. Urban Lawyer, 35, 495–529.

    Google Scholar 

  • European Commission (EC). (1992). Green paper on the impact of transport on the environment: A community strategy for sustainable mobility. Brussels: European Commission.

    Google Scholar 

  • European Council. (2001, April 4–5). 2340th Council meeting—Transport/telecommunications—Luxembourg. Belgium: Council of the European Union.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foro de Transporte Sostenible (FTS). (2011). Bogotá declaration. Bogotá: Foro de Transporte Sostenible (FTS). http://www.uncrdlac.org/fts/BogotaDeclaration.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  • Gudmundsson, H., & Hojer, M. (1996). Sustainable development principles and their implications for transport. Ecological Economics, 19, 269–282.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hahn, R. W., Olmstead, S. M., & Stavins, R. N. (2003). Environmental regulation in the 1990s: A retrospective analysis. Harvard Environmental Law Review, 27, 377–415.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, R. P. (2006). Understanding and applying the concept of sustainable development to transportation planning and decision-making in the U.S. Engineering Systems Division, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. http://esd.mit.edu/students/esdphd/dissertations/hall_ralph.pdf

  • Holden, E., Linnerud, K., & Banister, D. (2013). Sustainable passenger transport: Back to Brundtland. Transportation Research Part A, 54, 67–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holdren, J. P., Daily, C., & Ehrlich, P. R. (1995). The meaning of sustainability: Biogeophysical aspects. In M. Munasinghe & W. Shearer (Eds.), Defining and measuring sustainability: The biogeophysical foundations. Washington, DC: World Bank. Distributed for the United Nations University.

    Google Scholar 

  • International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). (2014). Summary of the seventh session of the UN General Assembly Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals: 6-10. Earth Negotiations Bulletin, 32(7), 1–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kidder, R. M. (1990). Perspectives: The three E’s of the 1990s. The Christian Science Monitor.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lyons, W. M. (2000, December 13–14). The U.S. Transportation Equity Act for the 21st century and the Clean Air Act Amendments—An innovative framework for transportation & environmental policy. In ECMT-OECD Workshop on overcoming institutional barriers to implementing sustainable urban travel policies, Madrid. http://www.oecd.org/cem/UrbTrav/Workshops/InstBarriers/Lyons.pdf

  • McVoy, G. R., Nelson, D. A., Krekeler, P., Kolb, E., & Gritsavage, J. S. (2010, November 14–17). Moving towards sustainability: New York State Department of Transportation’s GreenLITES Story. In Green streets and highways 2010: An interactive conference on the state of the art and how to achieve sustainable outcomes, Denver, CO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Munn, R. E. (1989). Towards sustainable development: An environmental perspective. In F. Archibugi & P. Nijkamp (Eds.), Economy and ecology: Towards sustainable development (pp. 42–72). Dordrecht: Kluwer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nijkamp, P. (1994). Roads toward environmentally sustainable transport. Transportation Research, Part A, 28, 261–271.

    Google Scholar 

  • Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (1996). Pollution prevention and control. Environmental criteria for environmentally sustainable transport. Report on phase 1 of the project on Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST). Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

    Google Scholar 

  • Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (1997, March 24–27). OECD proceedings. Towards sustainable transportation. The Vancouver conference. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

    Google Scholar 

  • Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2000). Environmentally sustainable transport: Futures, strategies and best practice. Synthesis report of the OECD project on Environmentally Sustainable Transport EST. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollard, T. (2009). Transportation: Challenges and choices. In J. Dernbach (Ed.), Agenda for a sustainable America (pp. 365–379). Washington, DC: Environmental Law Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • President’s Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD). (1996a). Energy and transportation: Task Force Report. Washington, DC: President’s Council on Sustainable Development, Energy and Transportation Task Force.

    Google Scholar 

  • President’s Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD). (1996b). Sustainable America: A new consensus for prosperity, opportunity, and a healthy environment for the future. Washington, DC: President’s Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD).

    Google Scholar 

  • President’s Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD). (1999). Towards a sustainable America: Advancing prosperity, opportunity, and a healthy environment for the 21st century. Washington, DC: President’s Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rees, W. E. (1995). Achieving sustainability: Reform or transformation? Journal of Planning Literature, 9, 343–361.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Short, J. (1995). Freight transport as an environmental problem: Direct policy measures for road freight can be effective in reducing environmental harm. World Transport Policy and Practice, 1(2), 7–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • SLoCaT. (2014a). Results framework for sustainable transport. Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT). http://www.slocat.net/

  • SLoCaT. (2014b). Integration of sustainable transport in OWG 12 document on SDGs and targets. Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT). http://www.slocat.net/

  • Sperling, D., & Gordon, D. (2010). Two billion cars: Driving toward sustainability. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spyke, N. P. (2005). Heeding the call: Making a matter of Pennsylvania law. Penn State Law Review, 109, 729–782.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). (2014, April 11). Proposed sustainable development goals (SDGs) and targets. New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

    Google Scholar 

  • Transportation Research Board (TRB). (1997). Toward a sustainable future: Addressing the long-term effects of motor vehicle transportation on climate and ecology. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • UK Round Table on Sustainable Development (UKRTSD). (1996). Defining a sustainable transport sector. London: UK Sustainable Development Commission.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations (UN). (1993). Earth summit: Agenda 21, the United Nations programme of action from Rio. New York: United Nations.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations (UN). (2012). The future we want. A/CONF.216/L.1. New York: United Nations.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations (UN). (2013). A new global partnership: Eradicate poverty and transform economies through sustainable development. The report of the high-level panel of eminent persons on the post-2015 development agenda. New York: United Nations.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations (UN). (2014). Open Working Group proposal for sustainable development goals. Full report of the Open Working Group of the General Assembly on Sustainable Development Goals is issued as document A/68/970. New York: United Nations.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS). (2001). The role of urban transport in sustainable human settlements. Background paper no. 7. New York: United Nations, Commission on Sustainable Development.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). (2001a). Energy and transport. Report of the Secretary-General. New York: United Nations.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). (2001b). Transport. Report of the Secretary-General. New York: United Nations.

    Google Scholar 

  • WEHAB Working Group. (2002). A framework for action on energy. New York: United Nations. http://www.johannesburgsummit.org/html/documents/wehab_papers.html

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiner, E. (1997). Urban transportation planning in the United States: An historical overview (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Office of the Secretary of Transportation.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). (1987). Our common future. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yevdokimov, Y. V. (2004). Sustainable transport in Canada. New Brunswick: University of New Brunswick. http://www.unb.ca/transpo/documents/SustainableTransportationinCanada…04.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  • Zietsman, J., & Rilett, L. R. (2002). Sustainable transportation: Conceptualization and performance measures (p. 149). Austin, TX: University of Texas.

    Google Scholar 

Additional Readings

  • Banister, D. (2008). The sustainable mobility paradigm. Transport Policy, 15, 73–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forman, R. T. T., Sperling, D., Bissonette, J. A., Clevenger, A. P., Cutshall, C. D., Dale, V. H., et al. (2003). Road ecology: Science and solutions. Washington, DC: Island Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Han, S., Kim, Y. H., & Lee, S. (2009). Green growth in transportation: International views on the transition. 2009 KOTI-EWI Special report. Gyeonggi-do: The Korea Transport Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holden, E., Linnerud, K., & Banister, D. (2013). Sustainable passenger transport: Back to Brundtland. Transportation Research Part A, 54, 67–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ieda, H. (Ed.). (2010). Sustainable urban transport in an Asian context. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ugboaja, P. C., & Ukpere, W. I. (2011). Determining economic sustainability of Nigerian National Transport Policy. African Journal of Business Management, 5(8), 3139–3147.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Transport, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark

    Henrik Gudmundsson

  2. School of Public and International Affairs, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA

    Ralph P. Hall

  3. Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Greg Marsden

  4. Texas A&M Transportation Institute, Texas A&M University System, College Station, Texas, USA

    Josias Zietsman

Authors
  1. Henrik Gudmundsson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ralph P. Hall
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Greg Marsden
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Josias Zietsman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Gudmundsson, H., Hall, R.P., Marsden, G., Zietsman, J. (2016). Transportation and Sustainability. In: Sustainable Transportation. Springer Texts in Business and Economics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-46924-8_4

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation