The road to sustainable transport and mobility

Date: 9/12/2009

Source: World Highways (October 2009 issue)

The article highlights that both member and non-member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) are faced with similar problems when it comes to addressing the increasing demand for transport and managing transport related issues.

It is suggested in the article that policy makers in both sets of countries should focus more on non-infrastructure policy to influence and manage the demand for transport. Possible policy measures are separated into three types: Hardware, Software and Think-ware. Policy measures in the hardware relate mostly to the physical infrastructure. The software category covers rules and regulations, and the think-ware category covers preferences determining choice behaviour of road and transport users.

The article goes on to suggest that policy makers should put more emphasis on the policy measures in the software and think-ware categories. Initiatives that fall into those categories implemented in the Netherlands: Partnerprogramma Infrastructuur Management (PIM), Anders Betalen voor Mobiliteit (AbvM) and Nieuwe Rijden were used as examples of successful implementation.

Keywords: Policy