Achieving Sustainable Mobility

Since the European Commission launched the term 'sustainable mobility' in 1992, it has signaled the new imperative for transport policy. There have been a number of policy attempts at sustainable mobility globally, chiefly: the development of more efficient conventional transport technology
the use of alternative fields
the promotion of an efficient and affordable public transport system
the encouragement of environmental attitudes and awareness
and the use of sustainable land-use planning. Such policies have so often been presented as prerequisites for sustainable mobility that they are now taken for granted.

But are any of these policies really successful? To what extent do they actually contribute (or fail to contribute) to sustainable mobility? Why do some policies success and others fail?

Using an interdisciplinary approach which brings together various theories and methodologies, this book tests each of these policies—or hypotheses, as the author sees them—with detailed empirical investigations. It also argues that leisure-time travel, previously largely neglected, should be included in any sustainablemobility policies, as it now accounts for 50% of all annual travel distance in developed countries. It concludes by putting forward thirteen theses of sustainable mobility for the EU and a new model for best future practice.