The relationship between transport and environmental issues is one of the most crucial elements in progress towards sustainable development. Continued growth in transport services and traffic volume has led to environmental problems which are further accentuated by heavy congestion at system bottlenecks. Public awareness of the problems is increasing.
The transport sector contributes to many environmental problems: about 60% of CO emissions come from transport, transport accounts for 25% of total energy-related CO2 emissions, of which 80% comes from road transport (passenger cars accounting for 45% and freight one-third). More than half of total NOx emissions come from road transport (CORINAIR data) and transport is a major source of volatile organic compounds. Transport is the major generator of noise, and in countries where data is available appears to account for 80% of noise nuisance.
Although, in relation to air quality, the use of catalytic converters will lead to a reduction of NOx, HC and CO emissions over the next few years, severe air quality problems persist in certain cities and in terms of ozone on a regional scale. In the medium term increased traffic may offset the gains from technological improvements. By contrast, CO2 emissions from transport show an increasing trend. Predicted growth in CO2 emissions from transport exceeds the forecast of the increase of CO2 emissions in other sectors (see also the Commission Report Energy: Consequences of the Carbon/energy tax, SEC (92) 1996).
Road transport of goods and passengers has increased by about 45% and 41% respectively since the beginning of the 1980's. In parallel rail transport of goods has actually decreased and passenger rail transport has only seen a 10% increase. Forecasts on road transport predict continuing steady growth over the next decade, and a substantial trend reversal is not yet in sight (source: European Conference of Ministers of Transport data).
Air transport has a higher growth rate than any other traffic mode; it is expected to grow by 182% in the period 1990-2010, reflecting a much faster growing demand for business and leisure travel than expected in 1992 (European Environment Agency).
As concerns freight transport, in 1992, of each 100 tonne/kilometres, 70 were realized by road transport, 16.3 by rail transport, and 4.4 by inland shipping. There are estimates that the transport of goods expressed in ton/km will double between 1988 and 2010 (European Environment Agency).
The membership of Greece, Portugal, and Spain brought about a marked increase of North-South freight transport during the 1980's. At present, over 70 million tons of freight annually cross the Alps between Italy and Northern Europe. These trends demonstrate a much stronger increase of international, rather than domestic transport.
Transport, communications and urban form cover an overlapping area of rising academic and practical concern. This paper traces several of the many themes brought together under different professional banners, and shows how a confluence of interest is emerging.
The themes are the developments in urban planning analysis, transport and time use studies, telecommunications and industrial location, all of which contribute to the area of locational effects of improved telecommunications technology, and are affected by alterations in the nature of work and the uses made of time by individuals. The convergence of geographical, planning, transportation and communication developments now requires explicit investigation, as the timings of technological and theoretical developments appear to coincide with the emergence of a significant need to do so. Some of the gaps between present knowledge and expertise that need to be filled are specified.
These include the investigation of the testing and use of current land use integrated analyses for road and development assessment, investigation of the nature and characteristics of work and education which are most affected by telecommunications and computer support, development of longitudinal monitoring methods for overall urban development leading indicators, exploitation of newly-available cross-sectional household and city data sets in conjunction with historical data for longitudinal investigations and forward projections, accounting for altered family structure and activity patterns and the anticipation and assessment of probable further technological change, which can and will undermine many current long term commitments.
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