6th Annual Conference, Tuusula, 17–19 September 1998
of the European Environmental Advisory Councils EEAC

Policy Integration and Implementation

Hosted by The Finnish Council for Environment and Natural Resources

Workshop on Transport and Infrastructure: Conclusions

Chair / Rapporteur: Dr. David Lewis, Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, Luc Goeteyn, MiNa-Raad, Belgium

  1. Basis for Integrated Transport Policy

    1. Transport policy must be holistic, designed to promote environmental quality, safety and accessibility, and addressed and implemented collectively by governments.
    2. Transport policy must be strategic and proactive, covering all transport modes.
    3. Indicators and targets must be defined for a sustainable transport system, including long-term targets for achieving environmental sustainability and medium-term targets which establish realistic milestones on the way towards that.
    4. Improved assessment methods must be developed, covering accessibility, protection of human health and the natural environment and economic effects, to be applied at both the policy and programme level (implementation of draft directive on strategic environment assessment) and to projects.
    5. As a contribution to more comprehensive assessments, develop techniques for valuing the environmental effects of transport infrastructure and transport use, including loss of services provided by the natural environment.

  2. Strategies to Influence Demand for Transport in the Long Run, Beginning Now

    1. Move progressively towards internalizing the external costs of transport in the prices paid for transport.
    2. (Re-)locate functions in ways that reduce the distances people have to travel and design urban areas around the least environmentally damaging transport modes, making these essential features of land use planning policies.
    3. Promote cultural changes so that people accept that continual increases in mobility do not necessarily bring increased welfare and are in fact likely to have adverse effects on the long run.

  3. Adopt Policies to Limit the Environmental Damage Caused by Transport in the Short and Medium Term

    1. Adopt a well balanced and coherent combination of instruments (including investment, direct regulation, economic instruments and voluntary measures) which represents the best option for achieving the targets set.
    2. As well as policies for personal travel, adopt a coherent mix of policies for freight transport, which recognizes its special characteristics, to ensure it will take place in the least environmentally damaging way.
    3. Expedite development and commercialization of vehicle and other technologies, directed towards reducing the environmental impact of transport.

  4. Improve Decision Making Processes

    1. Reorganize decision-making procedures, and where necessary institutions, to facilitate adoption and implementation of sustainable transport policies by ensuring:
      • horizontal integration through effective and efficient coordination between all relevant authorities and agencies of the same policy level,
      • vertical integration between the policies of different levels of government,
      • harmonization of planning and decision-making procedures
    2. Ensure effective coordination of transport planning and management in large urban areas, for instance by setting up transport regions.
    3. Make sure that planning and decision-making is transparent and open, with public debate and participation from the earliest stages of planning.

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